Plum and Lily of the Valley - Three Things a Garden Must Have, No Matter How Small
As a garden owner, Plum is really a bit too beautiful. She is tall and slender, with delicate features and flowing clothes. She is a former model and a current florist.
In photography principles, it is often said that when a person appears in the frame, they naturally draw the viewer's gaze, let alone an outstanding little fairy.
So, to keep her from stealing the attention that the plants and scenery deserved, when photographing Plum's garden we first chased her out of the garden.
Plum's garden is made up of two adjacent small balconies and a passageway. The larger one is about ten sq m, the smaller one is only a few sq m, and between them is a narrow passageway no more than half a meter wide. It is fair to say that this garden is truly one of the most miniature ones we have ever seen.
But no matter how small the garden is, it must have a table and chairs.
With a table and chairs comes a human presence, the flavor of life; it is no longer a wild world left to grow and die on its own.
The style of the table and chairs is an expression of the owner's personality. Elegant and refined people, innocent and spontaneous people, and plain and unadorned people all use different tables and chairs.
Coming out from the living room into Plum's garden, directly ahead is a table with two chairs, and opposite there is also a bench.
The table and chairs are white French-style openwork, delicate and exquisite palace style. This style is very common in China, often used in all kinds of wedding scenes and photography studios, but to be honest, it is not easy to use it well.
The most common mistake is placing it on a large green lawn, or setting it out on an open preservative-treated wood deck.
A simple and spacious environment leaves this exquisite classical style completely at a loss, just like exiling a seventeenth-century French noblewoman to an American middle-class courtyard; she would surely be anxious and uneasy.
The right approach is like here: white louvered wall panels and an equally openwork embroidered tablecloth create a relatively enclosed atmosphere, as if one has arrived in a private salon.
Looking out from indoors, the white gauze curtains appear and disappear, the drapes are deep, the lace is fine; only this is a place that gives a noblewoman a sense of security.
If you do not want the garden to turn into a wedding photography set, you also have to be especially careful with the plant arrangement.
Rosa 'Pierre de Ronsard' is too stiff, roses are too wild, and any form of bright red and bright yellow should not appear even more. The reason is simple: in Europe before modern times, roses did not yet have vivid red and yellow.
The roses of that era were only deep pink, light pink, white, and purple.
This one in Plum's home, William and Catherine, blooms round and exquisite. Although it is a 2011 variety, it has the pearl-white color of a classical rose and charming button eyes, and it is named after the wedding of Prince William and Catherine of the United Kingdom.
Next to it is the shell-pink Queen of Sweden; the two potted plants form a pair of royal combinations. Actually, the upright Queen of Sweden is a little too firm; it would be best to have the kind of classical flower shape with slender branches that nods as soon as it opens. But in view of the queen's apt and on-topic name, let us be tolerant of her.
So, no matter how small the garden is, it must have roses.
That is to say, it must have a leading role that is big enough and beautiful enough. Of course, it can also be other plants: peonies, lilies, flowering trees...
Yet when it comes to fragrance, texture, shape, height, and blooming period, if all these major elements can achieve enough presence, the rose is the only choice.
In Plum's garden there are about a dozen or more roses: white, yellow, apricot, orange-pink; no red, no purple, and none of the exaggerated stripes I like. One plant of Free Spirit, known for its softness, is already the most brilliantly colored presence.
The roses are supported with all kinds of ironwork frames, flower gates, and arches; intricate black ironwork patterns or crossed wooden lattice patterns vaguely sketch out a background behind the soft petals.
Perhaps because they are potted, Plum's roses are all very slender, basically without the state of bursting with growth or bursting with blooms. Even 'Princess Margaret', the one most likely to send up shoots and burst open, has only two main branches and no more than a dozen or so flowers, smiling lightly on the branch tips, very much showing the grace of flowers resembling their owner.
Setting off the roses are other small herbaceous flowers: purple violas, smoky-gray lobelia, orange-red nasturtiums, and white sweet alyssum.
There are also ones picked up from who knows where: alpine saxifrage, Spanish lavender, and hellebores.
Each kind of herbaceous flower is in a tiny pot, and their forms are all slender too. Their nutrition cannot be called poor, but it is certainly not excessive. Fortunately so; otherwise, with so many plants crowded into such a small space, if they burst into growth too, they would probably be gasping for breath!
