The Nerines are coming through now from the garden. This week I had the charming company of a grower and arranger from Switzerland for a private class. I was praying Anouchka and the Nerines would coincide because they feel like the ultimate autumnal treat to pass on. Fortuitously the garden gods obliged and we had a few precious stems to play with along with Japanese anemones, nasturtium, garden roses, asters and lots of glittering grasses which are fun to sprinkle and seem to add a bit of glamour at this time of the year.
I always feel autumn is the most glamorous time of the year - perhaps its the novelty of the darkness narrowing in around the edges of the day, the glow of lamplight, the slight chill in the air; it always makes me want to get my act together, sartorially, to dress up a little more, and I find that that also extends to my arrangements, this feeling of adornment, of leaning into the sensual, velvety textures, the smoky gemstone colours. It’s a yearning for cosiness, I suppose (as opposed to the crispness, the lightness of earlier in the summer). And there’s also that sense of urgency that we’re on limited time; there’ll soon be frosts and the days of cutting flowers in the same abundance we’ve grown used to are numbered. The addition of a metallic grass to an arrangement has the same effect of adding jewellery to an outfit - a little sparkle, the dangle of an earring to catch the light…
Nerines are a guernsey lily. We grow a few varieties - this one is Nerine bowdenii ‘Vesta’. You plant them as a bulb and they naturalise, returning every year just when what you’re craving is a frilly, powder pink flower that smells of milk chocolate.
Speaking of gifts, I have a funny story to tell you that I think if you’ve found your way here you’ll probably appreciate. We had a guest on our last workshop of the season named Nancy, and Nancy is into ‘dead stuff’. Botanical dead stuff, I hasten to add! During those two days we noticed that she would nip outside every now and then. At first I thought it was to field calls from Delta Air Lines to arrange her travel back to Colorado following a cancelled flight but then it became clear that, while this may have contributed to her frequent in-and-outs, there was also a spot of urban foraging going on.
Not content that there was quite enough deceased material in the studio to sate Nancy’s appetite, she took it upon herself to scour our backyard and planters for the missing pieces, returning with stems of sunbleached hollyhock (dried to the colour of parchment by the raging temperatures of our long, dry summer) and crispy wisps of wisteria and jasmine vine that tumble over our neighbour’s wall. After the workshop I saved the wisps and put them in a little bottle on the side and this week they were passed onto Anouchka who needed little persuasion that they were a great textural addition to the arrangement she was making (look closely and you’ll spot the bronze tendrils above). But the journey of the crispy wisps didn’t end there, oh no! Because Anouchka’s next stop was the studio of Sarah Statham at Simply by Arrangement in Yorkshire, and so off they went… Perhaps their final resting place will be Sarah’s compost pile but I feel like they’re something she will appreciate beforehand. Who knows, perhaps this could be the beginnings of a secret society for those who appreciate the beauty of the otherwise overlooked - our signal a wisp of dried jasmine vine passed surreptiously along, or tucked into the brim of a very good autumn hat. If you know, you know…
Anyway, I digress once again. Autumn is here and so it’s yes to the metallic grasses, to the guernsey lilies. Yes to the crispy wisps. Yes to all of it. And onwards into October!