HOLLYHOCK, CINQUEFOIL & FEATHERTOP GRASS
A highly textural display in a beautiful vase from Norfolk, with fruiting stems, fluffy grasses and Alcalthaea spires from the garden.
AUGUST
INGREDIENTS
Rubus (blackberry)
Alcalthaea suffrutescens 'Parkallee' & ‘Parkrondell’
Geranium ‘Walter’s Gift’ (cranesbill)
Potentilla fruiticosa ‘Primrose Beauty’ (shrubby cinquefoil)
Pennisetum villosum (feathertops)
Nandina domestica (sacred bamboo)
Fragaria × ananassa (strawberry)
VASE
Small vase in a tenmoku glaze
NOTES
This is one of our favourite vases, from the Norfolk based pottery ‘Made in Cley’ (shop till you drop!) The glaze is called ‘tenmoku’ and was likely first introduced to the West from Japan by Shoji Hamada when he set up the Leach Pottery with Bernard Leach in 1920s St Ives. The name translates as ‘heaven’s eye’ referring to the Tianmu mountain in China. It was here that Japanese monks first discovered the glaze, taking the recipe back home with them; it is believed to have originated in China during the Song Dynasty where it was used to decorate bowls for use during tea ceremonies. Tenmoku is a reduction fired stoneware glaze containing iron oxide that fires to a high-gloss somewhere between a rich maroon, dark chocolate and almost-black. This vase can look glittery in some lights - a result of the minute iron silicate crystals that form in the glaze during the firing process. I love the ‘breaking points’ where the glaze has thinned to a rust colour over the ridges.
The Alcalthaea are a cross between a hollyhock and a mallow; they have greater rust resistance (allegedly) than a hollyhock and flower right through from mid-summer to the first frost. Very tall stems bear bowl-shaped flowers sprinkled with bronze stamens. We sear them immediately once cut for around 40 seconds in just-boiled water and find that they last extremely well in a vase.