This is a class title often used at this particular agricultural show as it is located in an industrial city that is surrounded by rural industries.
This time I wanted to do a design that wasn’t the usual mix of obvious city and country differences – farm produce and city buildings.
I decided to mix the things we might find in both places but think of as either “city” or “country” – types of flowers / plant materials and accessories.
The container is an oversized martini glass (40cm tall by 30cm across the top of the opening). This is placed on some paperbark and the inside of the glass is lined with aspidistra leaves to cover the floral foam.
Two long lichen covered branches are cable tied together to form a support structure for the flower placements in the glass.
A “city” metallic edged ribbon bow is wrapped around the stem of the glass with a “country” aspidistra bow below it.
Within the glass is a mixed placement of “city” (roses) and “country” (grevillea, bottle brush, woolly bush) plant material. More paperbark covers to top of the floral foam.
Suspended on metallic thread (for the city lights) from the top of the design are gumnuts and agapantus flower heads (with the petals removed).
This design placed second.
Judges Comments – A very innovative interpretation of the class title. Could have used a little more height in the top plant material placements to balance the visual (size) impact of the container, however the glass is not dominant which is good.
In general it looks a little more country than city.