17th May, 2021

 

Hello all,

We've had some particularly cold days recently, a taste of things to come and the deciduous trees around Melbourne have put on a spectacular show. There are many streets around my area, lined with Manchurian pears, which begin to colour unevenly at first and gradually turn a dark red. They are stunning in autumn as well as in winter with bare branches showing the little buds on the ends of the stems and, of course, in spring with their clusters of white flowers. The only down side is the unpleasant smell of the flowers. Well, no tree is perfect!

I made a wall arrangement, above, using Manchurian pear branches and the last of my hydrangeas. The 'container' is a piece of art made of aluminium which was given to me by Lucy in my early days of ikebana and is, therefore, much prised. 

Despite the cold weather, Sam and I have been out in the garden, clearing the vegetable patch and, in the process, harvested the pumpkins. They should be allowed to 'cure' by sitting in the sun for about a week, then being stored away. Before I do that, however, I wanted to have some fun with them. 

I was clearing up after the last Masterclass and came across some of the vertical blinds strip that was left behind by Julie. I picked it up and almost had it in the bin when the compulsive part of me took over and I started playing with it. Below is the result. Julie used this material in a tight, smart arrangement. Mine is a bit more predictable but fun, anyway. I used a single pomegranate and a rather confused clivia, flowering completely out of season.

It was Mothers' Day last week and my mother, who is living with us, was given a large bunch of gorgeous tulips by her grandchildren. Mum loves big, colourful flowers and I wanted to arrange the tulips making a big show of them alone. I settled on this 'tsubo' shaped container with holes all around making it possible to create this flowery ball. They looked lovely for a couple of days but tulips have the annoying habit of continuing to grow and to follow the light, so the arrangement lost its shape but the flowers still looked good and mum loved them.

The first of my arum lilies flowered and I used them with this curved Viburnum Tomentosum stem. The container has a similar curve. An example of paying attention to the shape of the container.

Below is another wall arrangement, using a partially dried strelitzia nicolai leaf, dahlias and cumquats.

I leave you with this cheeky little arrangement using cotoneaster berries and a cosmos flower.

Bye for now,

Emily