Hello all,

My prolific and versatile agapanthus are in flower again. Above is my first arrangement using the blue agapanthus together with two garlic flowers in a stainless steel vase.

Well, Christmas and all that it entails is over. You, my readers, will know that I was not in the best mood for Christmas this year but it turned out to be very pleasant.  My son, Dennis and his wife, Jeannine hosted the family get-together of about 45 people. There was almost as much food left over as was consumed. My mother always said "If you don't have left overs your food was not enough". Even she would have been happy with the volume and variety of food. Of course, the scales the next morning were cruel in the extreme but I had only my gluttony to blame. New Year's resolution - Keep the weight under control!

Excited grandchildren anxiously waiting to open presents

The immediate family on Christmas eve at Lucy's

The extended family on Christmas day on Dennis and Jeannine's veranda

Before the gang arrived two little girls are enjoying the spraying unicorn and the
wading pool.

I've spoken of the extreme heat we're experiencing this summer and my plight to protect precious plants. I've, also, been cutting materials that, I would otherwise have left on the plants, because the heat would damage them. Below is one of three strelitzias nicolai that Sam cut for me. The other two were given to my sisters. I used kiwi vine sprayed gold and three silver baubles in a ceramic container with a split in it.

I was pleasantly surprised to see my clematis flowering so late in the season and was quick to make an arrangement. It's not so easy to use this vine because it grows downwards but needs the stem to be in water. The two stems I used in the arrangement, below were most accommodating, one of them was growing upwards.

This plant has an interesting method of climbing. Each leaf has a long stalk which curls around whatever it can find. This can be utilised when arranging them as a method of securing. I took a photo of the back of the arrangement  showing how I secured the vine by twisting the leaves together, thus holding everything where I wanted. This is an example of 'Using one kind of material'.

My alstroemerias psittacina are also flowering and are surprisingly resilient. I wanted to feature their lovely long stems but, individually, they are very weak. So, I massed about a dozen of them and retained much of their height for balance. The ceramic vase was a gift from Vicky and the unconventional material is coloured plastic.

Here's yet another arrangement using bent strelitzias reginae. I used New Zealand flax to follow the line of the container as well as the stems of the flowers.

The next arrangement is a simple one but that does not equate to easy. Getting the line to stay this way required some mechanics. I used two split vertical fixtures and nailed them to the kiwi vine at a distance of about 3 centremetres. This was necessary so that they would wedge in tightly when put in the vase. The mechanics are, then, concealed by the rose leaves. And the dear little vase was a Christmas gift from my cousins, Steve and Nieves. Over the years Nieves has bought me some of my most favourite containers. She is not an ikebanist but has a great eye for what I like. Bless her!

Close-up of mechanics

I leave you with another simple arrangement. The focus is on the container, which is made up of a stainless steel, upside down fruit bowl, onto which I placed a small round stainless steel vase. With such a busy container, I had to keep the arrangement simple. I used calla lilies and New Zealand Flax.

Bye for now and have a Great New Year!
Emily

Strelitzia reginae

Hello all,
During last Friday's 44 degree heat, Sam and I spent the best part of that searingly hot morning trying to protect some of the more delicate plants in our garden. We opened the cantilever umbrella and placed all the delicate pots in which I have been growing cuttings under it. The most vulnerable of my shrubs are the hydrangeas, which we covered with old sheets and watered regularly. We were quite successful in saving most of them. During that whole ordeal my thoughts were constantly going to the people who are currently faced with the extremely difficult task of fighting fires and struggling to protect homes and even lives. I realized just how trivial our struggles were.

The night before I went through the garden and cut all the flowers that were likely to be burnt and brought them in. I have three strelitzia reginae plants. Two of them flower throughout the year but the other one flowers always around Christmas time producing between 10 and 20 flowers almost all of them flowering at the same time. This year was no exception. When our weeping willow tree fell last year it squashed the mahonia tree over the top of the strelitzia. This is the reason some of the flower stems are twisted. It took some doing to crawl under the bushes to cut and disentangle the flowers but I did it!

