blushing bride

last week i posted a photo of a flower called blushing bride that i'd stumbled across on gracia louise's blog. i had never seen it before, loved it immediately, and had a pretty hard time getting the results i was after by googling "blushing bride" and "flower".

i didn't check back at gracia's blog to see that she'd posted some info about the flowers. we turned up the same stuff:

• blushing bride is serruria florida, from the protea family.


• the common name for the genus serruria is spiderhead


• there are over 50 species native to south africa


• they grow as small evergreen shrubs in dry, nutrient poor soil


• they make great potted plants, and even better cut flowers -- they last 7-10 days, and dry well.

housemartin told me that the blushing brides she'd seen are a lot more pale and less pink than the ones gracia louise posted. turns out that gracia's are actually a variety called sugar and spice, and i think they're the prettiest.

i found nurseries that carry them in england, and australia, but no luck for canada so far...

peonies

garden rooms just posted about how to make peony scented linen spray, and it made me dig up this photo, and wonder "what is this peony?" peonies are one of my top 3 favourite flowers, and this is the best time of year to plant them. and in case you were wondering, tulips and freesias. last may, while in germany visiting hans' family, a guest brought over the most beautiful peonies i'd ever seen. this photo doesn't do them justice at all. they were luminous, and delicate, and looked like a sunset.

since peonies are my mum's favourite too, one of these would be such a nice gift, so i did some digging and it looks like coral sunset. americans can buy them here, and canadians can buy them from this quebec-based nursery. peonies make me wish to someday have a huge, deer-free garden.

wanted (lost found canadian)

trying to find things to write about that others might find interesting on a daily basis is new to me, and a little daunting, not to mention hard to get into the habit of! so this is a photo i took not too long ago. there's my alyson fox drawing, and a jill bliss gocco print, and the little pot is a thrifted find (one of 2) i got for 25 cents, and i got the little plant from great shop in chinatown. it's called wanted (lost found canadian), and i think the owners are real pioneers. they opened shop in about as bad a vancouver location as they could possibly find -- tucked down a side street, one shop in from an alley where junkies shoot up without any effort to conceal their illegal activities, and a half block from the bottle depot, where bottle pickers and bike thieves congregate. that's my neighbourhood, and as depressing as it can often be, it's neighbours like the plant shop owners who make me love it here.

their shop is beautiful, and they carry some pretty unique house plants including fiddlehead figs. i need a bigger home before i can buy one of those. i have to limit my visits there as it is because i already have too many plants. i am going to have to donate some to charity - you can actually do that! the cool thing about these shop owners is that they've really become part of the neighbourhood. their clientèle ranges from people such as myself, to nice old ladies from chinatown, to tenants of single room occupancy hotels. and the bottle pickers will bring them treasures like vintage sleighs, and ploughs and all sorts of weird things you wouldn't expect to find in downtown back alley dumpsters. one of the owners (susan) makes super cute pointy kitties, and other softies, and beautiful pillows made out of recycled wool blankets. it's a great store, so if you're in vancouver and find yourself in chinatown, turn north on columbia off pender and you'll find one of the best shops in town!

ceci n'est pas une souris

i just finished another dachshund, and have added her to my etsy shop if you're interested. her name is mouse and for a little grey dachshund, she looks an awful lot like my black whippet-mix, bowie. bowie looks just like a fruit bat when her ears pop up greyhound-style.

i was reading gracia louise's blog the other day and found a polaroid she'd posted of a strange, but beautiful flower called blushing brides. i had never seen them, or heard of them before, and i'm sure you can imagine that googling "blushing bride" and "flowers" did not yield the results i was hoping for. does anyone have any idea if they're known by another name? i'm usually really good with knowing my plants, but this one has me stumped. i might have to go hunting for them this weekend.

i've been working from home all summer, and while mostly everything about it is great, i've been suffering a bit from cabin fever lately. so yesterday morning i had a meeting with a client at the local coffee shop. i was pretty happy to be out of the house, and got there a little early - just in time to witness a huge fist fight! it was actually more of a clumsy cat fight between 2 slurring drunks. i think that being staggeringly drunk by 9am shows a great deal of commitment. or something... tables were knocked over, faces were scratched, and i retreated into the kitchen to stay out of the way, until finally one guy agreed to give the other guy back the $5 he'd stolen. i didn't think it was possible, but it looks like gastown is taking a turn for the worse(r).