15 January 2008

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day: January


Once again it's time for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, brought to us by every garden blogger's friend, Carol at May Dreams Garden. Now, given that we here in Scotts Bay are back in the Fro-zone (a chuckle for anyone who loved The Incredibles as much as I did!) there's perishing little to show off in terms of blooms outdoors. And while we still have plenty of flower festivities happening indoors, I showed them all to you in December's edition. So whatever could I use for blooms in January?


How about a little of my indoor blooms that last all year round? We have quite a bit of interesting floral-motif artwork and such throughout the house, especially in my office, since I spend so much time in there. But this leather sunflower scupture, which is about 3 feet tall, blooms on the wall in our living room. A local leatherworker created this for me, and he does freestanding leather flowers as well as pictures and sculptures like this.


Suzanne Craig is a very talented gardener and artist living near Mabou, in Cape Breton. She does photos and other items using her unique printing method, but what I really like is her switchplates and socket plates. This one is of seaweed, but I also have ones with violets, poppies, and other flowers, in various places around the house.


A young woman who took the Horticulture program at Kingstech made this sculpture of copper echinaceas for me a couple of years ago. Sometimes I think I might take the copper cleaner to them, or at least to the petals, but haven't done so yet. Pretty unique, aren't they?


Allan Banks is a daylily grower here in Nova Scotia, and does these wonderful ceramic tiles of some of the daylily cultivars in his garden. He also makes jellies and vinegars using daylily flowers, but I haven't tried those yet.


While I take a lot of photos and get some of them blown up and framed, I also enjoy other people's work, both photography and painting. The blue poppy painting was custom done for me, while the gladiola photo and painting are fundraisers from Marg's Glad Garden, which I've written about in several magazines, including Reader's Digest. Oh, and there are those wonderful beeswax flowers, too.


This is a wonderful collage of real flowers, placed on a flatbed scanner and used to create a 'painting'. It was done by a woman in Prince Edward Island, but she doesn't seem to still be in business. That's a pity, because her work is really beautiful, and I'd hoped to add a few more to my collection.


I don't grow gladiolas, but every year I buy the fundraiser painting or photo from Marg's Glad garden when I go to see Murray and the garden. Usually there are many happy hummingbirds zipping around the garden, and they make ME happy. The other two pictures in this shot are from a science trip made with the Canadian Coast Guard ships Hudson and Alfred Needler in October of 2005; I took many of the photos, (at least, those on ship or from the zodiac, not the underwater photos) and one of the digital wizards on the trip made up posters for all of us.


Okay, I realize that these aren't flowers, as such. They are, though, fabric flowers as far as I'm concerned, because they're bursting with colour and joy. They're the work of a very talented fibre artist in Bear River, Nova Scotia, Zoe Knorek-Onysko of Oddacity Designs. Her eye for colour and pattern and joy shows up in everything she does, whether its her twice-dyed silk scarves, cosmic cat pillows (like these two), tea cosies, purses, or dresses, jackets and other clothing. I always enjoy visiting her studio, although I don't get there very often, and invariably something comes home with me.

So that will have to do for this bloom day! I'll look forward to seeing what others have blooming this month.

26 comments:

  1. We have some wooden sunflowers that stay flat against the wall like those leather ones.-They came with our house and always thought them to be interesting.

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  2. Very unique post for bloom day! We gardeners will surround ourselves with 'flowers' any way we can, won't we?

    I especially like the echinacea sculpture and the big scan picture.

    Carol, May Dreams Gardens

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  3. Jodi, what a fun and creative January Bloom Day post! I love having pictures of flowers around the house especially during the winter months.

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  4. Jodi:

    That is a creative post and very enjoyable! Blooms they are!

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  5. Jodi, those copper echinaceas are so unique. I love those! Great idea for a post for Bloom Day!

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  6. Oh... I like Zoe's work and the scanner painting/photography very interesting stuff. You found a lot of nice things indoors.

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  7. Spectacular jodi. This is a fantastic post for GBBD and certainly unique. I would echo Carol's love of your echinaceas. That might be the only way I'll ever get to see them at my house as well - lol.