So, then I had a whole bunch of flowers in my workroom, which I had to arrange straight away. I had intended to make arrangements as gifts to some special people in my life and the strelitzias were thus put to good use. Below are photographs of the arrangements for gift giving that I remembered to photograph.

Strelitzia reginae, sprayed acacia aphylla, umbrella grass and
gold baubles

Strelitzia reginae and umbrella grass stems

Strelitzia reginae, New Zealand flax and dietes leaves

Strelitzia reginae, kiwi vine sprayed gold, pine and green
bauble

Oriental lilies,  umbrella grass and long silver bauble

The next arrangement I made for home and it is quite large - 1.5 metres high and it's in a self made container. I used gymea leaves and bent them to complement the bends in the stems of the flowers.

Among other flowers that I cut were some roses. Below is an arrangement I made with the rose called "Lolita". The green material is pine cut sharply.

One more thing before I leave you. I've mentioned before how much I appreciate your comments and emails. However, I have recently received a few comments in foreign languages, some of them quite lengthy. I so wish I could read them. My first language is English and I'm quite proficient in Greek. I can even manage a bit of French, having studied it for 6 years in high school but that's about it. So, to my kind readers who have sent those comments, if you are able to jot down even a few words in English, I would be most grateful.

And now, all that remains is to wish you all a very pleasant and safe festive season and to those of you who celebrate Christmas, may it be a merry one.

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

Well, as the big day approaches we are all caught up in a flurry of activity. Ordinarily, I would have the house decorated to withing an inch of its life. Not so this year. Apart from the wreath on the front door, I did very little else. My reasoning was that, since I'm not hosting Christmas this year, I need not go to too much trouble. But, if I'm honest with myself, that's not the reason. I just don't have the Christmas spirit. There, I've said it. I had this distinct feeling of "Bah Humbug". But I'm forcing myself to snap out of it.

I went to my sister, Vicky's house on Friday for our usual family dinner and was thoroughly put to shame by the gorgeous and abundant decorations, lights and Christmas flower arrangements. I resolved to do better. Thank you Vicky for the inspiration.

So, on Saturday and Sunday I spent a bit of time making Christmas arrangements. The piece of pine in the wall arrangement, below, has quite a beautiful shape, which is lost in the two-dimensional medium of the photograph.You'll just have to take my word for it.

Alstroemeria psittacina flowers and leaves and sprayed
strelitzia leaves in glass vase

Jacobean lily and umbrella grass

Despite my lack of enthusiasm over Christmas, I always have time for the grandchildren. It's a relatively new tradition but one I intend to keep, that is helping them to make Christmas cards for their teachers as well as others. So far, it's only the two older ones who take part in this activity but I intend to make sure that the other two will join in when they're old enough.

In preparation I bought blank cards and envelopes and brought from my sewing room all sorts of beads, sequins, buttons, ribbons and trims and, with copious amounts of glue, we all went to town being creative. I think I enjoyed this even more than the children did.

Hermione with one of her cards

Xavier with one of his cards

Driving along somewhat unfamiliar roads last week, I came across some wild artichokes growing along the side of the road like weeds. In fact, I thought at first they were thistle but Sam tells me he thinks they are artichokes. Whatever they are, they are beautiful, albeit deadly. The thorns that grow on the leaves can be as long as 3 centermetres and extremely sharp. In order to cut the flowers I used two cloths I had in the car, which were not enough to protect my hands. At home I used the thickest gloves I could find and handled them with great care.

The thorns which grow only along the leaves but  not on the stalks

I made the arrangement, below using only the artichokes in this large, self-made container.

And then, after I came back from Vicky's I went into the store room and found the angel to put with it to make it a bit more Christmassy.

Bye for now,
Emily

Lunch at Wendy's

Hello all,

At the end of each year, my class and I have been going out to dinner to celebrate. This year, however, my student, Wendy, invited us all to lunch at her lovely new home. She and her husband, Frank, provided a warm and welcoming atmosphere, not to mention some delicious traditional Chinese dishes. You don't get food of that quality at Chinese restaurants.

