Arums - Cloak of Silver-white

W&N watercolours on Daler-Rowney 300gsm

Arums in my garden

Unfurl your cloak of silken white
Reveal your secret wand upraised at length
And not unlike a star you shine serene
To exalt the autumn-tide with silver cups*.
- Unknown

White or common Arum Lily (English); Wit varkoor (Afrikaans). The striking arum lily “flower” is actually many tiny flowers arranged in a complex spiral pattern on the central column (spadix). The tiny flowers are arranged in male and female zones on the spadix. The top 7cm are male flowers and the lower 1.8cm are female. If you look through a hand-lens, you may see the stringy pollen emerging from the male flowers which consist largely of anthers. The female flowers have an ovary with a short stalk above it, which is the style (where the pollen is received).

These plants are native to Southern Africa from South Africa north to Malawi. The botanical name is Zantedescia aethiopica and is also known as Calla lilies.

Waiting for the Dandelions

Ink sketch and colour wash on Bockingford 300gsm

Can’t wait to see the Dandelions again…

We've had our first summer rains, and lots of it, and summer is in full swing. Now I'm just waiting for the Dandelions to appear again... So far I’ve only got 3 in my garden and it’s a delight to see the butterflies around them.

Thought : Maybe I can make a corner for just Dandelions? Smiling!

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The Dragonfly and the Daisy

 Black ink sketch on Bockingford

After spending several years under water in fresh water, the Naiad (Dragonfly larvae, about 2cm in length) emerges, crawling up a plant stalk, usually at night, as a fully grown Dragonfly (order Odonata). They may be on the wing for just a few days or weeks and are fast, agile fliers, sometimes migrating across oceans, and are often found near water. I’ve watched them emerging from my wildlife pond many a time and am always amazed at the beauty that comes from such a voracious (and ugly!) little predator, capable of catching small fish twice their size.

Evening Primrose

Mixed media of W&N watercolour and candle wax on Bockingford 300gsm

I wanna be
the mild fragrance
of an evening primrose
gentle and sweet
beneath your sheet
cluster of petals
which bloom
white blossoms
to wither softly
into your sleep
— unknown

The Poppy

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm
Poppies in a friend’s garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

High on a bright and sunny bed
A scarlet poppy grew
And up it held its staring head,
And thrust it full in view.
Yet no attention did it win,
By all these efforts made,
And less unwelcome had it been
In some retired shade.
Although within its scarlet breast
No sweet perfume was found,
It seemed to think itself the best
Of all the flowers round,
From this I may a hint obtain
And take great care indeed,
Lest I appear as pert and vain
As does this gaudy weed.
~ By Jane Taylor

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Cosmos in December

 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Here in South Africa we know Christmas is near when the Hydrangeas and Cosmos start flowering – Every March and November respectively our countryside explodes with colour when pretty pink and white cosmos flowers bloom in early autumn and then again in late summer. They grow easily in the soil at the side of the roads disturbed by the road scrapers widening the verges. This year the Cosmos are a bit late as the road crews have not been around yet.

Hope you had a lovely festive season!

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Summer beauties

W&N watercolour on a back-ground painted with coffee in a Bockingford 300gsm sketch-pad

A clump of Shasta daisies, growing at the rubbish hole on our property after I had removed old plants from my garden. I discovered them during a walk on the property and these little die-hards just seem to have no end!

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Such Geraniums!

Such geraniums! It does not become us poor mortals to be vain—but, really, my geraniums!
- Mary Mitford, ‘Our Village’

Memory sketch – W & N watercolours on Bockingford 300gsm – 8″ × 12″

Geraniums in a tall Everite pot that I used to have in my previous garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa), from the days before Asbestos was banned in South Africa in 2008. These pots were extremely popular in South Africa and had a perfect surface for painting, either with PVA or enamel paints. Painted with PVA, they would weather into a lovely vintage look, getting more beautiful as time passed. I’m just wondering what the company Everite produces now….?

Asbestos once accounted for three percent of the value of South Africa’s minerals. South Africa was previously the fifth largest supplier of chrysotile, produced 97% of the world’s crocidolite and 100% of all amosite.

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Pink mums

“Why don’t you get a haircut? You look like a chrysanthemum.” 

- P. G. Wodehouse

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

I’ve just bought some potted Chrysanthemums from Woolworths, and I don’t know why I do this, because I never have much luck with their potted plants I buy! What I HAVE discovered is that there are Mums and there are HARDY mums, and obviously the potted variety for sale in pots are NOT the hardy variety! So planting them in the garden, like I usually do after they’ve finished flowering, is a useless exercise. This one will therefore just stay in-doors and I’ll enjoy it until it expires!

The chrysanthemum is the November birth flower, which means with love and cheerfulness. The hidden meaning of this beautiful flower is you’re a wonderful friend. Although Chrysanthemums are native to Asia and north-eastern Europe, they are widely grown all over the world.

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Arum Beauty

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 

Arum lilies in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

What could be more beautiful than a creamy white arum lily – whether in your garden, a pot, or the wild? Arum lilies (Zantedeschia) are native to southern Africa from South Africa north to Malawi and grow well in full sun near water, but prefer a semi-shaded environment when there’s no permanent water nearby.

The faintly scented flowers attract a multitude of crawling insects and bees, which pollinate the flowers in exchange for food, each one in its own way. The white crab spider, for instance, visits the flower to eat the insects. It does not spin webs, but makes good use of its paleness as an effective camouflage in the spathe.

Pocupines are crazy about the large rhizomes and will savagely destroy whole colonies of arum lilies. The good thing is that thanks to this brutal pruning, the plants regenerate fresher than ever with the most amazing flowers. It’s worth the massacre!

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