Hello all and a very happy Australia Day weekend.

I arrived in Australia when I was eleven years old together with my parents and two younger sisters. We came from a very poor village in Northern Greece, in fact we were subsistence farmers. My parents' very meagre income was supplemented by my father's fishing. We just made do.

My parents were further burdened by the knowledge that they would have to, somehow, find dowries for three daughters, if they were to marry.

Coming to Australia was, literally, life saving for us. My parents, like most migrants and without a word of English, worked extremely hard to establish themselves and to raise and educate us. It was, also, extremely difficult for us, the children. In particular for me, the eldest. I was responsible for my sisters, one seven and the other two.

Despite extreme hardships initially, we are eternally grateful to this country for accepting us and for allowing us to become its very proud citizens. This is an amazing country, deserving of the description 'The Lucky Country'. Certainly, I and my family will always feel lucky to be calling Australia home.

In honour of Australia day, I wanted to make an arrangement using only Australian natives. I headed straight to my go-to casuarina tree that grows by the side of the road. This little tree has some very interestingly curving branches and I found one that I liked. I brought it home and, after struggling with the mechanics for over an hour, I broke the branch, cut my thumb and gave up, in disgust, on the 'interestingly curved' branch and settled for one that was more cooperative. Then I had to find native flowers to put with it and that was an impossibility. So I settled for the blue and white hydrangeas.

This morning, however, I was not satisfied with this compromise and set myself the challenge to make another arrangement, this time using the two native materials that grow in my garden - gymea lily leaves and acacia aphyla.

I felt that the arrangement was complete (and all native) without the addition of flowers but, after photographing it, I thought I'd try placing flowers. As I said before, I have no native flowers, so, again, I compromised and used non-native flowers. This time the red crucifix orchids.

I recently came across a beautiful, small tree that I had not seen before. The owner has no idea what it is but allowed me to take a cutting. I'm hoping someone will recognize it and be able to tell me what it is. The yellow flowers are quite sparse and have a strong perfume. There is, also, on the same stem a cluster of what appear to be seed pods.

We've had some record breaking temperatures recently (mid 40s C in our area) but we managed to protect most of our precious, vulnerable plants. Sam and I used seven old sheets to cover hydrangeas as well as a number of other plants and kept up the watering. However, sadly, we used up all the water in our rain water tanks in the process. From here on, we will have to rely on mains water, albeit sparingly.

The crocosmia, in the arrangement, below, was not affected by the heat but the hydrangeas only survived because they were covered.

Glass arrangements are ideal for summer because the water through the glass gives a feeling of coolness but, also, they require fewer materials. The kniphoffia is one of those plants, whose flowers appear quite suddenly, often catching me by surprise. The curves on these stems occurred naturally and are quite lovely, however, the heads are heavy making them difficult for the stems to hold up their weight, nor can a kenzan hold them. By using the two glass vases the heads could rest on the edge of the tall one.

My daughter and her family moved in with us two weeks ago, whilst their house is undergoing renovations. It was little Aria's birthday the other day and we celebrated it here this  morning. Yesterday my daughter, Madeline, Aria and I worked on her birthday cake - a Dolly Varden, chosen by the little miss from the old Women's Weekly Cake book. This was a very pleasant experience, especially when it occurred to me that we were three generations of females working together.

It's a simple cake but it made Aria very happy

I couldn't resist including a photo of our little precious.

Oh, and just one more thing. In my last post I wrote about gloriosa lilies. I have since spoken to Jan from the Gloriosa Farm here in Victoria, from whom I bought my first rhizomes. She corrected me on the scientific name of the ones I grow. They are not gloriosa superba, as I thought but, rather, gloriosa rothchildiana.

Bye for now,
Emily

Gloriosa superba 

Hello all,

I've been growing gloriosa superba lilies for many years now. I bought my first 2 rhizomes at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden show and they have been multiplying ever since. I grow them against a North facing wall, where they are well protected as they don't like frosts. I gave away dozens of rhizomes to students and friends, all of whom have been delighted with this exotic flower. My friend, Bo, who lives in NSW has just sent me a photo of her plant thanking me for it. However, she pointed out that in NSW it is considered a noxious weed. This is very concerning and I will have to be extra careful not to allow any parts of it to leave my property.

I have a pot of horse tail (Equisetum Hyemale), which is, also considered an aggressively spreading weed. I've had no trouble with it spreading so far because I'm very careful with how I dispose of any cuttings. I have an old casserole in the storeroom into which I put my cuttings and pour boiling water to kill them before putting them in the compost. I will be doing the same with the gloriosas.

