CURVED STEMS

 

Hello all and to those celebrating Lunar New Year, may it be a happy, healthy and prosperous one. 

The photograph of the arrangement, bove, was taken a month ago, when the agapanthus was mainly in bud. I noticed a number of distortions on some of the white flower buds and wanted to use them. I recently bought the glass tubing that's twisted, much like the Gordian Knot, and wanted to use it with the curved agapanthus. After trying a number of other vases to go with it, I settled on this one because the diameter was just right. With the transparency of the glass vase, I had to take care that the part of the stems that were inside the vase were a part of the arrangement. I kept them as straight as I could manage and to the left side of the vase, leaving space on the right side.

And whilst we're on the topic of curves, in the arrangement, below, I used aliams called 'Drumstick', which I manipulated, whilst they were growing, into these curves. I grow almost all my bulbs in pots because I don't have room in the garden for them and I lift them out when they die down and repot them at the right time for the following season. This way I have great success with them. However, the bulbs for these alium are so  small that I missed them and planted other things in the pot they were in. The dear things came up anyway and did very well. 

They are very worth while growing because they last very well as a cut flower. They even dry welI. I made this arrangement 2 weeks ago and, after getting tired of it, I dismantled it and used the same flowers in the next arrangement. An example of the lesson in Book 3- 'Composition of Straight and Curved Lines'.

And just on more with curves. This is a small arrangement for the powder room. I used more of the allium together with squiggly grass in a container that was given to me by my daughter having bought it in The States.

With the current heat and humidity it feels like we're living in the tropics. Both materials I used in the next arrangement are tropical plants. The strelitzia nicolai leaf that has just unfurled has the two tones of green and, of course, the gloriosa lilies are distinctly tropical. My original plan was to have the leaf on the table without a container because it can last for a little while without water. For the lilies I used water vials hidden in the curled up leaf.

Then I thought I'd see what it looked like in a container. I used this large, heavy one made of reconstituted stone, for balance, both visual and actual.

This last one I call 'Lazy Ikebana'. I found the branch structure in the storeroom. It's been there since 2015, when I had originally used it in a demonstration. It needed a touch up of black spray paint but the rest was fine. The flowers are from my next door neighbour's creeper that I have to keep cutting back. It's called Port St John Creeper and it has lovely, long stems, just right for my needs.

Bye for now,

Emily

SWELTERING SUMMER

 

Hello all,

Well, the heat has been relentless here in Melbourne the last couple of weeks, which affects not only me but also my garden, Unfortunately, our rain water tanks, which have  capacity of 14,500 litres, are both empty and we have to rely on mains water. I have a number of hydrangea shrubs, which require regular watering but, also, protection from the searing sun. Sam and I have been covering them with old sheets, over which I spray water periodically. So far, we've managed to prevent them from cooking. By the way, if you decide to do the same, make sure you use white sheets because the dark ones absorb heat and will do more harm than good.

I've managed to do little gardening jobs in the cooler parts of the day and one of them is the constant battle with the wisteria, which is hell bent on climbing the three trees that grow near it. It had also wound itself very tightly around the cordyline and, in the process of disentangling it, I broke a large piece. Hence the arrangement, above. I removed a great number of the leaves. In fact, if you look closely at the stem, the lighter, upper part was covered with leaves. Having removed the superfluous ones, I was able to create this windswept look. The agapanthus is called Queen Mum and has a tinge of pale blue in the lower part of each individual flower. Sadly, it's not visible in the photo.

Eucalyptus lehmannii, commonly known as bushy yate, is my favourite eucalyptus. There are several, mature trees growing in a rather wide median strip in my area. I just managed to catch them before they were past their best. Of course, any time I try to cut something from along the road (never from people's gardens), some passing motorist feels obliged to toot at me, making me jump out of my skin. 

You can be forgiven for thinking that I just placed the stems in the vase but it's not so. It took some trimming and separating the side stems and repositioning them in a more harmonious design. It's a good example of the lesson 'Paying Attention to the Colour of the Container'.

For the first time in, literally, decades, I planted some Cleome Spider Flower seedlings and am now reaping the rewards. I used the first two flowers in a very simple arrangement together with them a lasoo of the errant wisteria.

My Stefanotis is doing particularly well, climbing on the wall next to the balcony. It has a reputation of being a difficult plant but I must have planted it, by fluke, in just the right spot. Its heavily perfumed, pure white flowers frame one side of our balcony, where we've been having our dinners of late. An added bonus is a little bird (species unknown) with a long beak, which comes for the nectar. The plant is also a memento of my colleague, Joan Norbury, who, having heard me say that I like Stefanotis, arrived at my doorstep with a pot of it. The only down side is that the flowers don't last very long in an arrangement. The one, below, barely lasted two days.

With left over umbrella grass stems, I made the arrangement, below. In order to get the jagged lines, I had to wire the stems, which was quite a struggle because they are not tubular and don't allow the wire to penetrate. I used crucifix orchids in two matching, ceramic vases. 

Like all gardeners, I too, have my failures. Out of a whole packet of sunflower seeds, I only got three flowers. The one, below, was growing close to the strelitzia nicolai, which had a fresh leaf, just starting to unfurl. So I cut them both and married them together in this next arrangement.

