L is for “lierre”, French for ivy. Known as hedera in Latin, edera in Italian and iedra in Spanish, the Old French ierre became lierre through a contraction of the definite article, l’. It is one of my Four Gentlemen, along with broom, rush and butcher’s-broom. It is useful in many forms: leaves, creepers, interweaving networks stuck to trunks and shrubs, it is a “right-hand man” for the art of flowers. It does not suffocate trees when clinging to them, as is often thought. However, it does weigh them down, and that is when the drama starts …
M is for “murmuring flowers” – the title that the Asphodelinh association has given to its springtime exhibition in Sarzeau, southern Brittany: the interplay of flowers, lines and hands, which Asphodelinh has…
