Garden Inspiration and Lessons Learned



I'm not sure how much of it is attributed to luck, but this spring has brought some of the most brilliant color in my short tenure as a novice gardener. Last year's stragglers, including my lacecap hydrangea, have kept pace with the perennial stalwarts (hostas, Confederate jasmine, Japanese holly ferns, etc.). I was excited a few weeks ago when I noticed that the hydrangea, which did not produce any blooms at all last year, was starting to bud out. After a day of steady rain last week, the blooms really started to pop.

The last time this plant flowered, I was inspired to create one of my earliest mosaics. I remember being excited to use millefiori for the first time. A few lessons I learned from this piece were 1. carefully plan your design before cutting and gluing your tesserae, 2. be sure you have enough tile of the color you're using on said unplanned design before you start cutting and gluing and 3. be patient! Number 3 is still the most difficult lesson for me to follow, although I have improved in this area quite a bit in the last two years.

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 22, 2010 at 5:31 PM

    Its a lovely piece. I have under-planned tile quantity before and there were some huge dye lot issues with the tile. I wrote to the yahoo group and several members had older stock of the color I needed and were more than happy to help me out in my time of need.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KeithMay 23, 2010 at 6:54 AM

    Thanks! I never thought to ask anyone on the yahoo group for older pieces of tile (I was too impatient anyway and just wanted to hurry up and finish). That's a great idea. That group has been an amazing resource for me.

    ReplyDelete

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