I have just been explaining in writing how to stitch a pretty little pansy design to the members of The Cross Stitch Guild (we send a magazine to members five times a year full of cross stitch patterns). I get to do the designing, so I get to choose what I stitch.
Pansies and Violas are probably my favourite flowers, and they are certainly the easiest to grow.
My personal treasures are the two or three-colour viola shapes rather than the larger blousy pansies and I usually grow them from seed. Some years ago, my chum Jenny and I spent a day at Perch Hill, Sarah Raven’s HQ. Lunch was delicious and the salad was covered in viola petals – as I result, I have them in the veg beds as well as in pots in our courtyard.
Now about pots, by this I mean hand-thrown Victorian pots sometimes referred to as ‘long toms’. These are becoming harder to find and, in some cases, very costly but they are out there, and I have been collecting them.
Recently Bill and I combined looking after our granddaughter with visiting Helianthus, a remarkable antique and bric-a-brac venue out in the Worcestershire countryside. There were lovely old pots galore. The only difficulty was deciding how many I needed! I do think they look lovely in groups and even on the old ladder steps in the courtyard.
Talking of the courtyard, this year I have left it to go native and am planning to have a major reorganisation when Bill and I get back from our holiday. Partly due to the dreadfully wet spring, pressure of work and – most important of all – the number of bird’s nests, it has reverted to an overgrown muddle. I have been planting pots and baskets ready to arrange them once I have used the machete! Pictures to follow…
