26th October, 2020

 

Hippeastrums and found, dry daisy plant in lacquered, asymmetric suiban

Hello all,

Yes, more hippeastrums. For many years I have been only modestly successful with these plants but this year I gave them the attention they deserved, at the right time and they have rewarded me in spades. I have many more buds to open. I'm looking forward to some colours other than red.

My Louisiana iris are looking quite lovely. Snails usually get to my flowers because I'm reluctant to use snail bait but, I confess, I used some this year with the result being more and healthier flowers.

Front view of traditional arrangement of iris

Side view showing the placement of the stems
and leaves

Spuria iris, mollis azalea and kiwi vine

Our good friends, Nick and Olga have recently purchased a new property on which they will build their new home. The existing house will be demolished as well as the established but neglected garden. At Olga's suggestion, we had planned to organise a class excursion to the property to help ourselves to the abundant material before the excavators arrived. Unfortunately, covid put paid to that. Work is about to start, so I went on my own and collected materials that I don't have in my garden. I dedicate the arrangements, below, to Olga.

Olga's wisteria and my Altissimo roses. It might be hard to believe that
it took me over an hour to create this arrangement.

Flowers from a succulent, whose name
I don't know

Ginger seed heads and colourful geranium
leaves. The strelitzia is from my garden

Close up of geranium leaves

I was very taken by the colours of this particular geranium and have taken cuttings to strike.

More of the geranium and my mollis azalea in a wall arrangement.

In the next arrangement I used a very big container made by Graham Wilke, which normally sits in the bathroom because it is so big and precious. When I cut these giant aeoniums from Olga's I struggled to find an appropriate container, so put them aside. It was only when I was cleaning the bathroom that I remembered I had this one and had to get Sam to bring it down for me. Two of the lessons in our book 3 are about paying attention to the colour and the shape of the container. I'm satisfied that this combination works well on both counts.

And while I'm on the subject of containers, apart from the colour and the shape, we should, also, pay attention to the style. Some very plain containers can be successfully used for both naturalistic and modern arrangements. However, there are many that have a distinct style, such as rustic looking ones for naturalistic and sleek, bold ones for more modern.

So, thank you Olga. I hope you enjoy these photos of my arrangements as much as I have enjoyed making them.

Bye for now,

Emily

19th October, 2020

 

Hello all,

Yes, it is possible to have too much material. A number of my hippeastrums flowered at the same time, challenging me to make a suitable arrangement. With such large, bold flowers, I had to keep to a simple design. Luckily, I have this 65cm, metal trough, which fit the bill perfectly. I, also, have a large number of cottage gladioli, which have flowered all at once, so they, too, were put to use. The black wisteria vine added line and asymmetry. 

I found tucked under a large willow branch this stem of mahonia, which caught my attention by the bright orange colour on the tips of some of the leaves. I don't know why this happens because mahonia is an evergreen and does not change colour. As I looked at it more closely, I noticed the soft, russet coloured new growth and delicate, blue berries. I removed many of the leaves, leaving this pin wheel shape and added the strelitzia, which picked up the orange colour of the leaves as well as the blue berries. These subtleties are mostly lost in the photograph.

The mahonia 'pinwheel' measures about 1 metre in diameter

I took mum to the radiologist last week and when I drove into the car park I was struck by the vibrant red coloured flowers of quite a large callistemon. As we were leaving I asked for permission to cut some and was told to help myself. The problem was that other drivers going in and out of the car park didn't know that I had permission. When people walked past I felt obliged to say that I had permission. It's amazing how much guilt you can feel even when you're not guilty.

I use this large, ceramic vase quite infrequently (mostly at Christmas) because it is so bold and dominates an arrangement but I thought it worked well enough here teamed with masses of viburnum opulus.

I found some more of these strange looking flowers - Arum italicum - Pictum. Last time I used one, it had drooped over itself in one day. This time they lasted for three days, probably because I cut them earlier, almost in bud.

Every October, for a number of years now, these delightful flowers come out of the ground with their hooded spathes and long tongue-like spadix. The leaves are compound with three leaflets. I have been unsuccessful in my efforts to find out their name except that they belong to the Araceae family. I was delighted when Lucy told me yesterday that they are called pinellia tripartita. I'm very happy to concede that Lucy is much better at navigating the internet that me.

This wall arrangement was created solely to showcase the wisteria,which needed the height for the racemes to be hanging down.

Wisteria, strelitzia reginae leaf and cottage gladioli

A couple of interesting things happening in our garden. 

Our gymea lily, doryanthes palmeri, has four gigantic flowers. For those who are unfamiliar with this plant, it is difficult to guage its size. The flower stalks, called scapes, are about 2.5 metres tall with very heavy, large flower heads comprising of many individual flowers. Because of this weight, the stems tend to droop. I should explain that ours is a clump of many rosettes. Once a rosette flowers, it dies but produces many new rosettes in its place. It is endemic to a very small part of New South Wales and Queensland and the flower spikes and roots were a food source for indigenous Australians. Our clump has pride of place in the front garden and I have noticed a number of people stopping to photograph it.