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  8. Great post! Those cat faced pillows are lovely. Thanks for the tour of your walls!

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  9. Love the ice flowers on the window Jodi, they remind me of my childhood when we didn't have double glazing or much insulation either. It's great to see that flowers play a big role indoors as well, sometimes in very unexpected places too. Love the copper Echinaceas and the very colourful cosmic cat pillows of course. ;-)

    At Bliss there're indoor and outdoor blooms to be admired.

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  10. I especially like the copper echinacea! Nice patina -- I'm not sure I'd polish them as I like them the way they are.

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  11. Love all your indoor blooms Jodi. I might have to use this as an inspiration for my February GBBD.

    I specially like the switch plates and copper echinaceas. Mentioning the daylily jam reminds me that I have threatened to have a brunch when my daylilies are in full bloom and serve some chicken salad in a bloom. Wouldn't that be a fun presentation of lunch.??

    Happy GBBD.

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  12. Hi Jodi..
    Flowers are our best friends..
    It doesn't matter, if they bloom in the garden, bought in the flowershop, printed, sculptured or
    come in any other shape and form. Except plastic flowers you can see at the cemetry or buy at a cheap dollar store.
    cheers Gisela
    http://guildwood.blogspot.com

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  13. It was fun to see your Bloom Day offerings, Jodi. My favorite of all is your image of the "frost flowers" at the very top. It's absolutely exquisite!

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  14. Using these floral works of art for your mid-January post just proves you really are a creative "Bloomingwriter", Jodi!

    But I'd keep those coneflowers under lock and key, especially if Pam/Digging gets a hankering to explore coastal Canada!

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

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  15. Uh, Annie, I live closer to Jodi so I'll get there to steal them before Pam. They're MINE! Bwaaahaaaahaaa!!

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  16. That scanned floral art work is amazing! Those colors are so fantastic. I definitely would not remove the patina from those tres cool Echinaceas, unless you cleaned just the petals & left the cones dark. Thanks for this fun, alternative Bloom Day post.

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  17. Cool post for bloom day. Blooms were pretty scarce around here today, and I don't have eight inches of snow. Love your blog. You really do deserve the award.

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  18. At first glance, I thought the sunflower sculpture was made out of copper - but leather? That's amazing!

    All of your flower artwork is gorgeous. A fun and creative Bloom Day post indeed!

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  19. This was an interesting take on GBBD ... I like the cat pillows the best.

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  20. Artist in residence it seems ! What a wonderful bloom day posting, Jodi.

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  21. Cats pillows are soo sweet :)
    and also copper echinacea is great.

    Most amazing is first photo :)
    Greetings,

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  22. Go Jodi! Great "alternative" post for cold weather blooming. I hope you stay warm there. I'd send some of our Austin weather up to you if I could, but you may find it a little wacky.

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  23. Great alternative to use the leather sculpture. i will have to save a marquetry piece for when I don't have things in bloom.

    I have pansies, violas, and johnny jump-ups in bloom. You can see some samples on zenofwatering.com

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  24. This is a unique bloom day post. I like it! Your garden art provides a lovely view when the garden is buried under snow.

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  25. Good to hear from you all....and if I haven't managed to make it to your bloom day post (where applicable) I will sometime this week! Doin' the deadline dash here, and have some articles by others to edit and factcheck for one of the publications I work for, so that's gonna eat up some time too.

    It was fun doing this post this way, as much as I loved seeing the real blooms (indoors and out) of others, I'd also love to see what you have for garden themed art (like that gorgeous plate of Gisela @ Guildwood Gardens; see blog sidebar for her address as I can't figure out how to put a live link in comments. Maybe next month some of our other northern-bloggers will do a garden art bloom day--or why wait til then? Anytime's a good time, right?

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  26. Jodi, thanks for stopping by! This is a fun take on Bloom Day. I love all your flower art! The switch plates are a neat idea and like all the others, I love your copper coneflowers.
    And I adore the cat pillows! Enjoyed seeing your cat children too :)

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