25th October, 2021

 

Hello all,

A number of the flowers of my strelitzia reginae have developed these unusual shapes because, I believe, their double heads are heavy and droop downwards. Whatever the reason, I love their look of birds with attitude. 

Our Sogetsu October workshop was moved on line and the topic, chosen by Aileen Duke, was to 'Make an arrangement using unconventional materials with a focus on transparency'. Please go to https://sogetsuikebanavic.weebly.com/  and click on Recent Workshops for examples of arrangements by Aileen as well as members' arrangements. Below is my arrangement. The unconventional, transparent materials are two panels of tempered glass that came from a freezer we recently got rid of. Over the top of the container I placed pieces of ceramic tiles. The floral material is clematis, which I wove in between and behind the panels of glass.

It had taken quite an effort and considerable time to create the structure, so that, when the clematis died, I wanted to use the structure again but with different materials. This time I used altissimo roses and crucifix orchids. However, as always, photographing glass is fraught with problems because there is no way to avoid reflections.

It's the middle of spring and the roses are going gang busters. I cut quite a number of a particularly fragrant rose, whose name I don't know, because I wanted that fragrance in the house. With the prickly, thorny roses in one hand, I went into the storeroom looking for inspiration amongst the containers and dried materials that I have in great abundance. I settled on these two matching, ceramic containers and the bleached driftwood and I cut a number of the ornithogalums to complete this rather large arrangement. This was my first attempt, which I placed on the island bench, thus enjoying the fragrance all through the house.

A few days later, as the roses were aging, I tried again. I cut fresh roses but used the same ornithogalums and re-worked the arrangement.

A few weeks ago we pruned our walnut tree quite heavily, as it was growing too tall making it difficult to reach to collect the nuts. I kept some of the branches in a bucket and, finally, this week I arranged them. My sister-in-law, Betty had given me two stems of these magnificent hippeastrums. They are so big and vibrant that they needed the large structure created with the walnut branches. I used, also, some large viburnum opulus flowers and alstroemeria psittacina leaves in a self made, ceramic container.

Another thing that needed pruning was this self seeded fern that's growing too close to my altissimo rose, thus creating humidity and, ultimately, fungal diseases. I cut it right back, which gave me plenty of fronds, with which to play.

With this next arrangement, I started off using the first of my spuria iris as the accent flower but, after photographing it, I felt it was a little insipid. So I tried the red rose in stead, which I like better.

Bye for now,

Emily

18th October, 2021

 

Hello all,

Sam commented that the above arrangement looks like a sailing ship. I suppose it does, now that I think about it, especially the shape of the container. The painted branch material is from a pomegranate tree. It is the new growth from where a large limb had been removed. The flowers are cymbidium orchids and the leaves are dietes in a resin container.

All around our area there are flowering callistemons. They make quite a show. I was particularly taken with this pink one and felt it would be ideal for a basket arrangement. The white of the ornithogalum enhances the bright pink of the callistemon.

I'm continuing to enjoy the flag iris, which have a short lifespan but, as I mentioned before, I have a lot of them and they continue to flower. Below is an arrangement in the traditional style but in two containers and using two different coloured iris. The rhizome for the one on the right was given to me by a former student, Lyn Thomas, who referred to it as 'flesh coloured'. I spent some time searching for it on the internet, where I found a catalogue of 102 different coloured flag iris but it was not amongst them. I found it, eventually, in an old book on iris that I've had for decades. I'm quite confident that it is the one called 'Smoke Rings'

Our scheduled Ikebana International workshop for October was conducted through Zoom, with Christopher James demonstrating and answering questions. He chose the theme of 'An arrangement of Spring Flowers in a nageire vase'. He went on to explain that, according to strict Sogetsu rules, only flowers that are available in spring and that do not grow on branches or vines are to be used. Christopher demonstrated this in his first arrangement but, taking in to consideration that there are other schools of ikebana, in his second arrangement he used native branch materials. We, the members, were then required to make our own arrangements and send the photographs to the secretary to be included in our instagram page. For those of you on Instagram our account is - ikebanainternationalmelbourne

As a Sogetsu teacher, I wanted to adhere to our rules regarding the suitability of flowers for this exercise and I was waiting for some flowers to open before I made my arrangement. Because they were taking too long, I opted for using different but available materials - coral aloe, clivias and flag iris in a large, ceramic vase.

However, just before the cut-off date, I managed to coax my hippeastrum to flower by putting the stem in warm water overnight. Also, the ornithogalums opened up sufficiently to be used. This is my preferred arrangement. Also, I'm particularly fond of this lacquered nageire container.

I had quite a few of the coral aloe left over prompting me to try using them in a way other than a mass. They have interesting lines and side shoots, that I wanted to focus on. Looking around the garden for complementary material, the strelitzia reginae was a no-brainer. The 'container' is a platter with holes in it sitting on top of a large suiban with kenzans in it.

Rummaging around one of my very cluttered storerooms, I came across this travertine, tsubo vase, that I haven't used in decades. Still in the storeroom, I found this dry branch material that worked very well with the container. The flowers are orange and yellow clivias and ornithogalums.

