Our July Meeting

6 July 2023

Rekha Naidoo - 'Festivals of India'

Clophill & District Flower Club welcomed Rekha Naidoo as the demonstrator at its July meeting.  Rekha’s title was ‘Festivals of India’ and each of her designs and entertaining talk related back to family, religion,  culture and the traditions of India.

​​The first design – Raksha Bundhan– was a traditional triangular shape using red and yellow carnations and depicted the strong relationship between brothers and sisters.  The foliage element consisted of palm leaves, phormium and green hypericum.  




​The design sat on a stand which Rekha had made herself using 2 hanging baskets wired together and covered with willow weaved through and decorated with red and yellow colours which are auspicious and tie in with the flowers.

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​The second design was set on a tall, intricately decorated silver pot.  It consisted of gold ting ting, liatris, proteas, celosia, green anthuriums, hosta leaves and laurel.  The design celebrated Navrati – 9 days of celebrations for good over evil where a different colour is worn each day for Garba Dancing using Dandyia sticks.

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​Diwali is celebrated each November.  This was represented by a non floral foam design consisting of tin cans covered in colourful saree borders with aluminium wire scrunched inside to balance the flowers and a few stones to add weight.  Roses and carnations were the floral element of this design.  The tins were placed in front of tall candlesticks to represent this Festival of Light.

Vaisaki is a Sikh celebration of harvest festival, and depicts faith in Guru Nanak. The container for this design was styled as a colourful turban with the floral element being orange proteas and green roses plus Raphis palm leaves complimented with a green medelino bow.
 
The 5th design also celebrated Sikhism.  This was a parallel design which consisted of white agapanthus, leucodendron, variegated aspidistra leaves, sisal and representation of the 10 gurus (mentors) in various vibrant colours.
 
Rekha’s final design was placed on a tall column which she had constructed from insulation board and covered with gorgeous, colourful sari borders.  The flowers she placed on top were bright yellow trailing calla lilies over soft ruscus with the central bowl being filled with orange leucospurnum, red and pink roses, yellow and mauve carnations and mauve chrysanthemums.  This design celebrated the colourful festival of Holi, where powder of all colours is thrown at each other.
 
Each of the designs included embellishments in the form of decorated sticks or beads relating to Indian tradition and culture.

Clophill & District Flower Club meet on the first Thursday of the month (except August).  New members and visitors are always welcome to join us.  For further details see our programme and contact us if you need any additional information.