French floral artist Claire Basler’s home and studio in Les Ormes, and hour an a half from Paris, is filled the nature. There is a constant flow of fresh floral displays which inspire her paintings, drawings and textile designs, all of which also blanket the property.
Photographs one and two by Mads Mogensen for Elle Decor South Africa, photographs three to eight and all artworks by Claire Basler.
Friends are constantly sending me bits and pieces about gardens and flowers, so I figured it was time to give some a chance to guest post on the blog. So that brings us to our first ever guest post by the lovely Olivia Hantken. Liv works at innovative design and film collective Collider, and has a key eye for aesthetics. Please welcome her to The Secret Garden!
Frozen Flowers by Olivia Hantken
Tomorrow is the first day of winter, but in Sydney it’s feeling more like spring. Our gardens will be happy at least, and far happier than in Kiev, Ukraine, where winter can mean a freezing over of everything green.
Earlier this year the Ukranian’s embraced this notion and held their first frozen flower exhibition The Flowers of the Snow Queen. Inspired by Hans Christan Andersen’s children’s tale The Snow Queen, the event symbolises the coming together of summer and winter / warmth and cold.
This one acre, family owned botanical garden and cactarium in Palm Springs is filled with 3000 varieties of desert plants. I would love to visit on my next trip to the States.
Photos one, two, six and seven by Amy Merrick. Three, four and five by Chuck B.
More info on the garden here.
Every May the Chelsea Flower Show sees the Royal Chelsea Hospital grounds turned into an array of flower and garden exhibits. This year, the 100th year of the festival, best in show was won by Australian Phillip Johnson.
Brent Elliot has released a book of archival images to celebrate the centenary. Below are some images from his book (available here) along with images from this years festival (via RHS Image).
Who Wore It Better is a blog curated by Alison Feldish and Derek Frech which compares similar artworks. Click on the image to view its creator.
Henry Darger is an artist and writer with an unusual story. He was orphaned and institutionalised as a young child and spent his adult life living as a recluse in Chicago. It was only after his death that Darger’s landlord discovered an epic 15,145 page narrative titled The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.
The story follows seven young girls as they fight against a variety of sadistic adults while being protected by a slew of fantastical animals. The writings are accompanied by several hundred drawings and watercolour paintings. Some of the images are calm and filled with flowers. Others a violent and tortured. It’s an incredible juxtaposition between innocence and extreme brutality, and gives us a glimpse into the mind of this mysterious man.
Jessica Yu made a film about Darger and his work The Realms of the Unreal (2004).
This so called ‘Green Box’ is situated in the Raethian Alps, Switzerland. It was created by architects Act Romegialli from a disused garage. The building houses a simple kitchen and entertaining space along with a spot for its owners gardening tools. The vegetation that covers the structure is largely deciduous – honeysuckle, russian vine, hop and golden clematis. While the base is surrounded by evergreens like valerian, cosmos, gem marigolds, and zinnias which provide a year-round variety of flowers.
All photographs by Marcello Mariana.
I love the plants (and clothes, and styling) in this lookbook for (now defunct) English brand Aubin & Wills’ spring 2012 collection. The photographs feature Blur’s bass guitarist Alex James and Romanian/ Canadian model Irina Lazereanu.
All images and video from Aubin & Wills.
This past weekend I celebrated my birthday with a four day getaway to a friend’s place in Wollombi. We wiled away most of our days lazing in the sun on the big balcony overlooking the valley. On Saturday I spent the morning visiting some great people down the road at Laguna Earth House (more on that in a moment) and in the evening everyone helped prepare a delicious paella which we ate around the fire pit we cooked it on.
Laguna Earth House is owned by the charming Rosie and Nigel. The main house was self-built with the help of their son using environmentally friendly mud bricks, straw bale and locally sourced timber, and is fitted with solar panels for all their energy needs. The garden is an overflowing bounty of organic fruit, vegetables, herbs and salad leaves. Rosie and Nigel are self taught gardeners and builders and are now keen to share their knowledge through workshops in organic gardening, alternative building techniques and other sustainable practices.
Check out their Facebook page for regular updates and information on upcoming workshops. Next up is ‘Autumn Food Preserving and Fermentation’ on 18 May.
A very warm thank you to Rosie, Nigel and Andy for sharing their home and garden with us.
All photographs by Sophia Kaplan.
This past weekend Kinfolk Magazine hosted flower potluck gatherings across the world to celebrate the northern hemisphere’s entry into spring. Despite our autumnal weather Sydney was lucky enough to be included with an event in Chippendale hosted by photographer and designer Luisa Brimble along with floral and botanical stylist Aleksandra Schutz.
Guests were asked to bring an armload of flowers or greenery whether from their backyard, their local florist or the side of the road. Here are the resulting pictures taken by Luisa Brimble for Broadsheet.
Beautiful scissors $14 from Grosgrain.
Not related to this exhibition, but beautiful nonetheless are these pictures of flowers dripping in ice.
The Secret Garden 