We all contributed to the lunchtime fare, which we all enjoyed, some of us (me really) overindulging but that's what Christmas is all about. Great food and Great company, what more could one wish for. Well, there is one thing, I wish all the students were able to attend.

Some small but thoughtful gifts were exchanged as usual. Dianne, who lives in Trantham, also brought a rose for each one of us from her garden. She has many beautiful but also healthy roses. I picked the exquisite orange one in the photograph, below and had to find some way of arranging it. Enter the gold bamboo structure, which I featured in a previous post.

My two dogwoods are almost in full bloom and, as I've been watching and waiting for this for so long, I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to cut some to play with.

The wall arrangement, below is from the tree I call 'Hazel's dogwood', since I have no way of knowing its real name. It's quite charming the way the flowers develop a pink blush as they age, so that the tree has, amongst the creamy coloured flowers, pink ones dotted through it.

 The off cuts could not be disposed of, so they make good powder room arrangements

This larger arrangement is from the other tree, the name of which is 'Cornus Norman Haddon'. The flowers on this tree are smaller but more plentiful. We've had a searingly hot day today, which left all my roses singed at the edges. When looking for flowers to go with the dogwood, I was beginning to despair, until I noticed the good old geraniums. They were completely unaffected by the heat. To quote the gardening guru, Peter Cundell, "You can't kill them with a brick!" I was, also, able to find some iceberg roses with some life still left in them nd put them to the back of the orange geraniums.

For the first time since I started growing the horsetail (Equisetum hyemale), I had enough long 'tails' to make an arrangement. Having had no experience with it, I discovered certain properties, of which I was not aware. Firstly, they are hollow, which means they don't fasten well in a kenzan. Secondly, they are weak and unable to hold their own weight when bent. I worked around the first problem by inserting a skewer in the last few inches of each stem. As for the second problem, I inserted wire to stop them from flopping. I thought all was well but I was disappointed to discover that they dried up rather quickly. I used the last of my Hanashobu iris to finish the arrangement.

And, speaking of the Hanashobu iris, here is a photo of my 'purple corner'. It's outside the office door.

I've mentioned many times that my ikebana is often opportunistic. That is, I use materials that I come across by chance. This is one case in point. As I was driving the other day, I was confronted by this. rather common, scene. The severe weather we have been experiencing and which broke my nectarine tree, has been responsible for countless broken trees and branches all around the city.

My first reaction when I drove past this tree was "Oh no!". But, then, I thought of the opportunity it afforded. So, on my return trip I stopped and took some branches. I'm not sure of the variety of gum tree.  It might be Eucalyptus sinuosa. I will have a better idea when it flowers. Anyway, I made the arrangement, below using the leafy branch extending to the left and the flower buds and seed pods close to the container on the right.

I've included a close-up of the flower buds. If anyone recognises this tree, please let me know.

Bye for now,
Emily

Check out these peonies! Are they not lucious?

Hello all,

I've spent the last 29 years, since I started Ikebana, developing my garden in our half acre property. I'm now in the enviable position of having more material than I can use in my ikebana, all year round. Except for certain difficult materials, such as peonies. They continue to frustrate me! My student, Mary Sutherland, knowing this, has brought me a gift of the bunch of peonies in the arrangement, above. The photograph does't do them justice, however. When they were fully opened they were the size of small cabbages.

The dried branch that I used with the peonies was lying at the bottom of my garden for years. I discovered it recently when I was doing some much needed weeding. It had been bleached beautifully, however it also became somewhat brittle. I had to join a few pieces together before arranging it. I also used some ornithogalum towards the back as a foil for the red of the peonies.

Well, classes have finished for the year but ikebana has not. I have two creamy white dogwoods that are just flowering now, a little bit later than in other suburbs but very welcome. One is called Cornus Norman Haddon but I don't know the name of the other, as it was given to me as a seedling by my friend Hazel, who has sadly passed away some years ago. Now, that seedling is a small tree, which reminds me of Hazel whenever I see it.

