EMILY IN TOKYO: 24th January, 2021

Queen's Tears bromeliad flowers and Pinellia tripartita leaves in
ceramic container

Hello all,

I'd like to start with an announcement that I will be running an Ikebana workshop at the Bulleen Art and Garden Centre on 28th February. For more information please click on the link and then on 'Classes and Workshops' http://www.baag.com.au/

This workshop is one of three that I was booked to conduct last year but were cancelled. I'm happy that things have improved sufficiently to allow for such events to go ahead.

I'm also going to try something I've been wanting to do for some years. I'm going to run an Ikebana Masterclass once a month, beginning in February, for the more advanced students of ikebana. I'm quite excited about this and am really looking forward to it.

After the Zoom demonstration over a week ago, all the surfaces in the house still have arrangements on them. There is nowhere to display any new ones. But I have left over material from the demo as well as new material in the garden that must be used.

In this first one, Vicky gave me three pieces of the fan-aloe (Kumara plicatilis) for the demo. Having used only one, I wanted to play around with another. I love it when I have the opportunity of workshopping some material because I learn about its properties, difficulties etc. In this case, the aloe is soft to the touch but can snap quite easily but, most importantly, it is very heavy. Here's what I did with it.

Fan Aloe with dahlia in ceramic container

I tried to pull out a leaf from my Bromeliad Neoregelia but was not careful enough and pulled out the centre of the plant. I couldn't think of any way to use it other than the way it grows naturally. I merely had to find a suitable container. It looked quite good on its own but I felt I needed to add something more. Hence the wisteria vine.

Bromeliad Neoregelia and wisteria vine in ceramic container

My clump of umbrella grass (cyperus alternifolius), has spread so much that it is encroaching on the grass path. I finally cut it back very hard, digging up all the self seeded plants along the way. This provided me with an abundance of the lovely, long stems. These, too, had to be used and I found a couple of different ways to do so.

Umbrella grass stems and hydrangeas in ceramic container

The container in this next arrangement was brought to me by my good friend, Olga when she dropped in recently. She said that she and her daughter came across it and bought it for me. How lucky am I? And this is not the first time Olga did this. I have another container from her from some years ago, which I have used extensively.

Umbrella grass stems and and leek
flowers in ceramic container

I finally dismantled the large arrangement with the pear branches. As I was about to cut them up and put them in the garden waste bin, an idea emerged and I brought them back inside and started anew.

I trimmed, then balanced the branches downwards on this pedestal with an opening on one side. I placed a small branch inside the cavity, giving the impression that the branches are growing through the wall. I decided on the leek and garlic flowers to complete the arrangement, thinking that the monochrome effect would be smart. Hmmm, maybe.

When I photographed it I found it less impressive than I expected. The skeletal look of the branches was somewhat lost against the dark background and the flowers looked dull.

So, I went out into the garden looking for brighter coloured flowers and there were the dahlias, as bright as bright can be. I also changed the background by placing the arrangement against this chartreuse coloured wall. Two quite different looks. I'm not sure which I like best.