Elf Leaves

Abundance is the sharp scent of elfin-leaved lavender on a beautiful sunny day

I spent this past weekend down in Blacksburg, Virginia at a meeting for the South Atlantic Region of the United States Lavender Growers Association and met a bunch of truly interesting and enthusiastic lavender growers.  Among them was a couple who are on the verge of opening their own lavender farm, during the coming year in South Carolina, by the name of "Elf Leaf Farm."  I thought it was such an enchanting name, aside from Blooming Hill of course, that they had chosen for their new lavender farm and smiled to myself as I imagined a meadow full of elves, fairies, pixies and sprites all at home and entertaining themselves among the flora and fauna in a field of white, pink, lavender and purple flowers blooming in a mystical haze on a warm summer morning. Okay--sometimes I let my imagination run a little more wild than usual but I grow lavender so, it comes with the territory!

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Don't tell me they are not real!--She is all the proof I need!

An elfin homestead.

I asked them, "How did they come about choosing that for a name?"--other than figuring out that their last name was of Gaelic origin--and wondering what may be the added significance behind this title. Derek and Allison told me that "elf leaf" is a shortened translation for the Irish term "ar dhath an labhandair" which I think means the color of lavender (or something close to it) in our plain, old English or just "labhandair." pronounced pretty much the same as we pronounce lavender in English, only with a little more musical lilt to the word.  In any case, I like the name they chose for their soon to be calling and operation, "Elf Leaf Farm," as it brings to mind the magic of this ancient and mystical plant that asks for very little but entertains so many and gives so much in return.

Now, close your eyes, sit back and picture mischievous elves clinging happily to those tiny elf-sized silver-green leaves while almost invisible fairies dance in, out and around a field of abundantly blooming lavender bushes on midsummer's eve.  It's not so hard to do, is it?  As I look out onto my own snow-covered and ice-laddened field of elfin leaves today, still deep in their winter sleep here at Blooming Hill, I can almost hear the elves and fairies singing a lullaby to the lavender and whispering, "Be patient. Summer is coming and then it will be time to wake up and celebrate yet another season of "ar dhath an labhandair" wherever there is lavender growing.

Celebrating and dancing into the night while keeping watch over their elfin-leaved plants.

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 Elf leaves?--To be sure!

The Wonder of it All.

Thank you winter storm "Jonas" for depositing over 3 feet of snow in my yard, this past weekend!  This is my driveway and looking down the hill towards the road, this past Saturday evening...what driveway and what road???

Strands upon strands of embroidery floss, threaded and stretched from floor to ceiling play off of light to create a fabric kaleidoscope.

Susan and me on a winter's day enjoying the Renwick Gallery.

These first months of the year bring dark days of winter or bright, frigid sunshine.  A time when I turn my attention from the lavender field and gardens and get a little rest and refocus on the coming growing season. Even on days like this, with 39 inches of snow staring obliquely at me outside my window, taking the time to appreciate all of the sights and adventures that wait just beyond my own backyard can be luxuries that I don't often take advantage of.

Getting off of the Farmlet, when we are in season can be a real challenge and takes lots of preplanning.  However, January through March is a relatively quiet time here--if you ignore all of the snow that is waiting to be shoveled--as Blooming Hill is closed during the winter months.  After all, who is thinking about lavender, other than P.Lorenz and myself? So, when someone just happens to suggest a road trip, believe me when I say, "I'm all in"!  

The artists intent was to evoke an image of a tsunami.  I saw an ever changing desert sky at dusk in this darkened, peaceful room that beckoned gallery visitors to sit and stay, even lay down on the softly-patterned carpet that resembled windblown waves.  It became a place to dream, if only for a while.

Imagine having to cut out all of these little cardboard paper pieces to make giant stalagmites coming to life and taking shape as an indoor canyon--and I thought pruning lavender bushes was tedious work--geesh! 

Pods of twisted willow branches make inviting spaces to dwell in for mythical and practical everyday creatures, alike. Windows and doors are fashioned allowing people to walk in and out of them.

That is just what happened last week when my friend, Susan, invited me along to see the Wonder Exhibit  at the Renwick Gallery, a Smithsonian American Art Museum, located at Pennsylvania Ave. and 17th St, NW  in Washington, D.C.  The Renwick Gallery, founded by William Corcoran back in the middle 1800's, is renowned as America's first building dedicated specifically as an art museum and, while this gallery normally houses a permanent exhibit showcasing arts and crafts stemming from early America to the present, currently the Wonder Exhibit has taken over the place and features nine different artists who have created expansive art forms, from re-purposed materials or things taken from nature, that mimic or enhance in new and different ways, things, that already are not so ordinary in and of themselves, like giant redwood trees, the dessert sky and even life-size gnome houses buried deep in the forests of our imaginations.

