Artist opens his garden gates to visitors
LAPTA artist, photographer and teacher Hikmet Uluçam opens his gates to visitors next week for his annual two-week wildflower garden exhibition showcasing nature’s springtime palette of colours in Cyprus.
The Paphos-born Near East University lecturer launched his spectacular but fleeting show for the first time two years ago alongside the year-round show of his extensive cactus garden.
Mr Uluçam took up his hobby of growing cacti from seed or cuttings over 30 years ago, raising some sizeable specimens. His collection includes, too, a fivemetre-tall euphorbia and an ancient “mother-in-law’s tongue”.
The artist also lovingly tended his small wildflower field to create a sea of mauve and white cyclamen, endemic Medoş tulips and multi-coloured anemones and ranunculi, and last year began sales of seed for wildflowers and his cacti.
The garden and accompanying Colours and Forms of the Island photo exhibition will be open to the public from Saturday, March 17 until April 1, from 10am to 5pm daily except Mondays and Tuesdays.
Mr Uluçam said: “The garden will be perfect by next week and I am inviting everyone to share its glory. My photographs will also be on show inside. Everyone is welcome.”
Last year he showcased photos of island landscapes as scores of nature- and garden-lovers trod his impressive garden path flanked by massive beds of three types of cyclamen.
Mr Uluçam’s Cactus Gardens Art Gallery is at 64 İsmail Beyoğlu Caddesi on the corner of the Başpınar road and the road to the Lapta old people’s home.
For directions and more information, phone him on 0533 866 0057.