When we finally felt it was time to invite the owner to appear, we found Plum already standing at the terrace doorway smiling, holding her ten-month-old little baby Andiu in her arms.
"Come inside and take a look."
Only then did we realize we had almost missed something important. In the middle of the table were about ten pots of fresh lily of the valley, some with buds about to open, some already in full bloom.
This spring lily of the valley was very popular for a while, and it seems Plum did not miss out either, except that these lily of the valley pots were all wrapped in white lace handkerchiefs, showing the owner's little care.
"I have always loved lily of the valley. Before you came, I found some for sale, so I bought ten pots and waited for you to arrive."
We were all a little overwhelmed by the favor.
The lily of the valley was just before full bloom, and strings of small white flowers appeared exceptionally clear under the slightly dim indoor light.
"I did not expect it to be so suitable for putting at home!"
"Yes, it is so hot today. If it were in the sunlight, it would probably wither very quickly."
German lily of the valley, growing under the forests of Northern Europe, is like a little princess: fragile, sensitive, and intolerant of high temperatures. A cool indoor room is a temporary good home for them before they bloom.
"This time it was a group buy with gardening friends in Wuxi. From shipment from the Netherlands to our receiving it, it took only three days. Fortunately, logistics is so developed now; otherwise, we probably would not be able to see such perfect flowers."
Besides the ones on the table, there was also a small pot of lily of the valley in front of the mirror stand and on the small tea table, decorated with small white crocheted baskets.
Tea snacks had also been set out on the table: handmade cookies and a platter of red, black, and blue berries, but our eyes stayed on the small white flowers of the lily of the valley until we discovered Plum's tea set.
All kinds of lily of the valley patterns. Some with one stem, some with two stems, some with more than ten stems, and some with clusters growing among grass and woods, in all kinds of postures.
"I like lily of the valley and have collected many cups with lily of the valley. Today I finally had a chance to bring them out to use."
I count myself as someone who likes plant patterns, but seeing so many lily of the valley designs from different eras and countries was still a bit shocking. It is only a small white flower, one that would not even be noticed if stepped on, yet it is loved by so many people. What exactly is the reason?
Could it be precisely because of its frail and delicate nature?
I could not help worrying about Plum; with so many lily of the valley, tending them in summer is quite hard work.
The photographer is also a lily of the valley fan. After half an hour of shooting, we repeatedly reminded her that if she did not go out soon, the sunlight would be gone.
"You can go out now!"
The beautiful host Plum finally got the chance to be photographed together with her garden.
When she sat on the flower chair, tasting tea and smiling, the surrounding rose princesses and queens gave off the rich fragrance that only appears at dusk.
On the tea table Plum chose a small pot of alpine saxifrage; its tiny pinnately lobed leaves gently held up star-like small flowers, round with five petals, white with a touch of pink.
Alpine saxifrage, as the name suggests, comes from cold alpine mountains. This species is native to the rock walls of the European Alps, likes coolness, dislikes waterlogging, and is very, very intolerant of heat.
It is even a bit more difficult than lily of the valley. Is it another princess on a pea?
However, no matter how small the garden is, it must have a little princess.
Coming from a distant foreign land, prone to headaches and fevers at any time, it is all the more worrying and frightening. When it rains, you fear it will get wet; when it is sunny, you fear it will get sunburned. You are always worrying, always anxious, always asking and asking: What is wrong with it? Is it okay? Will it do that that thing?
In the end, perhaps one morning you find it has already drifted away.
There is also the slightest chance that it bloomed, made it through summer, and bloomed again; then you absolutely must show it off on WeChat Moments ten thousand times.
You can imagine, if there were not these tormenting little goblins, bringing partings and reunions, joys and sorrows, what difference would there be between our gardens and green belts?
At the gathering the next day, Plum and her friends made a lily of the valley habitat floral arrangement. Soft moss set off the green branches and leaves of the lily of the valley, and the small white bells were fresh one after another, exactly like the scene in the woods in April.
Compared with gardening, the advantage of floral design is that if you cannot have it for a long time, at least it can be beautiful for a while. So the delicate lily of the valley in our country is usually used as a floral material.
I casually asked: "Did you use yesterday's lily of the valley to make the arrangement?"
"No, I went and bought more. Yesterday's are still at home," Plum answered with a slightly shy smile.