Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
While brown roses sometimes strike me as flat or artificial, I found the mixture of colours in Rosa ‘Koko Loco’ alluring. In demand as a wedding rose for obvious reasons, this variety can also be grown by gardeners. Continue reading “Rosa ‘Koko Loko’ – An Unusual Lilac-Brown Rose”
After a two-year hiatus, courtesy of the pandemic, the Southport Flower Show was back in style for its 91st year. Â This northern show has something for everyone – even well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome. For those who couldn’t make it, here are some of my pictures:
Continue reading “Southport’s Summer Flower Show is Back at Last”
2020 has been a year of should-have-beens. This week, the Southport Flower Show should have been in full swing, its colour and happiness injecting life into the traditional seaside town that hosts it. The show is run as a charity and profits maintain Victoria Park, the 34-acre site that has been home to the show since it started. Continue reading “Southport Flower Show Cartoons”
If the dahlia world had royalty, Dahlia ‘Café au Lait’ would be right at the top. It’s probably the most magnificent, best loved and most widely photographed flower on the planet. As it doesn’t (have royalty), it has been deemed necessary to invent some. Continue reading “Dahlia ‘Café au Lait Royal’”
Variegated geranium leaves, yellow pompons, wool swizzles and twigs make up one of my favourite designs I’ve seen at a flower show. Yes, it’s tiny and the florist hasn’t spent a fortune on flowers, but it wows me with its colours, poise and confidence.
The judges’ card noted some fault or other – from memory, it lacked flowers or content. I could quote a poem that is equally brief and perfect, but I’ll forbear. The brief might have been ‘Pack ‘Em In’, for all I know, in which case, this would have been highly commended:
Ivory, pink and hints of green lift a white floral centrepiece that would be perfect for a traditional summer wedding. Orchids, rosebuds, peony buds, chrysanthemums and lisianthus feature, with tiny sprigs of gypsophila and hebe, at a guess. I think the clusters of flowers and tiny green buds are Kalanchoe ‘Calandiva White’. Silver-grey mohair yarn trails delicately over. I enjoy the expertise shown here: the ability to create such an even height and the tapestry effect that prevents open ‘black holes’ that can appear when floral designs are photographed. Continue reading “Four Floral Designs From Flower Shows”
This beautifully crafted King of the Jungle (or more accurately, of the RHS Hampton Court Floristry Marquee) was part of Capel Manor College’s offering for 2016.
He was placed quite high on the stand so I had to tiptoe to capture him. I loved the ruffled textures of his mane and the tawny colour palette. He’s made from those small kniphofias that are so fashionable these days, with a backdrop of ferny foliage, and details picked out in moss, bark, grasses and seeds.  Continue reading “Kniphofia Lion King”
White roses (freshly picked double shrub roses, rambling roses and spray flowered ones) look wonderful combined with Lily of the valley in this sweetly scented bouquet. A scattering of rose buds makes it all the prettier.
Susan Rushton 