Page 35 - may2020

art in the garden-dried arrangements

A world-renowned florist, Emily
Thompson, who is based in New York
states that her ethos in floristry is “to
collaborate with the rough hand of

nature, drawing the eye to the infinite
glory of the living world with piercing
contrasts and juxtapositions of
materials.... we seek out rare, ill-used,
and unlikely flowers, seed pods,
branches and undergrowth to achieve
design that creates desire for the
obscure and love for the hard-to-love.”

This modern use of ‘hard to love plants’ and
odd materials is not that modern. Constance
Spry, another renowned florist from England,
ransacked attics for objects to use as containers
back in the early 1900s and popularized
unusual plant materials to offset flowers, like
weeds, grasses and ornamental kale.

In Botswana we have a plethora of material
to work with, from our dried grasses, to spiky
plants that produce artful dried arrangements.
You don’t have to look too far to find ‘weeds’
here, and many of them come in interesting
shapes, like the architectural dried stems of the
foxglove, Ceratotheca triloba, or the spiky
flowers of the doll’s protea, Dicoma tomentosa
(top left) and the distinctive dried flower heads
of Acrotome inflata (middle right). We also have
peculiarly shaped seed pods, like those from
the Camel thorn, and Acacia nilotica. And if
you peep into your veggie garden you might
find some dried cape gooseberries, or kale to
add to your arrangement. Text & Photos: by S C
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