Shimmering, shooting stars dangle in this rather delicate looking chandelier.  I kept thinking about the person who has the honor of dusting and polishing each strand of mirror, glass and light--I guess that is just the O.C.D. cleaner in me.

This is only a tiny portion of an entire room wallpapered in insects arranged in intricate patterns.  So, if you don't know what to do with those pesky stink bugs that Northern Virginia seems to have all over the place, especially during the autumn months, here's a rather ingenious idea...Just a thought.

Made from the plaster casting of a hemlock tree, the sculpture itself was recreated using strips of cedar.

What a wonderful cure for cabin fever--snow or no snow.  The Wonder Exhibit will be on display at the Renwick Gallery until this summer.  Of course, by then, the natural wonders of nature expand 100-fold all around my place, as I'm sure it does in your yard, too. Come to think of it, even on this snow day, wonder and beauty can spring out of the most usual of places I see everyday.

I so enjoyed the Renwick Gallery last week but I must say that I also enjoy the artistry and wonders that occur daily in my own backyard, no matter the time of the year.

A Beautiful Mess

Creamy, white roses for a wedding.

Pale pink ranunculus.

My finished arrangement back home.

Last Wednesday, I took a field trip with my fellow "Night Bloomers" Garden Club members and spent the afternoon visiting Rick's Flowers in Sterling, Virginia where owner, Rick, not only talked flowers for every occasion, but also gave us a class on making an architectural flower arrangement that we took home to enjoy and remember our gathering by.


















It started as a beautiful, sunny but typically cold January day that warmed up with each flower we added to our arrangements and even though we all used the same flowers in the same order, each person's sweet bouquet of pink roses and gerbera daisies along with steel blue eringium (sea holly) and seeded eucalyptus, took on it's own unique personality and appearance as we built upon a foundation of glass and green oasis. Rick was (and is) a great teacher.  You could tell he spends a lot of time working weddings as he patiently guided us through the art of flower arranging while a gaggle of women continually talked over him. However, we did manage to stop talking, here and there, long enough to allow him to give us instruction.  "Cuddos" to him!

"Decorating for a wedding is like dressing a woman.  You can have a beautiful dress but putting all of the right accessories, jewelry, shoes and things together to make an entirely, wonderful and truly lovely presentation is what everyone will remember long after they have seen it.  The same principle holds true when planning the flowers and decorations for a wedding celebration. Whether you spend a lot or a little, make sure the flowers are beautiful to compliment the occasion."                  Rick of Rick's Flowers

Rick (far right) showing some of the group how to first get started on our arrangements.  Can you feel the creative juices beginning to flow?

Everyone's flower arrangements taking shape.

Before we got started on our flower creations, he gave us a peak into the busy and complicated daily life of a florist, balancing weddings to funerals and every other occasion in between, big and small, that calls for beautifully arranged flowers.  I might add, he did this whole presentation in a very cool, calm and collected manner even though he had a huge wedding event, out here near in my neck of the woods, at the Salamander Inn, in Middleburg, VA this past weekend.  Rick's workroom was filled with frilly hydrangea heads, delicate wax flowers, unfurling white roses, fragrant stalks of stock, dreamy ranunculus and so much more, all lined up and waiting patiently in buckets of cool water, making the work space an extremely pleasant place to be.

A beautiful mess.

Frilly and fluffy hydrangeas waiting to take their proper place in upcoming wedding arrangements.

While we made our arrangements, Rick told us about his life with flowers that began when he was just thirteen, back in his home town of Atlanta, GA.   One of his first jobs entailed working for a demanding florist who taught him the ropes and furthered his love of this creative, fulfilling and sometimes, highly stressful profession.  How many people go to work every day and do what they love to do for thirty years and counting?  If you, like Rick, are one of those people, consider yourself very fortunate!

"The earth laughs in flowers." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lunch time and a toast to our gracious host.  Our arrangements paraded down the center of the table, making the January day a floral and culinary affair we will remember for a long time.

One of the finished arrangements waiting for lunch to be served.

So, we laughed, we talked, we listened, we arranged and learned more than a thing or two about the art of flower arranging and enjoyed ourselves immensely, finishing the day with a beautiful luncheon among the flowers, sitting at our banquet table that was dressed in pastels decorated by us, largely thanks to Rick.  The delicious fare was prepared and coordinated by fellow "Bloomers" Kim and Mary. This fresh January floral outing could not have been more perfect!  Really--if you do not belong to a garden club and think you may want to join one, call me--I have connections.  Besides that, any and all garden clubs are always welcoming and looking for interested people eager to share and learn about the natural world of flora and fauna. It's worth your time, believe me.

