EARTH SMOKE, CHINA TOWN
APRIL
Ceramic urn in speckled tobacco glaze
Medium kenzan
Chicken wire
Earthsmoke (Fumaria officinalis)
Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum)
Persian Lily (Fritillaria persica, ‘Green Dreams’ & ‘Minaret’)
Pittosporum (Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Silver Queen’)
Pointed Petal Fritillary (Fritillaria acmopetala)
Tulip (Tulipa ‘China Town’, Ridgedale’, ‘Purple Doll’)
The tulips are flowering thick and fast in the garden now, protected from the buffeting spring winds in the balmy warmth of a covered tunnel. We’ve been trialling a lot of new varieties this year alongside some old favourites and there’s a combination of both in this shapely spring urn arrangement. We adore ‘China Town’ for her exquisite shell-pink petals feathered with streaks as though someone has drunkenly taken a paintbrush to them loaded with apple green paint. ‘Purple Doll’ is new to us - exceptional - and, though I’ve rather gone off the double peony-shaped tulips lately in favour of the smaller species varieties, ‘Ridgedale’ is making me think twice… The colours are pretty sexy… copper, crimson, brown, tan - a solid dark focal that blends well with the dusky plums and purples of the fritillaries; here I (rather greedily) used three varieties of Fritillaria persica, removing plenty of leafage to avoid them overcrowding one another AND the daintier humbug-striped bells of Fritillaria acmopetala in a staggered line formation through the middle, making the most of their excellent stem length.
But perhaps the real hero (heroine?) of this arrangement is the humblest of common weeds - earthsmoke (Fumaria officianalis) which crops up here and there around the garden and particularly likes the warmth of the tunnels. This is a good example of the way the garden is intrinsic to how we design, and in a way, we are just plagiarising what nature does so brilliantly and randomly of its own accord - the earthsmoke had self sown among the ‘Ridgedale’ tulips (“leave them, don’t weed them out!” we say to Johnny) to make a delicious vignette. The feathery leaves work so well with those of the other foliages - all a cool, silvery green - and contrast with those of the honeysuckle, which have a warm brown flush to them that links neatly back to the smoky fritillaries. And there’s another nice conversation going on between the ‘China Town’ tulips and the Pittosporum, both blushing with streaks of palest pink.