As you know, I prepare my Monday vases the day before so I can schedule them ready for other IAVOMers to link to on Monday morning. Yesterday, however, we had a day out planned, meeting up with dear blogging friend Anna of Green Tapestry and Himself, at Wollerton Old Hall*, so I wanted to pick material before we went out. Despite originally planning to begin with some rudbeckia and build up a posy of late summer sunset shades, I got sidetracked by Dahlia ‘David Howard’, towering above my head, and instead decided to bring him down a peg or two, the change of plan aided by the steady rain that was now falling.
This is such an iconic dahlia, easily recognisable and, in my experience, very reliable, in a warming shade of orange, sometimes with a hint of red toward the centre. I am well aware that last week’s vase featured dahlias too, but I am pleased to say those dahlias, supplemented by more of the same, then went on to make a 400 mile journey with us up to my Mum’s, where they were well received.
Today’s dahlias always make me think of marmalade, and hence their vase, a vintage Keiller marmalade pot. Dundee was the traditional home of marmalade, devised by James Keiller back in 1760 or so, as a way of using a cargo of unexpectedly bitter oranges. He named the ‘orange jam’ he and his wife created ‘marmalade’, modifying an old Portuguese quince preserve called ‘marmelo’. I came late to marmalade, and still use it mainly for a tried and tested recipe for coconut and marmalade tart, whereas my mother and two sisters used to make and eat it in large quantities; my attempts to make it have rarely been satisfactory but, with no desire to use shop-bought marmalade, I now make it from a kit, which is not quite cheating!
Hopefully,
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