Rick and Arlene.

We also made simple yet elegant boutonnieres.

Showing off the boutonniere I made.  Yes, I know it would look much better on the jacket lapel of a handsome groom (or perhaps my prom date?) but this is what I had to work with. 

In any case, thank you Rick of Rick's Flowers for your generosity, knowledge and patience and thank you fellow "Bloomer" Arlene, who works for Rick and arranged the outing for us.  It was hardly a beautiful mess but truly a beautiful time!

De'ja' Vu!

2016 Pantone Color(s) of the Year.

Any of these lavender hues would be my pick.

Drum roll please...Pantone has announced the 2016 color of the year and it is actually two colors; Rose Quartz (pink ) and Serenity (lavender-blue). Together, they naturally blend, creating an ombre effect of blushy-pink to powdery-blue.  While it may look, to some people at first glance, that Pantone just could not decide between the two, in my mind, they blend together, almost transforming into an iridescent lavender.  In fact, I've seen both of these hues many times before--fresh out of the lavender field here at Blooming Hill and absorbed into the purple haze where the many shades of soft lavender and pale pink grow in abundance.

Looks like Rose Quartz to me.

So, Pantone calls these two shades Rose Quartz and Serenity.  I call them just two of the many shades of lavender that brighten my summertime love.  No matter what you may want to call these shades of  "pinky-bluey" lavender inspired by Mother Nature, Rose Quartz and Serenity reflect a innocent and tranquil auras, hearkening to beauty within and bringing these colors out into the light.

 

 Lavandula x intermedia 'Provence', budding in blue but will soon
turn lovely lavender at it's peak bloom.

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Rows of pink dusty pink Lavandula angustifolia  'Melissa'.

Rose Quartz and Serenity?  It's really a patch of
soft pink and hazy blue lavender that comes with
a tangy sweet fragrance enhancing the beauty of
intermingled colors even more.

Serenity in the form of Lavandula angustifolia 'Blue Cushion', a
beautiful smal lavender that reflects the color of a sunny
summer sky.

Rose Quartz as only Lavandula angustifolia
'Coconut Ice' can portray.

Summertime rhapsody in Rose Quartz and Serenity blending harmoniously together
in one of my favorite varieties, Lavandula angustifolia 'Rebecca Kay'.

So, this is where I see Rose Quartz and Serenity--in the colors of a lavender field that stretch out into other garden beds, the trees and even the Blue Ridge farther afield.  Where do you see these Pantone colors for 2016? Look around.  Even on the coldest, bleakest, darkest days of winter, I think you will see them, too.

The Language of Christmas Flowers

A Christmas angel in repose

Frosty's hat.  Maybe he doesn't need it in this warm Christmas weather we are experiencing right now in Northern Virginia.

It's Christmas Week and deeply rooted into the story of the birth of Jesus is a bouquet of well-loved holiday greenery and winter bloomers bringing the winter outdoors inside.  Few things can stir our holiday imaginings more than the swirling scents of fresh baked cookies, roaring fires, earthy pine trees and evergreen boughs at this time of the year and the list of plants and flowers woven into the Christmas Story is vast and steeped in legend and tradition. Here are a few of my favorite Christmas greens for decorating and a little of the special meaning they each bring to this season of love and celebration.

First, at the center of most indoor holiday decorations is the beautiful Christmas Tree, shining brightly, perfumed in pine and bedecked in simple to elaborate ornaments and trimmings.  Aside from presents on Christmas morning it may also be sheltering a peaceful manger scene, complete with shepherds and farm animals or a whimsical choo-choo train circling endlessly while huffing and puffing under the prickly boughs. Outside, the December air is crisp with the fresh scent of winter, whether it's emanating from a palm tree or giant Frazier fir, depending on where one lives. Trees have for centuries, stood as symbols of regeneration and life and there are several legends associated with the beginning of the Christmas tree, itself. One of the most popular stories comes from the 10th Century where it was believed that on the night Jesus was born, all the trees flowered and bore fruit, even if they were covered in ice and snow.  Thus, decorating a Christmas tree became an obvious choice in celebration and remembrance of the Jesus' birth by Christians all over the world.

While forcing cherry blossoms indoors in springtime is quite common, in many parts of Europe, branches plucked off of CHERRY TREES and brought inside at the beginning of Advent, can often bloom by Christmas, reflecting the miraculous birth of Christ.  These blossoms are reminders that even in the coldest and darkest of days, the regeneration of light and life is not far behind.  In English folklore, the HAWTHORNE TREE is important as it blooms twice a year; in the spring and also around the Day of Epiphany, making it meaningful to the original Journey of the Magi.

