recent playings

white in green

Ozothamnus 'Radiance' or Rice-flower snaffled quietly from a garden my beau created and maintains.

festival of flowers

I think us here in Perth are incredibly lucky to have one of the worlds best botanic gardens - Kings Park. We can visit at any time and it is free to get in. They have created amazing and extensive displays that showcase our unique wildflowers from different areas of the state, which is huge..



The annual spring wildflower festival was held last week. Shown here is little clippings of species in flower for people to identify. So many of our indigenous plants have such unassuming flowers but when you get close the detail and unique beauty really does blow you away.







Thanks to the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority of Perth, I say.

Art in Bloom

I visited 'Art In Bloom' a fantastic yearly event that lasts just a weekend, organised by the Friends of the Art Gallery of WA. All sorts of people from artists and floral designers to students and media personalities are invited to respond to an artwork from the state collection by creating a floral installation. I have never seen the gallery bustling with so many people, a really great way to get the public into the gallery.

I sneeked a few photos, sorry about the quality. I loved this installation by Amelia Dempster of Poppy's Flowers. A series of glass bowls bursting with amazing textural combinations of flowers, bark strips and burnt Banksia seed cones reflected a bush landcape painting.




After wards we went along to demonstration by one of Perth's best floral artists Rebecca Grace which was fun.

A great day of floral inspiration was had!

boronia

It's boronia time! The nursery that I work at on Sundays has just brought in masses of plants and the perfume drifts across the whole centre. Normally I am not big on fragrance but boronia I can never get sick of, and it makes me remember to breathe properly :)

sprung

To celebrate spring our garden has posed nicely for these pictures. Very carefully chosen angles mind.. there are are many ugly bits in the process of getting revamped. Happy gardening everyone!

details from the garden

I have finally had some time to stop and notice what is happening in the garden. Most of the year our garden is a wild looking tangle of texture with muted colours of green, silver/grey and copper. Then for a very brief time starting about now it is almost garish with so much clashing colour. Then before I get used to it the heat and sun bleaches it all away, until next year.

latest creations

Kale, Silver Eucalyptus foliage, Leucadendron, Dusty Miller, Sterlingia and leafless Boston Ivy.


Green Erica, Dusty Miller and Sterlingia.





That silver Eucalyptus foliage is from an amazing Western Australian plant commonly called Rose of the West. The pinky-red flowers can be the size of dinner plates. I love how the silvery surface of the leaves gets little scratches like the one above.

party

I love it when I get to create flowers with no particular requests or criteria to stick by. I can just respond intuitively to what is around me at the time. This was inspired by the Autumn foliage glowing in the landscape at the moment.