As I have them in abundance at the moment, I've made several arrangements with them. The only down side is that the stem of each individual flower is quite short (12 - 18 cm). If I were to cut a long stem, I'd have to sacrifice many buds and I'm loathe to do that.

Gloriosas submerged in glass vases plus kiwi vine

Small arrangement in glass vase with squiggly grass

With garlic flower

With umbrella grass stems

The garden has been quite prolific this year. We enjoyed the loquats first, then came the strawberries and raspberries. (I have to say here, that there's nothing more pleasing for a gardener than to see the grandchildren run to the back of the garden to pick raspberries and eat them directly from the canes.) Now the nectarines are almost ready to pick, their red colours looking very enticing on the tree. The birds and possums have not been too much of a problem so far. However, our persimmon tree has not fared as well. A little before Christmas it was laden with fruit, still very small. One morning I discovered a great many leaves fallen on the ground, a sure sign that something had been in the tree and, upon inspection, I noticed that most of the fruit was gone. I had to do something to protect what was left because I would hate to disappoint my grandson, who is constantly asking when will the persimmons be ready. So, I covered them with plastic bags, as per the photo below, and am keeping fingers crossed that some will survive.

In my previous post I wrote about my summer calla lilies, which produce, apart from the normal flowers and leaves, some distortions. The photograph, below, is of an arrangement that I made using distorted leaves and a flower. Next to it I put a normal leaf for comparison and the photo after that is of a close up of the distorted flower.

I leave you with this next arrangement of one of my favourite materials (agapanthus) in one of my favourite containers.

Bye for now,
Emily

The lilies were a Christmas offering from my sister-in-law, Betty The branch is sprayed
silver

Hello and a very happy and safe New Year to you all!

Unfortunately, I started the day (and the year) with a very unladylike expletive when I lifted my head off the pillow and my nose started dripping like a tap with a bad washer. It appears I have succumbed to whatever bug has been going through the family and had landed my mother in hospital. Definitely not the best way to start the year.

On a brighter note, Christmas was a big production but quite successful, judging by the feedback we got. The weather was perfect, huge quantities of food was prepared, consumed and left overs taken away in plastic containers. The traditional lamb on the spit was delicious and the drinks ran freely. There was, also, the traditional cricket game on the lawn. Even I was dragged into batting. Apparently, I did not disgrace myself too much because, according to my grandson, I was not as bad as he thought I would be.

This view is from the balcony, where the less energetic of us sat and watched the game below
and cheered.

The shade of the trees at the top of the garden was a popular spot for some

Memo and Peter - Masterchefs in action

A week before Christmas Sam and I took the two older grandchildren to a Christmas tree farm to select and cut our own tree. It was quite a distance to travel (close to an hour) and we had to take two cars - one for the children in their car seats and one to bring back the tree. It was a very well organised operation at the Dandenong Christmas Tree Farm. Once chosen, the tree would be cut and an optional cover, much like a stocking, was put over the tree to make it easier and cleaner to transport. They even had a Santa on a sleigh for the little ones. It was an experience enjoyed by all and we will be doing it again. There's nothing like the smell of pine in the house to feel like Christmas.

Poor Santa, he was sweltering in his suit on that hot Summer's day

Xavier and Hermione with the 'tree cutter' and his pole to
measure the height of each tree. We chose the one in the
photo - 8'

The four of them in front of the decorated tree.
Granddaughter No.1 was not in the Christmas spirit!

Today we spent the afternoon at Lucy's where we cut the traditional 'Vassilopita', Greek New Year's cake, which has a coin in it. The lucky person to get the coin is supposed to have good luck all year long.

I came home feeling quite ordinary and wanting nothing more than to lie down. But I couldn't give into it and, instead, went for a stroll around the garden. I found materials and inspiration for ikebana and got stuck into it. An hour later, I was feeling better psychologically, if not physically, and I had three new arrangements.

The agapanthus are putting on their usual show and the creamy white calla lilies teamed well with them. I found an old kiwi vine in the store room to complete the arrangement.

The calla lilies are quite lovely and their speckled leaves are very attractive in the garden. The colour of the flowers starts off creamy white and gradually changes to green on the outside with a yellow centre. But, also, they produce some strange mutations, both in the flowers and the leaves. The arrangement, below, is a case in point.

As I was watering this morning I was delighted to see that the crocosmia that have naturalized in the front rockery, are full of flower stems in bud. I noticed one with an interesting curve and had to cut and use it. I curled its leaves and added the garlic flower, which, also, has an interesting curve.

Here's to a happy 2019!

Bye for now,
Emily