Wednesday 30 May 2012

Favourites again?!

My favourites in the garden this week (oh yes, it changes weekly, if not daily, if not hourly, what a fickle flower grower I am) ... anyway this week's favourites are: Honesty, Briza (or Quaking-grass) and Orlaya Grandiflora.

 

Honesty has a fantastic retro 60s feel, evoking the era of Biba when dried 'silver dollar' tissue paper thin seed heads in dried arrangements were very much the in thing. I prefer Honesty 'in the green'. Preparing it for bunching is like stripping back Bells of Ireland, you just remove the leaves and any dried up flowers, clearly revealing the green and purple 'dollars' in all their glory.

Here they are growing in the garden and in a vase with Briza and Purple Sensation Alliums.







Quaking-grass is divine with it's tiny silver nodding heads and you can even hear it rattle as it moves.





Orlaya Grandiflora is a very bridal looking flower.  Last year I fell in love with all Ammi flowers, but really I love any flowers with umbels (the flat flower cluster that gives the appearance of an upside down umbrella). I grew Ammi Visnaga and Ammi Majus last year and I wanted to add Orlaya Grandiflora to the mix this year. It is a gorgeous row in the garden at the moment standing at about 1 metre high. I only wish I had grown more but then that is the case for  most things I grow in the garden, I'm just too greedy!





I wanted to try different backgrounds while the Orlaya umbel floated in a small container. I think I prefer the blue crushed velvet background but then I am a sucker for a piece of crushed velvet.



























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