In a Vase on Monday: Blowing Its Own Trumpet

Last week, Anna of Green Tapestry apologised for ‘cheating’ when she shared her amaryllis/hippeastrum In a Vase on Monday. Happily, our rules for this meme are fairly fluid and contributors share vases very much in the spirit of it, and it was by no means cheating – and I am not just saying that because I doing something very similar this week! In fact, I am very grateful to Anna for messaging me back in November to let me know that ‘a certain German supermarket’ had these bulbs in stock, allowing me to hotfoot it down to our local store ASAP.

Anna’s bulb came in the glass vase she shared, whereas I bought boxed bulbs, complete with impractically dry compost and a pot with no drainage hole. Given a better start, the bulb took around five weeks to get to this stage and as well as the first two trumpets I noticed today that there are a further five generous trumpets to come! Having lifted the bulb out of its pot and placed it in a lead crystal vase for today’s post, it will shortly be returned to the security of its potted home so as not to risk losing the promise of all those blooms. Like Anna’s, my bulbs were unnamed, but the box did depict the contents so I knew what to expect; I think is probably ‘Appleblossom’.

In the absence of any trumpets amongst the random ‘stuff’ in our house, miniature bagpipes will have to suffice instead; when pressed, they play ‘Scotland the Brave’. Blogging friend Chloris of the Blooming Garden is responsible for the bagpipes – having posted a vase with a Scottish connection she lamented her lack of bagpipes as a prop, but felt certain I would have some. I didn’t, but it was a challenge to seek them out. and they were quickly found on eBay. Like many quirky things, they are attached to a key