Strelitzia reginae

Hello all,
During last Friday's 44 degree heat, Sam and I spent the best part of that searingly hot morning trying to protect some of the more delicate plants in our garden. We opened the cantilever umbrella and placed all the delicate pots in which I have been growing cuttings under it. The most vulnerable of my shrubs are the hydrangeas, which we covered with old sheets and watered regularly. We were quite successful in saving most of them. During that whole ordeal my thoughts were constantly going to the people who are currently faced with the extremely difficult task of fighting fires and struggling to protect homes and even lives. I realized just how trivial our struggles were.

The night before I went through the garden and cut all the flowers that were likely to be burnt and brought them in. I have three strelitzia reginae plants. Two of them flower throughout the year but the other one flowers always around Christmas time producing between 10 and 20 flowers almost all of them flowering at the same time. This year was no exception. When our weeping willow tree fell last year it squashed the mahonia tree over the top of the strelitzia. This is the reason some of the flower stems are twisted. It took some doing to crawl under the bushes to cut and disentangle the flowers but I did it!

So, then I had a whole bunch of flowers in my workroom, which I had to arrange straight away. I had intended to make arrangements as gifts to some special people in my life and the strelitzias were thus put to good use. Below are photographs of the arrangements for gift giving that I remembered to photograph.

Strelitzia reginae, sprayed acacia aphylla, umbrella grass and
gold baubles

Strelitzia reginae and umbrella grass stems

Strelitzia reginae, New Zealand flax and dietes leaves

Strelitzia reginae, kiwi vine sprayed gold, pine and green
bauble

Oriental lilies,  umbrella grass and long silver bauble

The next arrangement I made for home and it is quite large - 1.5 metres high and it's in a self made container. I used gymea leaves and bent them to complement the bends in the stems of the flowers.

Among other flowers that I cut were some roses. Below is an arrangement I made with the rose called "Lolita". The green material is pine cut sharply.

One more thing before I leave you. I've mentioned before how much I appreciate your comments and emails. However, I have recently received a few comments in foreign languages, some of them quite lengthy. I so wish I could read them. My first language is English and I'm quite proficient in Greek. I can even manage a bit of French, having studied it for 6 years in high school but that's about it. So, to my kind readers who have sent those comments, if you are able to jot down even a few words in English, I would be most grateful.

And now, all that remains is to wish you all a very pleasant and safe festive season and to those of you who celebrate Christmas, may it be a merry one.

Bye for now,
Emily