Lofty Ambitions

Standing Tall In The Day's First Rays

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This week, we've been asked to picture something related to Christmas and the festive season. As it's summer here, there is no shortage of colour in the gardens of Melbourne, so I chose to photograph a plant called agapanthus, which is just coming into full blossom now.


With Christmas just a few days away, the sun is up really early. As you can guess, there's a certain photographer who is always up early too. And that's when I saw my opportunity, early yesterday morning. I have never grown agapanthus in my garden, but a neighbour of ours has a row of them on his perimeter fence.

In fact, if you look carefully at the first image, you'll see his fence in soft focus in the foreground of the frame. Very few Australian homes have fences in the front yard, preferring to present an open look and allowing easy access - but the metal spikes of his fence form an contrasting motif in the foreground of the first shot.


As the sun came up, the agapanthus lit up with the first rays of the day, so I simply walked down the street to take this series of shots. I've only ever seen agapanthus in two colours - lilac and white, but I'd love to know if you've ever seen any hybrid varieties or any types in a different colour.

These plants grow to about a metre and a half tall and like anything that size, they look great when planted en masse. And they're really easy to propagate, too. When they mature, you can literally cut the bottom clump in half, plant them separately and hey presto, you have two giant plants instead of one.


Visit Luiz Santilli Jr for the home of Today's Flowers.