BLUE

A week ago I noticed that the first two flowers had opened on the apricot tree. When the leaves unfurl the tree will give some welcome shelter in the summer, if it is not too ravaged by the possums.

 

In the meantime, the blossoms are a delight to the eye...

...and today, a week later, the blossoming continues. 

Spring has also brought some strikingly blue flowers into bloom. For  most of the year blue is present in our garden in the Lavender and Rosemary by the path. We planted upright, semi-prostrate and prostrate varieties of Rosemary years ago, and all have seeded freely around the garden. Many of these second generations plants have been allowed to grow if they are not in the way of anything else.

This little patch of Grape Hyacinths, Muscari neglectum, came from my parents' garden and are a flower that my mother particularly loved. I am intrigued by the inclusion of "neglectum" in the Latin name. They get plenty of that in our garden.

Next is a small patch of Echium candicans, that I recently transplanted to a position where it will provide a screening function in the garden. It is also self-seeded from an original plant that has since died. 

This wonderfully intense blue is the first bud of a 'Dutch Iris', Iris latifolia, that was given to me by a neighbour. I have planted this one in a pot with a water well, and some others in the garden. It will be interesting to see how those in the soil will manage. In checking the botanical name I was amused to see that it is known as: Dutch Iris, Spanish Iris and English Iris. Take your pick! 

My final blue flower in the garden is this Hardenbergia violacea, a fairly vigorous Australian native vine, growing on a mesh fence and known locally as the Happy Wanderer. In this instance it is wandering into the Nandina domestica, also growing against the fence. The blue is fairly strong and I decided to use it as an ikebana subject. 

  

        

I have cut the long tendrils of the vine into shorter lengths so that I can make a dense mass of the flowers. As a contrast I have added the strong green lines of Costal Sword sedge, Lepidosperma gladiatum, which gives a feeling of vigorous movement to the explosion of the flower mass.

The ikebana vessel is by Graeme Wilkie of Qdos Arts, Lorne.

Greetings from Christopher,

5th September 2020