Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
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.
When peonies are in season at a reasonable price, I can’t imagine myself choosing any other cut flower. Continue reading “Peony season is here!”
This week’s photo challenge is ephemeral: a wonderful word for short-lived, fleeting. Things we might easily overlook, although our lives are made richer by noticing them.
Buttonholes are ephemeral – small posies of flowers and foliage, their stems out of water. We know they’ll stay fresh for only a day or so, but we wear them as a small token of celebration to mark special occasions.
Buttonholes of tiny, blue forget-me-nots, pink columbines and cow parsley were presented by some fellow exhibitors in the Great Pavilion to visitors one year at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. I never learned which company had the idea, but I saw several pinned to celebrities during Press Day and was attracted by the delicacy of the design. Continue reading “Weekly photo challenge: ephemeral”
Susan Rushton 