SPRING BULBS

 

Hello all,

I was supposed to be writing this blog on the balcony or by the pool of a luxury hotel in Port Douglas but Covid put paid to that.(Insert strong expletives here!). Two days before we were due to fly north Sam tested positive. He spent the intervening days strictly isolating in his office and me dancing attention, providing all his needs. It was a valiant effort by both of us but, I guess, it was inevitable that I would catch it too. This morning I tested positive. (More expletives!) So, instead of balmy tropical weather we're coping with wet and miserable Melbourne. This is not an attempt to elicit sympathy. I know that many of you have had to deal with Covid, I just wanted to vent.

After the winter months of a serious dearth of flowers in the garden, my bulbs have exploded into flower and I have dozens and dozens of narcissus, a few tulips, arum lilies and hyacinths. Because I grow these bulbs in pots, I remove them when the leaves have died down and store them until next autumn, when I plant them out again. This makes the bulbs strong and I get big, healthy flowers and leaves.

In the arrangement, above, I felt that the white of the containers and the kiwi vine was a perfect foil for the deep blue of the hyacinths.

I know that some people dislike the smell of narcissus but Sam and I love it. I placed the arrangement, below, on the kitchen island bench and every time I walk past it I am assailed by the strong fragrance. You may be interested to know that I wired the leaves to be able to curve them in such a way.

Tulips are probably the most temperamental of the bulbs but I've had a modicum of success with them. I just used horsetail, Equisetum hyemale, in my next arrangement because I wanted to keep the main focus on the tulps.

I use my corkscrew hazel (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') very sparingly as it is painfully slow growing. However, one of the branches was growing too low and had to be pruned. It is at its best this time of year with its squiggly, bare branches and dangling catkins. Hence my arrangement, below. I used pink hyacinths and narcissus in a metal container.

Here's another use of the narcissus. This time with large, fleshy leaves of the Haemanthus Coccineus lily and kiwi vine in a ceramic container.

Of course there are other materials, also, in the garden. I had cut the orange branch intending to use it in a nageire arrangement, however, the fruit were so heavy and the stems so thin that I had to rethink my original idea. I created a morimono, instead. The two little pumpkins were from a plant that had self seeded, most likely from the compost and the camellia is Brushfield's Yellow. The glass piece they are sitting on has two holes and sits on a container with water in it, accommodating the camellia.

Bye for now,

Emily