Sharing a love of Dolls House Miniatures - and making time for other creative crafts and the garden.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

A Glorious Miniature Flower......... and a collapsing arch

We  did indeed have a heatwave - PHEW - the roses came out, looked lovely, went over,  and the strawberries fruited and finished in under a fortnight - so none for Wimbledon! Now things have changed yet again .....

Actually my entire purpose in this blog is to flag up the fact that my Gloriosa Lily in the conservatory is looking wonderful - BUT, more importantly to urge you all to rush over to Ilona's blog
http://minimumloon.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/hittegolf-heat-wave.html to see the most fantastic, wonderful delicate representation of the same plant in 1/12th scale.  Truly this lady has magic in her fingers! I run out of superlatives each time I see her newest blog. Thanks for being such an inspiration Ilona.

This is my real life Gloriosa Lily - now take a look at Ilona's
Out in the garden the heatwave came to a dramatic end with high winds and rain - to be fair the ground was desperate for rain - our rose arch, already ancient and wobbly has almost collapsed and resembles a flowery tunnel into a secret garden.
A big pruning operation will be necessary very soon but I've been rather too keen with the secateurs later and sprained  the old dodgy wrist............not 'appy.


The Rose is Veilchenblau, a really old rose introduced in the late 1800s.  We first came across it in an old garden established in 1900 that we inherited, and it's been in our gardens ever since as we love it. It's still readily available and is a proper trouper - this one is also climbing high into the nearby conifer along with American Pillar and a clematis.

Back to miniatures next time as I show you the little treasures found at a car boot sale and Antique Fair.

Thank you for looking
Robin

3 comments:

elizabeth s said...

Hi Robin!
Last year I experienced a large climbing rose collapsing after a major windstorm too and had to remove the entire plant as a result. Sad when that happens but with the hot weather over here too, yet another climber of mine has had to be severely cut back and held in check because the bulk and weight of it blocked off the side entrance to the house- it was MONSTROUS!
However, it was a single bloomer and so I waited to let the bees completely drink their fill before I had to hack it back.
Seeing your photo of the rose clambering up the conifer, I think is beautiful too. Even though you can barely see the roses from the ground, you KNOW that they're there! ;D

AND I couldn't agree with you more about Ilona's mini Gloriosa Lilies- she is a MASTER at her craft bar none!

Ilona said...

Hi Robin! How sad that the arch, which supports your gorgeous, old rose, broke by the heavy winds and storm after the heat wave. This rose is unknown for me, but it's gorgeous, just as your real Gloriosa is!! At your picture I can see the rose climbing into the conifer, but I didn't know that climbing roses could get THAT far up into a tree! Ah, one is never old enough to learn, isn't it ;)?
I hope that your sprained wrist will heal very soon, it's always anoying for being not able to do things you have to do, or like to do when one is injured.
Thank you for your compliment and for your kind words about my Gloriosa, I'm very honored! For me there's still enough to explore in making miniature plants and flowers, and I love challenges. But still not every plant/flower can be made, there are absolutely limits to my capability, because all flowers/plants are mostly made out of silkpaper and floral wire. From the wire I would love to find some more thin wire, but it seems that it's only for sale in Japan and very hard to find here in The Netherlands in craftshops, or on the miniatures fairs..... Anyway, thank you so much for writing about my Gloriosa!
Kind regards, Ilona xx

Robin said...

Two of my favourite artisans! I'm flattered - thanks for looking ladies.
As we share a love of plants you clearly can see that it is going to have to be the BIG hack-back any moment now. This is also single flowering so it's technically a rambling rather than a climbing rose and as Elizabeth says, they can be monstrous! Lovely but HUGE. We're hoping to save the part going into the tree while being drastic with the main plant. Just hope the arch doesn't actually fall down in the process.
As to the wire Ilona - had you thought of using very fine fuse wire or de-stranding brass picture wire? You'd have to paint it or cover it but it might be finer? Looking forward to seeing more wonderful work from you both.
Rx