28th September, 2020

 

Using only one kind of material. Flowers of an aloe-like succulent

Hello all,

The orange colour in the above and below arrangements is pure coincidence. I just use what's available. But I do enjoy this warm, joyous and uplifting colour.

Also, the agave in the next three arrangements was due to a necessary cut back of the leaves growing into the lawn and, as we're expecting our lawnmower man tomorrow (hooray), I had to make it easy for him to mow close to the edgings.

And, about our extremely overgrown grass (we really can't call it a lawn), I didn't mind it all that much because it looked like a meadow. There are white daisies and all sorts of grasses going into seed, which we don't see normally. So I enjoyed looking at it and wading through it until a scary thought entered my head and I stopped enjoying it. Snakes! I have an overwhelming fear of snakes and, even though we've never had a sighting of one in our area, once I thought about it, I couldn't unthink it. I'm very happy David is coming tomorrow to mow.

Agave and strelitzia reginae

Agave and clivias

Agave and squiggly grass

My favourite stage of viburnum opulus (snow ball tree) is right now, when the balls are small and lime green and, of course, I had to use them. They will, later, grow larger and change to white and I will use them again. This large shrub is gorgeous in spring when it flowers, as well as in autumn when the leaves put on a display of oranges and reds. A must have! It's also easy to propagate by layering.

The weight of the flowers causes the finer branches to arc downwards, creating interesting curves, ideal for ikebana. When I walked in to the ikebana room to arrange these two pieces, I intended to use a bright blue container to contrast with the lime green. Then I saw this green glass container and changed my mind. A few years back, while visiting a glassblower's studio in the Peninsular, I watched as the vase was hand blown for me to my specifications. I'm particularly fond of it.

Viburnum opulus and arum lilies. The top stem has a lovely forward
curve, which is lost in the photo

Another, much loved shrub is the stachyurus praecox, which I used when the stems were densely filled with pendant, primrose yellow flowers. Now, most of the flowers have dropped but, interestingly, they dropped from the top, leaving a few flowers on the bottom. I never noticed this before and I find it quite charming. 

Stachyurus praecox and rhododendron

You may remember this, next, arrangement, which I made and posted at the end of August. I had used a cordyline for the main structure and daffodils for the floral focus. The cordyline lasted very well but not so the daffodils, so I replaced them with a strelitzia reginae. Well, four weeks later and the arrangement is still going strong. I get many of these, double headed strelitzias. In this situation it has worked out well but there are times I have to 'decapitate' one of them to suit the arrangement.

I leave you with this arrangement, in which I wanted to use the haemanthus coccineus lily leaf. These large leaves are thick and fleshy with a gentle curve and glossy green colour, with which the red crucifix orchid contrasted beautifully.

Bye for now,

Emily