23rd August, 2021

 

Yellow caned bamboo (Geen Stripe Vivax) and Dutch Iris in ceramic
container

Hello all,

The weather, over the two days of the weekend, was absolutely perfect. With lockdown and nowhere to go, I spent as much time as this aging, old body would allow, pottering around in the garden. I've reached the point where I have to take regular breaks from physical work and ikebana helps me with that. As I come across interesting materials, I can stop gardening and start the less physically challenging work of arranging the material. The following arrangement is a case in point.

The curculigo was encroaching on some herbaceous peonies and had to be trimmed. I was struck by the vibrant, orange colour of the stems close to the roots. I rescued them from the compost bin and brought them inside but what to do with them? The pleated leaves are gorgeous but quite soft and can't hold themselves upright without support. After a number of unsuccessful attempts with different containers, I settled on this glass vase, which helped to showcase the pleated leaves as well as hold up the heavy stems. I confess, I debated using any flowers but the colour of the clivias sitting in the bucket, was irresistible.

The thorny branch in the next arrangement is the new growth on a pomegranate tree at the spot from which a large limb had been removed. I don't, normally, name my work but this one brings to mind Colleen McCullough's book, 'The Thorn Birds'.

Another, rather difficult gardening job was the transplanting of a small nectarine tree that was growing in the wrong place. Poor, old Sam had to do some serious digging but he managed it. My job was to prune back the tree to compensate for the root disturbance. I brought the branches with very tight buds indoors and, within a few days, they had flowered. In the meantime, the magnolia soulangiana was flowering prolifically and the spiria was just at the bud stage, so I put them all together in this large 'spring' arrangement.

The flowers on the spiria are very pretty but I much prefer the bud stage.

I made a worrying discovery with the magnolia. Something is eating the flowers and buds. Not Happy!

All around our area the different varieties of wattles have put on a spectacular show and I helped myself to a couple of them.

Wattle with Brushfield's Yellow camellias

Red dogwood (Cornus Siberica alba) wattle and 'By the
Light of the Moon' camellias.

Sometimes flowers are so beautiful that all they need is to be put in a vessel with water. And, no, the arrangement was not photographed crookedly, the little white vase is lopsided.

Bye for now,

Emily