Margaret Olley reflections – A letter to a customer

Dear Wendy

Thank you for your letter. I’m thrilled that Agapanthus ‘Margaret Olley’ has done so well for you.

Criss and I knew Margaret Olley for many years having been introduced to her by Leo Schofield when he lived in Bronte House. Whenever we visited Sydney after that, Olley would invite us to lunch at her Paddington treasure house.

Eighteen years ago, she flew down from Sydney to attend Criss’ retrospective exhibition at the Ballarat Art Gallery and stayed with us at Lambley. I had picked a bunch of Zinnias for her bedside table, placed alongside an ash tray. She took the flowers back to Sydney with her. A week later I got a call “Darling, could you send me a bunch of Zinnias just like the other and send them to me.”  For the next few months, I sent a bunch to her every week. The next year Olley rang again asking me to send her some more Zinnias. This went on every summer for five years. My reward was a painting by Margaret called “Zinnias from David” and another one called “David’s Zinnias”.

When the National Trust’s Erwin Gallery in Sydney put on a retrospective for Olley, they contacted me to see if I would supply flowers for the opening. I had a dozen or so clumps of a very beautiful dark blue Agapanthus which I had raised from seed collected from A. ‘Guilfoyle’ a few years before. The clumps were in full flower. The seedling was in want of a name. I contacted Olley and asked if she would agree to have it named after her. She agreed. I sent a couple of dozen flowering stems of Agapanthus ‘Margaret Olley’ to the Erwin Gallery for the opening of her exhibition.

Your sincerely

David