Roundhill Flower and Garden Club

Our April demonstrator was Jean Fordham, (Newthorpe – Notts/Derbys), known as ‘The Hat Lady’ in light of fascinators she wears whilst demonstrating.
Returning for a third visit, her title was ‘The Diversity of Wood’, creating floral designs set in / themed on, different ways wood features in our environment.
The first depicted ‘A Walk in the Woods’. In two parts, the upper arrangement sat beneath an appliquéd screen of bound twigs with fabrics, wool and pheasant feathers hinting at paths, streams, grassy banks and wildlife. An elliptical structure of interwoven twigs held a cluster of fir cones to one end, wheat flowing over the other, yellow ranunculus, cream roses and pink tulips filled the centre, with pussy willow and ears of wheat. Foliage was a mixture of conifers.
The lower placement consisted of a horizontal design representative of water, with moss, ivy, and aspidistra covering the floral foam, twisted willow across the top, plus clusters of pale pink roses, fir cones, and blue eryngium. Swirls of blue metallic wire indicated sunlight.
Owls nesting in hollows of trees were represented. A carved-out teak dish held a base of conifer sprays from which came tall stems of pussy willow to the centre surrounded by white bouvardia, with white carnations lower down. Flexible whips curved from the base into the centre, giving a segmented appearance. Two white pottery owls perched on a large piece of gnarled trunk used as an accessory.
Bamboo, with its vastly differing uses, was portrayed via three thick poles of mature stems in varying heights. The tallest had fresh bamboo foliage placed into their hollow tops, plus decorative swags of cream and orange gerbera, purple iris, fir cones, clipped palms, conifer, and curled aspidistra tied to the front. The shortest held a bouquet of cerise gerbera plus purple iris. Beside these, a circular arrangement had fresh bamboo at its centre surrounded by peach gerbera plus white chrysanthemums, the national flower of Japan where there are famous bamboo groves. Curled, twisted aspidistra based the design.
A sunflower carved into a wooden plaque was the inspiration for a parallel design. The mahogany colour of the carving’s mount was replicated by mahonia leaves sprayed dark red, whilst columns of purple iris, white carnation, and green cymbidium orchid (with dark throats), conifer and fatsia mirror-imaged to either side the container.
Woodchip, in this case covering an urn, continued the theme. An all-round design consisted of kentia palms (given a hint of purple by spray paint), fatsia leaves, cerise/white roses, cerise gerbera, and completed by delicate fountain grass.
Wood in religious symbolism was represented by two intricately carved panels, (with painted facial images), see picture, mounted vertically to suggest ‘totem’ poles. Black and yellow feathers topped the larger, whilst a tropical multi-coloured floral design sat above and below the smaller, with ivy trails meandering between. White roses, cream gerbera, purple iris, orange gerbera, yellow alstromeria, and hot red anthurium were interspersed with camellia, aspidistra and fatsia foliage. Red and black midelino sticks swirled between them.