Flowers

'I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers' said master Impressionist Claude Monet and I have to admit that I'm beginning to see his point.

I wouldn't say it has been a revelation, for everyone loves flowers (don't they??) but I am amused and a little bit delighted by how much time I spend thinking about which seeds to plant and bushes to buy to indulge my new found passion. Because, naturally, I want to grow my own.

A couple of events brought me to this, firstly meeting two special ladies both of whom study floristry and talked me, somewhat reluctantly, into attending my first - and only (to date) class and also an article in 'Country Living' magazine all about growing British cutting flowers.

I adore the idea of growing my own beautiful blousy peonies and roses, gypsophila, fever few, Michaelmas daisies, cosmos and so on. All very much cottage garden flowers.

A long time ago, I lived in a pretty white cottage which boasted the most unique cottage garden; secret corners bursting with hollyhocks, foxgloves, lupins and delphiniums during the summer months. I was too young and unworldly to realise its full delight but none the less, enjoyed late spring afternoons planting up pots of geraniums and lobelia and growing seedlings in the old wood framed greenhouse. I simply didn't appreciate it. And now, as I strive to decide whether or not to apply for an allotment or just fill my garden with flowers, I look back to those days.

But, back to my floristry: the product of my first lesson was a delicate bird cage decorated with pinks, whites and purples (don't ask me for the names of the flowers!). The idea was to hang it from the damson tree, which dominates my garden, on warm sun filled days, of which we've been lucky to enjoy this spring.

My second foray into floristry was to just get on with it, nip to the local florist to buy blooms, strip my garden of foliage, which is plentiful thankfully, and make the best of sticking bits of leaves into green foam (oasis, as they call it) Now, I will never be a pro, I simply don't have the dedication or type of perfectionism required of the medium but I do thoroughly enjoy it. My more knowledgeable friends call my style 'loose' (!) I prefer rustic. And so, another hobby beckons but at least it will make my garden much improved and bring a little of the countryside into my home. What could be better than that?