Although our late winter landscape may appear barren, the first new buds are beginning to appear. Trees, shrubs and flower stems are slowly shrugging off their winter blues, just waiting for the life-giving spring rain and warmer days to carry us all into a new season. But what can we do when neither a flower nor a bloom has awakened to spread its scent and colour throughout our homes?
Search no further than the magnificent spread of foliage that is always available and can look stunning when arranged artistically in a container. The early new leaf colour of the eucalypt, arrayed in bright red will eventually darken to become its olive green leaf , yet a single branch, displaying all its colours, creates a beautiful table decoration.
Stones, timber pieces, gum nuts and pine cones combine well with native plants to create a pot-pourri of textures and colours. Even something as simple as a collection of leaves and branches from the same tree, arranged in a striking vase, can lift the decor of a room. Many of my nature-loving friends carry garden secatures in their cars, to harvest the interesting greenery growing near the roadside. There is often great beauty in these plants that generally remain unnoticed, bypassed or unloved.
While we wait patiently for spring flowers to appear, nature still provides the materials with which to create an attractively decorated home. Branches and leaves displayed together in unusual containers also ‘do the trick,’ so head outside and become a creative foliage collector.
Next blog post entered on 2nd September.
Our wisteria, which covers much of the chook shed and yard, is just about to burst forth. Wonderful – and this one is completely wild!
Wisteria is just so gorgeous. Lucky you!
Foliage is always lovely when flowers are few. Do you have to worry about ants? When I tried to bring flowers and foliage into my sister’s house in Far North Queensland, the ants came too.
Ants can be troublesome, so I shake the foliage as much as I can, then give them a quick dip in a laundry tub filled with water. This usually takes care of them.
I will try that next time I am with my sister.
People here love the Spanish moss, and try never to collect any that has touched the ground because of chiggers, ants, and so on. But just to be sure, many of my friends microwave it for a few seconds. Goodbye, creepy-crawlies.
Microwave……..another trick to try although the little ants which visit my sister’s house actually hang out in the microwave and always seem to survive repeated microwaving episodes. Quite extraordinary really.
Great idea, Linda, about microwaving foliage. I don’t seem to discover many ants, so perhaps a good shake and a dunk is enough to take care of them.
Lovely foliage…. creative arrangements, Mary. Wonderful colours too! 🙂
Thanks for your comment. Foliage can be exciting to work with.
I also enjoy the other end of the life cycle. Seed pods, grasses, and bare branches can be delightful. Even better, they don’t fade, or have to be replaced. I have some red dogwood branches I cut from a Minnesota ditch many years ago. They’re still red, and still a beautiful reminder of that visit.
Linda, I remember the dogwood tree from my own childhood. Amazing how branches and seed pods will last, some for years and years. The foliage is generally only seasonal or annual and the flowers have the shortest life of all.