Petal & Pins

Category: Plants

October 9, 2019

Spring Notes

I’d like to say I sat down to this cup of tea and spent a few hours sketching but it’s just a pretty tableau to show off the beautiful detail inside the cover of our petal & pins notebooks that we released at the beginning of Spring. It’s exciting to go from an idea, finesse a design and then hold a new product in my hands.

The posy in the photo is from my patchwork hedge, there is lilac, crabapple blossom, japonica, beauty bush and a rose and if I’m lucky (like this year) their flowering overlaps for a colourful spring display.

The hedge inspired the patchwork dress which features in our Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe card collection. A sundress design I like to think of as conjuring up weekends wandering around markets or picnics with friends.

I timed the photoshoot perfectly because now it’s raining – the garden will love that and I’ll go and put the kettle on for a cup of tea I’ll actually get to drink before sorting stock to pack for  the Made by Hand Market this weekend at Hazelhurst Arts Centre.

Made By Hand Artisan Market

10 – 3 Sunday 13 Oct 2019

Hazelhurst Arts Centre

782 Kingsway, Gymea, NSW

This event is part of Sydney Craft Week see what other events are on here, and if you’re out and about in Sydney on the sunday come and say hello!

 

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March 25, 2019

The Devil Is In The Detail

March 2019 In a Vase on Monday

I think autumn is one of my favourite months to join Cathy from Rambling In The Garden’s Monday blog post project In A Vase On Monday. 

There’s always an eclectic mix of colour and shapes to choose from in my garden at this time and the end result is often bolder and more considered in the way I put things together.

This morning I’ve chosen to use my glass vase that has a swirl of crimson around the top thinking it would pick up the colour of the crabapples growing in our hedge.

The ones I could reach to pick are a much more golden hue, and with a trio of pink roses I also picked  some mottled hydrangeas to tie it all together.

A stack of magazines was a practical solution as a makeshift plinth to raise the flowers for photographing but I thought the gorgeous rich image on the cover of Flowbulous magazine also created a beautiful backdrop!

I bought the magazine in Japan last year and it’s full of incredible photographs and flowers by Atsushi Taniguchi.

Flowbulous Magazine_

As I arranged my vase I began to realise I’d not picked nearly enough for such a wide necked vase and at that moment it started to pour with rain. My solution? the gum nuts sitting undercover on the verandah and some hydrangeas dried from last autumn in the palest of pink.

For Me By Dee print and vase of flowers

The gum nuts of course add a distinctive Australian touch to my vase so I decided to photograph it with Desmond the Tasmanian devil – a beautiful print from an original watercolour drawing by Melbourne artist Daniella Leo.

And that is what’s inspired this Monday’s blog post title!

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April 16, 2018

Maggie Hannaford

 

dahlias

Let me introduce you to Maggie Hannaford a fairly recent addition to my garden and a bit late to the party flowering but I’m not complaining – isn’t ‘she’ a beauty!

There are enough blooms this year for me to pick for my botanical art and still have some in the garden to admire.

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March 5, 2018

Autumn Ikebana

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November 20, 2017

Objet d’art

single peony and Soltice Lace book
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This beautiful porcelain vase was a gift from a friend and it’s sensuous form is deceptively simple.

There is the finest line of handpainted gold around the top of the neck and when not showing off a flower is far more objet d’art than just simply an empty vase.

The peony with its hint of pink and ruffled petals is dreamy and romantic just like the  Solstiss lace for haute couture Gaultier Paris from fall-winter 2005 -2006 featured in the book Solstiss: The seduction of lace by Ann Kraatz.

I don’t often bring these peonies inside because they are highly attractive to ants for some reason and indeed this morning I had to give this one a good shake to avoid bringing any inside.

But they won’t be flowering for long with the warm weather we’re getting and seemed the perfect pairing with this vase to share for Cathy’s In a Vase on Monday.

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October 4, 2017

Bottled Beauty

 

 

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September 28, 2017

Bewitched

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Last weekend we headed to Launceston to participate in the Blooming Tasmania Flower & Garden Festival and it was a chance to also wander around City Park and to see the Spring display inside the John Hart Conservatory (I shared the Autum display back in May)

Outside in the park the Rhododendron were particularly spectacular but in the conservatory it was the Witch Hazel that caught my eye!

I’m tempted to find a spot in my garden for it as the sprays of pink fringed flowers would be very pretty in a vase and a welcome sight in the garden at the end of winter.

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In doing a little online research on Witch Hazel varieties I think I actually may have a yellow one in my garden – I also discovered there is  a hybrid variety – Hamamelis vernalis called Sandra!

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September 11, 2017

Creating Tranquility

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July 26, 2017

Winter’s Pink

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When winter is at its greyest the bergenias add a much needed spash of colour in my garden and the rusty coloured stems make a striking contrast to the dusty pink petals.

Massed in a bed on a gentle slope in the middle of the garden, come spring the odd jonquil will poke its way up. Most things have been flowering late this winter – I only noticed the first of my violets today and not many at that but I can always depend on the bergenias to show up as a pretty visual antidote to the cold and grey.

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June 20, 2017

Pink Skies & Shrimp Tails

winter sky

Winter skies are always beautiful in Hobart around dusk with pink hued clouds alluminated by the setting sun.

The aptly named flowering Shrimp Tail Salvia echos the colours of the evening sky and the leaves turn to patches of burgundy and green like an exotic camouflage print, perfect for the Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe.™

I once mistakenly picked this flower for a floral arrangement,  the strong scent becomes more intense inside and is not at all pleasant – definitely a flower to simply admire in the garden.

botanical couture by petal & pins

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