The other plant of interest this time of year is our walnut tree, which is in flower. It produces large, pendulous, male flowers that hang down below the stem and tiny little female ones that sit above the stem. I noticed an abundance of bees amongst the branches of the tree. I hope that means we'll get some decent walnuts.

Male flowers

Female flowers

By for now,

Emily

12th October, 2020

 

Hello all,

I've been impatiently waiting for my lilac bush, Syringa vulgaris, to flower and it finally did. This bush with its fragrant clustered flowers has the capacity to transport me back to my childhood to the little village in Northern Greece, where I was born. Outside the kitchen of our humble home grew a white lilac tree, which flowered around Easter time. Mum and dad bought the bush that I now own, knowing how much it meant to me.

I am so spoilt for choice with fresh, spring flowers, so I'll just share with you the arrangements that have given me so much pleasure to create.

The first of the altissimo roses -

This rose is not Altissimo but it's Sam's favourite because it has a 
heady perfume. This arrangement is sitting on his desk

Spring arrangements including 2 racemes in each from my sorry excuse for a wisteria. I got flowers on only two stems, which is quite pathetic when you consider that the plant spreads 8 metres over the top of the fence.

Wall arrangement - wisteria and clematis

Wisteria, cymbidium orchid and arum lilies

The strelitzias in this next arrangement had a little bit of help from me to create the curves in the stems. They are so strong and tall that I had to cut them down by about 50 cms. I needed something equally strong to use with them and there are not many materials stronger than agave.

The main structure of this tall arrangement was made for an Ikebana International exhibition that was held at Sofitel some years ago. It has been standing in our entry all this time because, quite frankly, I don't have any room for it in the storooms. It mostly sits without flowers except when I have an abundance of some material, such as the viburnum opulus flowers. 

Viburnum opulus and alstroemeria 
psittacina leaves

A couple of examples of re using of materials. 

I've mentioned many time before that agave can last a very long time in an arrangement, even without water. The only down side is that it is very heavy and, with time, gravity will change it. Here are two examples where I have re used a piece of agave because it lost its original shape. I had thrown into my tub of waste materials this piece of agave when I dismantled the arrangement. The following day, as I walked passed the tub, I was pricked by the sharp point that was sticking out. It clearly wanted to get my attention and to not to be ignored. I picked it out and, after a quick look around my workroom, this curved, ceramic container practically called out to me. So, between the two of them, a new arrangement was born.

Before

After

Before

After. I chose this vase because of the colour
that is picked up by the blue petals in the flower

Bye for now,

Emily

5th October, 2020

Straight and curved lines. Sansevieria, dietes and my first
yellow clivia, the plant of which, was given to me by 
Enzo, my hairdresser.

Hello all,

We've had some unseasonably warm days recently, which accelerated the flowering of many plants in the garden. Not that I'm complaining!

I've been watching the progress of the flowering of the crabapple and, I think, I cut it at just the right time. I love it when some of the flowers are open while there are also tight, dark pink buds. In the arrangement, below, the front branches are coming forward, creating space for the arum lilies.

Last Wednesday I cut my first flag iris and promptly arranged it in the traditional way. With the warm weather, three more stems bloomed all together, necessitating a new and much bigger arrangement, also in the traditional style.

Flag iris and Japanese maple. There is a   
granite piece with rectangular hole 
placed over a suiban.

Flag iris and violas in ceramic
container.

The new leaves on my smoke bush, Cotinus Grace, have a most beautiful russet colour, so I cut two stems, sacrificing future flowers, for this arrangement. Initially, I intended to use my yellow clivia with them. But, as is often the case in ikebana, my vision did not match the result. In such a situation, we have to be flexible. I had a double headed strelitzia, which I separated and positioned in place of the clivia. Both the colour and shape of the container complemented the material.

The cherry blossoms in the next arrangement were 'rescued' from a straggling small and much neglected tree in our supermarket complex. The beauty of the blossoms is such that they require little else than to be displayed in an appropriate container. I just used some delicate flower buds from the nandina domestica to fill in some of the space.

While the leaves on my haemanthus plant are still green and lush, I wanted to use another one. Unlike some other leaves, like gymea, flax, aspidistra etc, these leaves don't last very well. I usually get about a week out of them before they become yellow. I made a very simple arrangement in a rather tall flat container and used with it my first cottage gladioli (or is it gladiolus?).

I went to the bottom of the garden to see if my white lilac was blooming, when I noticed that behind it, the clematis, which had no flowers the day before, had quite a few ready to be picked. This deciduous creeper is very easy to mistake for a dead twig in winter because its stem is dry and even splits and looks quite dead. That's what happened to my purple one and was removed when we had a new fence put in. I have to replace it.

A month ago I made this arrangement using red dogwood (Cornus Alba Siberica), cymbidium orchids and alstroemeria psittacina leaves. It lasted very well, apart from some of the orchids that died and had to be removed. I watched with fascination as the dogwood brought leaves and then flowers in the vase on the dining table. It's the same arrangement except that, now, it is facing the opposite direction because the leaves and flowers grew facing towards the window.

Bye for now,

Emily