Freshly cut romantic and magical mistletoe.

Looking beyond the grand tree, standing gloriously as a showpiece in the front window of many homes, other plants and flowers have also become associated and bound together in a literary holiday wreath through centuries of well-loved Christmas legends, stories and songs. Take for instance, MISTLETOE, the symbol of healing and goodwill and long thought to have the power to make peace as well as the power to make merry.  Friends and family reconcile under it, often hanging mistletoe as a greeting from the top of a doorway.  Legend holds that "if you steal a kiss underneath it, your love will burn for many Christmas days."

My friend's kitty, Piper, seems captivated by magnolia leaves waiting to be arranged in a Christmas centerpiece.  I'm thinking Piper wants to be in the centerpiece, too.

There is little that evokes the smell of wintertime more than beautiful BOXWOOD with it's own fresh, strong scent that some may or may not like, others come to like and others still, will always love. Boxwood, clipped into neat and tidy trees, perfectly coiffed wreaths or standing free form in the garden is a symbol of constancy, strength and most importantly, love.  Other than it's ability to stay green, fluffy and fragrant, inside or out, there isn't much that associates this sturdy cultivar to the Christmas Story.  But, few things are prettier than boxwood, coupled with leathery, soulful MAGNOLIA leaves, in a Christmas arrangement of your own making.

Then, there is  HOLLY, the quintessential Christmas plant, memorialized in a famous carol. Since the age of early Rome, holly has been revered as a plant that brings courage to many and is considered a strong defense against evil, which, I'm sure, made it a highly prized gift. With the rise of Christianity, holly became a powerful symbol of Christ's life, representing his blood, his purity and his crown of thorns as well as his agony on the cross. Where there is holly, there is also the ever-clinging dark green of IVY, another favorite for decorating as it was once thought to be the female counterpart to the masculine holly. Together, through the ages, they oversee the running of the entire household at Christmastime.

One of Christmas' most popular plants, and an absolute favorite of mine, partly because of its heady and piney fragrance, is ROSEMARY, also known as one of the sacred plants of Mary, Mother of Jesus.  The story goes that Mary used the bush to dry Jesus' swaddling clothes.  Another story tells that the original tiny flowers of the bush were white (yet, some varieties of rosemary still produce white flowers and others produce pink flowers) but turned purple after Mary laid her purple robe on it while resting, during their flight out of Egypt with the newborn Jesus.  In any case, rosemary is also known for it's memory enhancing properties and makes a lovely addition to the Christmas bouquet.

POINSETTIAS and CHRISTMAS ROSES add color and delicacy to the emerald and ruby shades of the Advent Season, blooming in soft whites, deep creams, dusty pinks and vermilion reds. Native to Central America, poinsettias were once known as the "Flower Of The Holy Night" because it was believed that a young shepherd boy presented a bloom to the Baby Jesus the night of his birth. On the flip side of that, in Europe, a similar legend tells of a young shepherd girl who found roses in her path, left by angels.  She brought these white flowers that resemble real roses, but were really hellebores (an evergreen winter flowering perennial) to the Christ Child the night of his birth and left them as a gift.  Today, the Christmas Rose is still loved as it blooms twice a year; once in the early spring and again in the middle of winter.  Both bloom times occur around Easter Sunday and the Day of Epiphany.

The bay tees and myrtle trees of Blooming Hill keeping warm and cozy and helping to make our petite greenhouse one of my favorite places all through the winter.

Lady's Bedstraw.

Still, there are more plants and trees to add to the potpourri of Christmas. The ornamental, shrubby tree, the BAY LAUREL is an ancient symbol of triumph, glory and joy and, to this day, signifies to many, Christ's triumph over death--which makes this an important plant at Easter, too.  A little known delicate and grassy herb, called LADY'S BEDSTRAW was thought to be part of the manger hay where the Baby Jesus laid. Once he was taken out of the manger, the bed straw bloomed in a yellow haze of tiny flowers.

Finally, I can't forget the familiar scents of cloves, cinnamon and citrus swirled together with all of the above to evoke the spirit of the season by helping to feed our souls while we gather together to celebrate with the ones we love.  Merry Christmas to you, and have the happiest of Happy Holidays! Enjoy the holiday greenery that is everywhere and appreciate their messages of rebirth, joy, love, faith and hopefully, one day, peace. See you in the New Year.

(Writer's note:  The photo of Christmas potpourri came from Pinterest and the photos of mistletoe and ivy/mixed green bouquet and Lady's Bedstraw were taken from royalty free stock images on the internet.)