This year, for the first time, some of the flowers of my viburnum opulus are so big that they look like large hydrangeas. Unfortunately, because of the weight of these large flowers, they break away from the stem and can't be used. This arrangement, below, was one way of using such a flower with its very short stalk.

Bye for now,

Emily

11th October, 2021

 

Hello all,

Above is a quintessential spring arrangement with flowering crab apple branches and flag iris flowers. Ordinarily, I use the flag iris in traditional arrangements using the full stem of the flower as well as a large number of leaves. Below is an example of that style. However, I have a greater number of flowers that other years, thanks to my student Nicole, who brought a whole lot of rhizomes to share with the class two years ago. Therefore, I can afford to cut the top flower of each stem because that's the one that opens first and use it as an individual flower.

Front view

Side view 

    

Very often, after finishing an arrangement and placing it in its designated spot, I will look at it and find fault and will need to correct it. Other times, one or more of the materials may die whilst the rest of the arrangement is still viable and I will, simply, have to replace the dead materials. Below are some examples of this.

I made a slight change to the wall arrangement, below but I was happier with the corrected version.

Before - lilac and nandina domestica
flower buds

After - Lilac and nandina domestica flower
buds and leaves

I made the arrangement, below, because I wanted to use the few flowers that my wisteria produced and the last of the rhododendron. 

 

Unfortunately, the rhododendron flowers died after two days and I replaced them with clematis. I had to re-work the arrangement a little bit but I was happy with the result.

My altissimo rose has just flowered, rather late, compared to my son's that has been in full flower for weeks but I'm grateful nevertheless. One stem had an interesting bend and I wanted to use it. I removed a large number of subordinate stems to reveal the curve and made an arrangement using two small, triangular suibans. 

After photographing it and moving away from it, I came back and it struck me that the lines I wanted to emphasize were not so clear. By removing the central branch, the lines became clearer.

Out in the garden I was admiring the length of the jonquil leaves, some of which are more than 70cm tall, and wanted to use them in some way. I also had an anthurium in my indoor plant that I've been looking for an opportunity to use. The two materials came together quite well. That is until later, when I decided that the flower was a bit too small for the size of the leaf structure and looked around for other material with which to replace it. I settled on the viburnum opulus.

Before

After

And while we're on the subject of viburnum opulus, I like some of the interesting shapes of the stems of this small tree. 

Bye for now,

Emily

4th October, 2021

 

Hello all,

Well, we're into the second month of spring and the plants in my garden seem to be in competition with each other as to which one will flower first and most prolifically. I can barely keep up because I want to make arrangements with all of them since I won't get another chance until next year.

The clematis is absolutely amazing this year. It is growing over the lilac and keffir lime trees, which it has almost obliterated with its large flowers (20 cm in diameter).

The difficulty with this material is that, because it is a vine, it is difficult to untangle from whatever host it is growing on. Also, it grows downwards making it necessary to arrange it draping downwards. If, as a teacher, I was correcting the arrangement, above, I would have suggested to the student to remove one or two of the flowers. However, I din't have the heart to do that. I guess it's a case of  'Do as I say not as I do'.

Before I go any further, last week I wrote about the upcoming Zoom demonstration by Master Instructor Kosa Nishiyama. I wrote all the details but forgot to include the the following:

Meeting ID - 84165022590

Pass code - Sogetsu

If you don't, already, have the Zoom app, you will need to download it.

Also, for my Australian readers, we are on daylight saving time, therefore, the demonstration will be at 5.30 Eastern Australian Daylight Saving Time. I do hope you will avail yourselves of the opportunity to watch a demonstration by a Master Instructor.

Covid necessitated another one of our proposed exhibitions to be moved on line. This was planned for September and our group was to join the Wa Exhibition. The organisers did an excellent job of putting together the on line exhibition, which I invite you to visit by clicking on this link https://bit.ly/WaMelbourne2021

I contributed two arrangements to said exhibition:

Agave in very large fish bowl container

Spiria and arum lilies in ceramic container

Like the clematis, my viburnum opulus (snow ball tree) is laden with flowers. The arrangement, above, is from the lesson 'In a Suiban without a Kenzan'. This was particularly challenging because the stems are very long (about 1 metre) and quite top heavy making balance quite difficult. The strelitzia reginae, which is resting on the stems is also quite heavy. It is important when making this arrangement not to rest the stems against the walls of the container. It should be able to stay upright on  its own.

I thought it would be interesting to show you just how much material was removed from the branches before they were arranged.

All through winter I was admiring a large, deciduous tree (name unknown) across the road from our house. Its bare branches were covered in bright yellow lichen. I can't tell you how much I coveted those branches but they were too high for me to reach, even with my extendable cutter. Well, as luck would have it, a large branch fell a few days ago and the opportunity could not be missed. Of course, now it has leaves but I trimmed it heavily and made sure that the flowers were kept tightly in the centre of the arrangement, allowing the lichen covered stems to show.

Lichen covered branches, clivias and chrysanthemums in self made
ceramic container

Close up of the lichen

And last but not least, another much loved material, my white lilac. I wish I could share with you its delicate fragrance.

Bye for now,

Emily