Artisans of Dartmoor - Book - Page 126
glass medicine jars, stoneware milk jugs and urns. On
the floor, vintage wooden apple crates contain neatly
folded linens, hessians and muslins, which Joanna uses
for styling props. On cold mornings, she keeps warm
by lighting the small log-burning stove in the corner.
Outside, 12 bloom-filled raised beds are planted
with claret-coloured poppies, blowsy dahlias, frothy
lady’s mantel, cosmos, nasturtium, sweet peas,
sunflowers, and peachy-pink, silky-petalled butterfly
roses which scent the mid-summer air. Whenever
possible, Joanna chooses to grow wild cultivars “to
help nature along”. Her miniature dachshunds, Harvey
and Elwood, join her as she gardens, patrolling beds in
search of newly unearthed smells.
Joanna builds each of her flower arrangements
around one key micro-season event, which she usually
discovers in the tall, bristly hedgerows that flank the
one-track lanes winding through her parish. The
first velvety petals of the short-lived dog rose are a
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particular thrill, while other favourite arrivals include
foxgloves, vanilla-scented wild honeysuckle, and
travellers’ joy – a rambling, wild clematis that romps
wantonly through hedgerows, its almond nectar
drawing butterflies and honey bees.
With so many eco-systems to choose from on
Dartmoor – wildflower meadows, pastures, grasslands,
peat bogs, hedgerows, native woodlands, riversides
and heathland – Joanna says “there’s never a dull day”.
“British wildflowers don’t last long, which gives
them an ephemeral beauty. When plants have to
search for light or react to strong weather, as they
do on Dartmoor, their stems twist, bend, and wane.
That’s when the shapes become really interesting. To
me, they become perfectly imperfect.”
Joanna’s open-mindedness means that often
overlooked plants, and even weeds such as dock
leaves, brambles and bracken, all get their time in the
limelight – along with the frayed and faded, the floppy
The Floral Artist • Joanna Game
