In a Vase on Monday: Tulips and Ten Days of Plantness

January 13, 2025

I am joining two of my favourite bloggers for gardening-related memes today: first of all Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, who hosts the weekly vase party.

Well, please forgive me for cheating, but dried up seedheads and grasses are starting to lose their charm and the frozen garden has nothing else to offer at the moment. So I am sharing a vaseful of cheerful tulips bought from my local supermarket.

(Note the double cheer with the tulips on the front of the vase! )

The second meme I am participating in is Frank’s (Sorta Like Suburbia) ‘Ten Days of Plantness’, originally construed by Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome I believe. You may be wondering what the ‘Ten Days of Plantness’ is. Well, Frank explains it as: ‘a very official holiday which celebrates ten of the gloomiest and coldest days of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter with plants’.

From January 12th (yes, I’m a day late!) to January 21st we are invited to celebrate each sunrise (and each a few minutes earlier!) with a new plant. What sounds like a great idea is easier said than done; our nearest garden centre is only ‘half’ open, with most of the outdoor area and the greenhouses still empty. And planting is out of the question anyway, with sub-zero temperatures. But seeing as I have managed to finish off several houseplants over the past 12 months, I decided to focus on some new indoor greenery and my special shopping trip did in fact prove fruitful….

I will count the bunch of tulips above for my first day, the 12th. And for day two (the 13th) this ‘Flower Bread’, which I made last week when my friend Simone visited. After all, it is a ‘flower’, and any winter celebration has to include something sweet and full of calories.

You can find the recipe here. This version included some extra winter deliciousness, i.e. a vegan version of Nutella.

I’ll post more about the other plants I found for the Ten Days of Plantness over the next few days. Anything plant-related counts too – seeds or bulbs, cuttings and dried flowers, pots and plant food. If your garden centre is open for business, perhaps you will feel like joining in, and adding a bit of colour and greenery to your kitchen windowsill. I must add an important point to sway your decision to join in. According to Frank, this fun celebration aims to encourage and welcome back the new gardening season, so you will need to put your heart into it to see signs of spring and blooming witch hazels by the 22nd, whereas not celebrating means eight more weeks of winter….