RESCUED FORM THE HEAT

On Monday, last week, Laurie and I had a morning walk in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. The day was bright,  sunny and not too hot.

The herbaceous border was looking splendid, surely at its peak. The view above is from the north-west end of the curving path... 

...and this view is from the opposite end. I really like the dense massed planting of this huge bed (and am glad it is not my responsibility). Creating such a garden must take an enormous amount of time and talent.

We also walked by the Ornamental Lake to see how the Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, flowers were doing this year. The water level had been getting quite low because of the lack of rain. Fortunately, following heavy rains two weeks earlier, the level of the lake had increased significantly and the Lotus were looking glorious in the morning sunshine. The following sequence is of four seperate flowers, but would make a great slide-show.

   

   

    

    

Finally, this photo shows half of the 'bed' of the Lotus flowers. The bed continues for an equivalent distance to the right of this line that stretches away from the camera.

Back in Torquay I was most anxious about the survival of the potted hydrangeas, as we were predicted to have two days of 40-43 Celsius. The problem is not simply that such days are hot, but that they are caused by strong hot dry winds from the interior of the continent. These winds have a desiccating effect on plants with soft foliage from cooler and more moist climates. It does raise the question of how much effort I should expend on trying to grow plants from a totally different climate and environment. 

This is how one of the plants looked on the morning of the first hot day.

Next to that pot this flower was showing the damage from an earlier 40 degree day. My solution to the threatened heat was to water the pots heavily the night before and again in the morning. Then I decided to harvest the majority of the flowers so that I could make one or two ikebana arrangements. 
  

When I was carrying the flowers inside I noticed the deeply-coloured stems of these flowers and was enchanted by the beauty and wonder of nature. This plant has been grown from a cutting taken from the garden of Laurie's childhood.

In thinking about creating ikebana with these flowers it occurred to me that they would go well in the modern lacquered vase I had bought in Japan three years ago.

Here is step one. Three blue flowers with a very pale pink one at the back...

...now peeping on the right-hand side.

To change the feel of the ikebana, I added a cascade of Miscanthus sinensis zebrinus , creating a light screen that visually reduced the mass of the largest flower-head.

Here is the final photo of the ikebana against a plain backdrop.

Greetings from Christopher
1st February 2020