One last photos of growers from Chelsea

These are the last 2 photos of growers' plants I will post from Chelsea.  I saved the best for last in the photo of the delphiniums.  This plant is heart breaking to grow in our area and the vibrancy and size of these blooms was incredible.  The clematis was lovely as well and I have some ideas of getting some going in my garden now that we were successful in starting some across the street at my mother-in-law's house.

Toy Museum

I have walked my feet off in London this week and seen one wonderful thing after another.  The other morning we went to a toy museum.  The origin of the museum was a collection of lithographs of paper theaters and other printed materials for toys.  It was an absolutely charming place - tiny rooms in a building with parts from both the 17th and 18th centuries.  Crooked steps and low ceilings.  I took these photos of 2 of the dolls - one is Ophelia and the other a fashion doll. I collect old toys and dolls and this place was thrilling.

More Chelsea growers

This display at Chelsea was from Trinidad and Tobago - it was quite different than the other displays - very vibrant and products put out as they would be in a market setting.  Really pretty things.

Chelsea Flower Show

Last week I fulfilled a long held dream which was to go to the Chelsea Flower Show.  It was beyond what I expected and we spent 5 hours trying to take it all in.  It is a different animal from the Philadelphia Flower Show,  less flower arrangements and more gardens and growers and vendors.  I am going to post some of the pictures I took of the growers' stands.  They were the most amazing to me in many ways.  I think that most of the intent of the growers is to sell to the home gardener and it was just incredible to see what one could buy to plant.  I really loved their set ups too - especially the narcissus in the Wedgewood bowls.  You get the feeling this display has been the same for a long time.  From the top there are narcissus, sweet peas and allium and amaryllis.

Sissinghurst part 2

Yesterday at Sissinghurst I saw a poppy in a color that was so unusual.  It was a rusty mauve and just lovely.  Wish I could get my hands on some seed for these.

Sissinghurst

I am in London for a week and today Ruth and I went out to Sissinghurst garden, about an hour outside of the city.  Vita Sackville West and her husband, Harold Nicolson, made this garden, he made the plans and she did the work with very little help, according to the guides.  It is amazing, of course.  Her famous white garden was lovely but the rest of it was incredible as well.  Here are two photos from the top of the castle.  The property revived a walled castle - only parts of it were standing when Vita and Harold bought it in the 20s.  Worth a trip of course. 

Retirement dinner

This is the top of a piece we did for a buffet table at a retirement dinner tonight.  The client wanted a super bright cheerful vibe so we did a piece that harked back to the piece we did for my presentation at AIFD Southern in March.  We used flocked pink matsumoto branches, yellow orchids, yellow and red roses, yellow oncidium orchids and red gloriosa lilies with some feather ferns.  Bright and fun for people moving into another phase of their lives.

We are busy

This has been a busy week.  Today we made a large arrangement for an event at a private club downtown and delivered pieces to another event closer to home.  This is a photo of the first piece.   The event was a school reunion and we used the school colors as our palette:  grey/cream/red/gold.  We used red Tinto roses, gold Combo roses and cream Vendelas, as well as cream lisianthus, dusty miller and lambs ears, green wheat grass and saracena and red ti leaves and grevilla foliage.  The scale of the room is so large we needed a piece that was about 4 feet tall.

Dinner Party

Last night I did some work for a dinner party.  The client wanted mostly cream and white flowers so I used that color scheme with a twist.  I used cream Akito roses and white hydrangeas but added saracena, poppy pods and eucalyptus berries to add a lot of texture and a little bit of color to the mix.  I also layered grevilla foliage which had a brownish tint at the end. 

Today's delivery

This morning I delivered 13 little arrangements in one of my favorite color schemes - pink, cream and slate blue.  I used Anna roses, Cream Lydia sprays, cream Feverfew, eucalyptus and dusty miller leaves.

This week's ikebana

Yesterday at ikebana class we made free style arrangements with dried branches and azaleas.  I used dried curly willow, a beautiful pink freckled azaleas and varigated euonymous and made two pieces, one with two large pieces of curly willow and one with the cut off trunk. 

Woven leaves

Here is another picture of the work I did for the Charlottesville conference.  I wove leaves from varigated lirope and used them in several ways.  For this piece I made groups of 5 leaves and put a gerber in the center.