Amy Cox remembers the first time she learned she could grow a lawn out of clover. «Where has this been all my life?» she mused. «Why is this a secret?»
22.07.2024 - 08:58 / ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com / Cathy
Not having used fiery colours for a few weeks, that is what I had in mind for today’s IAVOM contribution but, having picked a stem of Alstroemeria ‘Indian Summer’ as my starting point, I found there were no suitable blooms on Dahlias ‘David Howard’ or ‘Totally Tangerine’ to continue my planned theme. However, there was a single bloom on new Dahlia ‘Blyton Softer Gleam’, albeit looking slightly more yellow than the colour that attracted me in the catalogue, so this was snipped and the search continued.
The cutting beds also yielded Calendula ‘Neon’ (similar to ‘Indian Prince’ but not as tall and without the dark red reverse, Rudbeckia ‘Irish Eyes’ and Alonsoa ‘Rebel’, whilst further rambling added Persicaria ‘Blackfield’, nigella seedheads and some self-seeded umbellifer that I haven’t been able to identify with any certainty – it usually only grows to around 18″ but like so many other things this year is more than double this. On a whim, on the way back to the house, I also cut two stems of an overhanging honeysuckle, probably Lonicera ‘Graham Thomas’.
Choosing a matte yellow jug in a 1930s Art Deco style, bought at a car boot sale from a lady selling her collection of vases as she no longer had ready access to blooms (but thrilled to know why I was expanding my own collection), and began untangling the stems. The alstroemeria and dahlia became the focal point of the arrangement, with trial and error determining the length of the stems (the former, at 45″ losing more than two thirds of its length!), and the remaining blooms placed around them. I was unsure about including the honeysuckle, but on balance think it was the right decision. The prop, a CD of Elvis Presley’s No 1 hits, includes the ‘Burning Love’ represented by
Amy Cox remembers the first time she learned she could grow a lawn out of clover. «Where has this been all my life?» she mused. «Why is this a secret?»
Over the past few years, Pamela Anderson has had more time to contemplate life. That is, until things kicked into high gear again—but more on that later. At the start of the pandemic in 2020, she moved from France, sold her house in Malibu, and headed north to the small town on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where she was born and raised. She hunkered down with her two grown sons, Brandon and Dylan. She bought her grandmother’s old motel, renovated it, and set up her parents there. A lifelong cook, she perfected her baking skills. She reclaimed and expanded her grandfather’s garden on the same land where she had run barefoot as a self-described wild child. It’s the site of both her greatest childhood joys and harrowing traumas, which she describes candidly in her 2023 autobiography, Love, Pamela, and Netflix documentary, Pamela, A Love Story. Almost poetically, for Pamela has journaled and written poetry her whole life, she has reclaimed her true self and her youthful creativity on the exact spot where they were born. When I had the chance to sit with her and talk over Zoom recently, our conversation quickly moved beyond her new cookbook, I Love You (due out in October), to all aspects of life—and her ability to find the deepest of meanings in even the tiniest of seeds.
There is so much material to choose from in the garden and there have been more than a few warming Monday vases of late, but I particularly wanted to include a couple of seed successes whilst the opportunity was still there. I have grown gomphrena from seed before, but with minimal success, so this year’s three plants (right) were par for the course, each bearing a single bloom. Although supposedly mixed colours, the only variety I could find at the time, all three are this fiery orangey-red. Emilia javanica ‘Irish Poet’ (left) is new to me and has been very much an eyecatcher since early June, with its tiny fluffy orange blooms. I shall certainly grow it again.
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Three weeks ago I posted an ‘Armful For Julie’ on IAVOM, blooms scheduled for my retiring Pilates teacher but, thwarted by her illness, not given. After battling a nasty bout of Covid, her third and worst, she will be calling into our class tomorrow to say a belated goodbye to those who have known her a long time, so I am trying again and have created a slightly smaller armful of blooms to go with the vase that is wrapped and ready for her.
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