More photos from Fleuramour

This was perhaps my favourite exhibit. The designer is Felix Geiling-Rasmus, a young German who was trained by Gregor Lersch, one of Europe's most highly respected florists. The design consisted of rings of varios sizes, gold in colour, with test tubes holding white Eucharis lilies (?).and black berries.

The chapel windows were a very soft pastel colour, and the sunlight glinted on the glass containers. I wish I could tell you what the music was that was playing - it was moody and modern, and totally added to the experience.

These were all calla lilies in a design by Stef Adriaenssens. What is hard to see here, is that every element is so intricate: the table was covered in little squares of tropical leaves, carefully interwoven. The table was about 3 metres long and 1 metre wide. The stick-like structure holding in the lilies, and those overhead concealing the lighting, are a hollow stemmed plant...perhaps something like a sunflower stem. There were hundreds of them, callas and stems !

In Australia, I have only ever seen crimson coloured gloriosa lilies, but as you can see, they also come in orange and yellow. The vertical structures were spindle-shapes covered - or made with - jute in a lime green and pea green. I read that white ones will soon be available in Europe.

There was also the opportunity to watch the artists at work.
In one tent, you could see a group of florists making wedding bouquets... like you've never seen before ! This man was wiring about a hundred individual vanda orchid flowers so that they would hang from a 'bracelet' worn on the wrist.












And finally, there were several displays of potted plants, like these phalenopsis orchids. The display was a well-balanced display of colour (pinks, greys and mauves), texture (look at those dried parsley-flower-like stems, towering over the pretty orchids),  and movement, from the curved table top, round pots, and the parsley plants .

You can see more photos on this Facebook page. They're not my photos but they show the range of the wonderful exhibits and their talented creators.

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This weekend, there is a winter happening....wish I could be there...maybe not the winter bit...

(I apologise for the less-than-perfect layout. I just can't seem to get it right. I DID try !)

Urban Waste...not !

There's nothing that can stop me in my tracks as quickly as a kerbside collection of green 'waste', waiting to be picked up by the local council ! I can spot a sawn-up silver birch, bundled-up bamboo or trussed-up twigs a mile off, and if I can lift them and/or squeeze them into the back of the mighty little Peugot, in they go ! Nature's bounty !

Recently in my neighbourhood, I found a tangle of branches from an unidentifiable tree, each of which branch, on its own, was worthy of rescue, being of a fantastic wind-blown shape. They were all rather large though, and would have needed to be displayed in a warehouse-sized room.

I have broken these branches down into smaller pieces and used them in several ways, and I've still got heaps left !

One became a sort of nest above branches of silver birch (from another street collection), which had been screwed upright on to a wooden plank for stability. Originally these branches had candles on them, and were used to decorate a table at Christmas. This time, I affixed water tubes to them and put stunning violet Vanda orchid blooms in each one.

I was also able to make little hand-tied bundles of twiglets, which I could then jam in to a favourite rectangular ceramic vase, and use to support these beautiful deep-sea-blue anemones. This tricky technique also works really well to support tulips in a wide-mouthed vase.

Then, finally, I tied little twiglets on to 2 metal candle holders which have been waiting for years to be used in an interesting way.

Just another example of what is one person's trash, is another's treasure.