M oorcroft R HSApplebee Collection

An extensive collection of early nineteenth-century watercolours of flowers from the RHS Lindley Collections, beautifully painted in a set of over three hundred paintings, by Caroline Maria Applebee (c. 1787 –16 September 1854), the eldest daughter of the Rev. John Applebee, have been adapted into a Moorcroft Collection of seven pieces by Moorcroft designer, Nicola Slaney.

Applebee’s tiger lily painted with a swooping damselfly, is really quite something with two stems of vivid-orange tiger lily flowers in bud and in bloom,featuring curved petals speckled with boysenberry dark spots. In Nicola's vase, tiger lilies rise from the base of the vase on their long, strappy stems, in tight-lipped buds and various blooming stages. Virgin-white buds open with their rich-plum speckles folding over amber cups with a vivid-orange full bloom complete with the plant’s notorious curled back petals, dark spots and magnificent six stamens to create an exotic display of colour. Airborne damselflies captured with Applebee’s stylised pastel, cone-shaped wings, swoop and glide around this stunning vase.

Christmas rose reborn (Helleborus niger) is an exquisite vase. Inspired by Applebee’s hellebores, Nicola takes your eye from the leaf-stalks at the crown of the plant and glides them upwards with the delicate hues of these white, butter-yellow centred flowers tinged pinkish-green on the five sepals, blooming from part of the leaf-stalks.

NUMBERED EDITION

Flaunting a multitude of colours, Viola Tricolor is a trio of pansies with upward facing blooms: deep-purple with morphing streaks of cotton-white centres holding dark central veins captured against the deep purple petals on the reverse of the bloom; mustard-yellow pansies holding tiger-eyed central stripes of maroon against dark-maroon under-petals, faintly blotched yellow towards the stem; and cotton-white blooms with dark central veins, edged deep-purple on the white-underside of the petals.

June miniature 2023

Sunny Side H 5cm £132

Wild dog-rose, Rosa canina, a scrambler which has gorgeous sweet-scented flowers that vary from white to deep pink. Growing up to 5m high, the dog-rose loves the sunny side of our hedgerows.

Designs by Nicola Slaney

July miniature 2023

Summer's Treat H 5cm £148

Wild strawberries have started to ripen and are a colourful, succulent treat to discover on a hot summer’s walk, growing in the shade at the base of the hedgerow.