Flora is the plant without the birds. It was drawn as the companion to Hummingbirds Flora, taking the honeysuckle those birds feed from and letting it stand on its own: a trailing bough that climbs the drop, throwing off trumpet flowers, buds and leaves as it goes. The result is a floral that behaves like a climbing plant rather than like a repeating motif.
It was drawn and painted entirely by hand, and it shows in the details that would be tidied out of a digital design. The flowers vary slightly one from the next, a leaf turns to show its underside, the spacing along the stem is uneven. At 90 cm the repeat is long, and on a 0.7 m roll the trail has width as well as height, so a single drop carries a good deal of the pattern. The half-drop match throws the boughs diagonally and keeps them from forming vertical rows.
Used with Hummingbirds Flora it becomes the surrounding garden to that panel. Used alone it is a generous, old-fashioned floral for a bedroom, a dressing room or a landing. Hang it where there is daylight, since the hand-painting carries a range of tonal detail that flat artificial light tends to lose.