I made the arrangement, below, after removing many of the dense leaves and struggled to find appropriate accompanying material. The best I could do were the green goddess lilies.

I'll let you in on a little secret. The vase I used is narrow and the branch and lilies, both, lean forward, making the arrangement front heavy. To counter that, I used a weight in the form of a kenzan, which I attached to the back of the container, using wire, as a counter balance. It did the trick.

My strelitzia reginae had produced many flowers, bless her! And as they died, needed to be removed. But I was loathe to throw them out, so I removed the dried petals leaving the beak-like sheaths and arranged them in a strong, heavy container. I used some dried acacia aphylla, which I sprayed pink, picking up the colour of the sheaths.

 

My smoke bush has flowered, FINALLY! I made the arrangement, below, as an example of the theme 'Using only one kind of Material.'

The garlic bed in the vegetable patch has, also, been productive. I used two stems and some smoke bush for the arrangement, below.

I leave you with this, the final use of my curly ornithogalum, in a self made ceramic container.

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

The tragic picture, above, is of our nectarine tree, a casualty of the extreme weather we experienced last week. I was heartsick when I came out on Friday to be confronted by this scene, especially considering that the tree was laden with fruit, only weeks away from ripening. I'll have to think about what to plant in its place. A feijoa, maybe.

My students have been asking for a workshop with bamboo for some time. This required some planning, since we needed a supply of bamboo for everyone. I managed to find such a supply and an excursion was organised for a non-class Wednesday. Those of my students who could make it came along carrying large and small cutters. Philip, the gentleman in charge of the property, was very generous, allowing us to cut as much as we wanted of some beautiful bamboo. We then stripped the canes of the side shoots and took them to my place in readiness for class the following Wednesday.

Vicky, Wendy and Nicole getting stuck into the bamboo

Jenny and Dianne braving the jungle of bamboo and tall grasses

In class the following week we worked on creating bamboo triangles using a particular drilling and wiring method. Once all the triangles were made they were, then, joined together using the same method to create a structure. This structure can last indefinitely, although the green bamboo will fade into beige. It can be kept in its natural colour or painted and can be used time and time again in different arrangements.

The students were not able to complete their structures in the two hour lesson but knew enough to be able to finish them at home.

They brought their structures to the next class together with containers and materials to make arrangements. The photographs, below, are of the finished arrangements. I should point out that, this being the first time they tried using their structures, some of the students were not as prepared with materials and containers as they might be. It's a little bit like using a new container for the first time. There would have been more arrangements but a number of students were absent on that day.

Wendy Sun

Bredenia Raquell

Shaneen Garbutt

Akemi Drohan - new student. Has only had three lessons

Vicky Kalokathis

Nicole McDonald - Christmas arrangement

Wendy Sun using the structure differently

Lucy Papas using her structure in a Christmas arrangement.

Below are a number of photos of my arrangement for this exercise. I have a couple of bamboo structures that I have used in the past, so I did not need to make another one. I chose one that is sprayed white but I wanted to add something to it. I settled on making another, much smaller structure with very thin bamboo and spaying it gold to contrast with the white. Drilling holes into very thin bamboo is quite difficult and I have the scars on my fingers to prove it.But it was worth it.

A closeup of the small, gold structure

I tried a number of different ways of using my structure and I'm going to include some of the incarnations of the arrangement in the photographs, below. When we see an arrangement made by someone else, we rarely think about what might have been tried before the artist had settled on the final product. Often there is a great deal of trial and error and frustration until we get it right.

The first attempt using strelitzias in a tall,
pyramid shaped vase

Second attempt using a taller vase but sideways
so as to appear thinner.

I finally settled on this version

A lucky find during our bamboo collection was this bent piece, which I used with bent strelitzias in a ceramic vase.

I leave you with this arrangement by my student, Mary Sutherland. It is variation number 4, hanging style nageire. Mary used a branch of my dogwood with lisianthus.

Bye for now,
Emily