Botticelli's Jewel
What the? What sort of a name is that for a garden and why?
Well a few summers ago, my daughter asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Being a struggling uni student at the time she wanted to make me something. Now that's the type of gift I value most. I racked my brain and finally the light bulb lit up.
It was around the time of 'The Hobbit', 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Game of Thrones'.
'I'd love you to make me a pirate inspired sepia map of our gardens.'
Being an art student quite at home with computers, Kirby went straight to work. Every map has a key of some sort......so we decided to mark in all the gardens.
We found there was a large area over near the Gargoyle Garden not named so we had a 'brain storming' session there and then. We both felt the name of this garden had to be 'artistic' and quirky. After all it was my daughter the artist making the map for me and I like a bit of whimsy. The the main plants in this unnamed garden were acanthus or oyster bushes. The fun began between us throwing names around like snow balls at a ski lodge. The memory of our banter makes me smile whenever I walk past that garden now we seldom get to see her.
"Oyster bushes.....oysters....pearls come from oysters....Botticelli was a famous Renaissance artist who painted a beautiful lady with long flowing hair standing in a giant oyster shell....That was it. "Botticelli's Jewel."
Oh here is the Christmas gift Kirby gave me. So now all I have to do is continue to nurture this garden and hope that one day it will look truly like a painting. Meanwhile the framed 'pirate' type sepia map Kirby gave me that Christmas still amazes and inspires me whenever I walk past it. Thanks Kirby I hope you read this one day and know that our children are our greatest treasure.
The back of this garden is flanked by an American cotton palm alternating with two white oleanders and a red flowering ficafolia gum tree. This pattern stems the entire length of the northern border of the entire front garden on the east side of the drive way and should look good when they grow.
In the centre of Botticelli's Jewel is a Paulownia tree with a magnolia little gem planted each side.
The under plantings are, of course, acanthus mollis, aswell as pink crinium lillies fronted by burgundy leaved red cannas.