Here are some pictures from a beautiful walk in the Kent countryside. We stumbled upon lots of bluebell woods, apple blossom and wild flower meadows while sheltering from April showers….
Tag Archives: wild flowers
Botanical Patterns and Prints
Clockwise from top left:
Botanical Leather Notebook from Natural History, Teacup and saucer: Botanic Garden (March) from Portmeirion, Meadowland and Wildflower Cornfield Mixed Seeds from Victoria & Albert shop, The Paper Garden: Mrs Delany Begins Her Life’s Work at 72 by Molly Peacock, Suzu Top from Toast, Botanical Etchings Square Tile from Marlborough Tiles, Honzo Zufu [Blue Flower] by Kan’en Iwasaki from Kew Gardens shop.
Westonbirt, The National Arboretum
Westonbirt is located just outside the Cotswold village of Tetbury. Established in the Victorian period it boasts an internationally important tree and shrub collection with almost 16,000 trees from temperate climates across the world.
Autumn is a beautiful time to visit when the trees are in fall but it is also well known for its spectacular rhododendron and magnolia displays in the spring. Find out more about the events taking place at Westonbirt here.
Dear Prudence
Dear Prudence was established by Laura Ruth Vickers in 2009. Laura graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2006 with a Masters in textiles as fashion. After launching her graduate collection at Glasgow fashion week she relocated to London and worked on the prints and graphics at Alexander McQueen and Emma Cook for the spring summer 2009 collections. This led onto freelancing and selling textile prints and illustrations to the likes of Missoni, Vera Wang and Calvin Klein.
Leaving the fashion world behind her Laura has now relocated to the Yorkshire countryside to pursue her new venture, producing unique and stylish greeting cards and prints inspired by the wild life and beautiful surroundings of her new home. Please take a look at some more examples of her work here.
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion
The long dark corridor that opens out into a an internal garden. Plants include the Joe-Pye Weed that attracts bees and other insects to the area.
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2011, © Peter Zumthor, Photograph: John Offenbach
This year’s Serpentine Pavilion has been designed by Peter Zumthor. The Swiss architect’s concept is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. Zumthor has created a beautifully peaceful enclosed space using plants and the wildlife they attract to bring a sense of calm to the busy outside world.
The hortus conclusus pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery , London runs until the 16th October, 2011
Prospect Cottage, Dungeness
Derek Jarman's Garden in Dungeness
Derek Jarman’s former home in Dungeness was this wooden fisherman’s house. The garden is full of local plant life from the Dungeness area, those that thrive well in the expanses of windswept shingle such as lavender, poppies and crambes. There are also sculptures made from found objects around the area, including stones, flints, fishing tackles and metal from old sea defenses. One of my favourite books is Derek Jarman’s Garden which contains some beautiful photographs of the garden by Howard Sooley.
Plants and sculptures in Derek Jarman's Garden
An excerpt from John Donne's poem 'The Sun Rising'
