The logo represents the flower of a plumbago capensis and was designed especially for Plumbago Books and Arts (©2000) by Mary Fedden RA, OBE. The image (in watercolour) measures approximately 14 x 12 centimetres.

Plumbagos appear in 12 species of evergreen and grow widely in all continents except Australia. The (botanical) flower measures about 1” across and blooms in the summer and deep into the autumn. In Europe the plumbago may be found in the wild; in Britain, on the other hand it is treated as an ornamental plant requiring a constant temperature of between 7 and 13°C throughout the winter months.

The discovery that, contrary to expert prediction, the plumbago capensis will survive all but the cruellest winters in London gardens led to the idea of using the plumbago as a symbol for a specialist Books and Arts enterprise based in the capital city: our British cultural climate is less resistant to what grows elsewhere in the wild than we often think, and the exotic plants more resilient than we imagine.

web-sites relating to Mary Fedden RA, OBE:

• biography: Mel Gooding, Mary Fedden, Aldershot (Hants), Scolar Press, 1995.
• available works and biography at Archeus Fine Art.
• available works and biography at Storm Fine Arts.