Bye for now,

Emily

GLORIOUS GLORIOSA

 

Hello all,

Recent, consistently warm weather caused my gloriosa lilies to flower prolifically. In fact, they went berserk! The problem is that there are so many, it's hard to use all of them in ikebana but I gave it a darn good try. It's important to cut the flowers, so that more will come later and, because we have no classes, I can't share them with students. I can't share them with family either because we are self isolating, as we are close contacts with someone who tested positive to covid. Fortunately, our first test came back negative but we need to have a second one before we're out of the woods.

In the wall arrangement, above, I used umbrella grass stems to create a structure of surfaces using lines. Because of their short stems, I used the gloriosa lilies as a mass.

The next arrangement is one I made last week in which I featured my dark purple agapanthus. The structure took some time and effort to create and I didn't want to dismantle it after just one week, so I replaced the spent agapanthus with gloriosas.

The next one came about because one of the flowers had broken away without a stem and, not wanting to throw it away, I placed it inside this lopsided, glass container. It looked a bit lonely on its own, so I gave it a companion - the wine decanter and another gloriosa lily.

The flowers on some of my curved agapanthus had died but their stems were still useable and, together with an old, dry, coloured stem, I made the next arrangement. The gloriosas are there as the floral accent.

The down side to these delightful flowers is their short stems. There are ways, however, to overcome this problem in certain situations. In the next arrangement, in order to sit the flowers higher than they would reach, if in water, I adopted a method used by Ikenobo demonstrator from Indonesia, Andy Djati Utomo. He had attached a florists' water vial to a stick so that he could elevate some beautiful orchids with short stems. I did this for one of the flowers and, for the other, I used an old, narrow eye dropper, that I've had lying around for years. Please don't ask me where I got it from, as I don't remember. Of course, we can only use these methods when we can successfully conceal them.

And here's the arrangement using variegated sansevieria with the gloriosas.

I haven't used any of the gloriosa leaves, even though they are quite beautiful in themselves. That's because I would have to cut some side shoots, which would eventually bring buds and I don't want to sacrifice those future flowers. I thought, however, that you would be interested to see the delightful 'hook' that's at the end of each leaf. This is the way this creeper supports itself against whichever host it finds. The leaves, mostly, attach to other leaves using this 'hook', which is remarkably strong for something that looks so delicate.

Bye for now,

Emily

10th January, 2022

 

Colours in a similar tonal range

Hello all,

The arrangement, above, is very much a summer one. The crocosmia, which are in full bloom at the moment, were very late in flowering compared to others I've seen in gardens quite close to ours. I haven't been able to work out why my plants are always late to flower but it can be quite frustrating. There are also clivias and a fatsia leaf that changed colour out of season. The berries are from  herbaceous plant called Arum Italium - pictum. Below is a photo of an arrangement I made over a year ago using the flowers of this plant.

Someone, who shall remain nameless, broke a very large piece of my aeonium and handed it to me. It's an awkward piece because it is quite heavy and long ( just under a metre) and was growing downwards with the flowers looking up. Placing its stem in water was going to be a challenge.

 I needed a tall and heavy container, so I settled on this stove pipe, ceramic vase with an unusual opening. It had, actually broken and I sanded down the rough edged and painted them the same colour as the vase. It did the trick. It's a big and sturdy vase, so I was able to wedge a horizontal fixture to hold up the curved stem of the aeonium.

Having secured it into the vase with the flowers looking up, as they should, I had to decide what else I could use to finish the piece,

I trimmed some of the more errant flowers, then I tried a number of different materials and found them wanting. In the end I went with canna lily leaves, which have a rich, reddish brown colour to complement the aeonium. But they were not enough. I added some large hydrangeas with a tinge of pink in them but I did not want them to dominate, so I partially concealed them with the leaves. Below is the completed piece, in situ under the stairs.

By anyone's standards, I have an overabundance of the regular, garden variety agapanthus but only two plants of the dark purple ones, that Vicky gave me a couple of years ago. I looked them up and I believe this variety is called Purple Cloud. They are quite lovely and  I wanted to feature them, hence the arrangement, below. I thought that the white would be a great foil for the dark purple and it was but, I felt, it needed a bit more, so a couple clivia flowers peeking from underneath, was just enough.

I've used osage oranges, Maclura pomifera, many times before but this time I wanted to try something different. This is what the fruit looks like in its natural state. 

And this is what they look like after I sprayed them gold.

And here they are in an arrangement with smoke bush and hydrangeas in a metal vase.

Bye for now,

Emily

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

Hello all,

And a very happy new year to each and every one of us. 2022 has just got to be an improvement on the last two!

My New Year's arrangement, above, is quite traditional and naturalistic, however, it is in a modern, lacquered suiban. I would not, ordinarily, mix the different styles but I wanted a large suiban and I like the bright red of the inside of the container. I used a number of materials - the obligatory pine, roses, hydrangeas, calla lilies, dill flowers and a pinellia pedatisecta leaf. And, of course, a spray of mizuhiki, in this case, multicoloured.

Below is an arrangement using one leek and one garlic flower. They are almost the same. The metal container is a recent op shop purchase and the leaf is pinellia pedatisecta, commonly known as green dragon.

Below is a closeup of the leaf which grows in a unique way. It creates a spiral from which the leaves extend outwards. The second photo is of the stem, which is considerable in length and has these interesting colourations. The bulbs for these herbaceous plants were given to me by my colleague, Lara Telford and it took some effort, mostly on Lucy's part, to find out its name.

I was given a lovely bunch of flowers at Christmas comprising of cellocias, delphiniums and gypsophila. I made two arrangements - one I featured in last week's post, using the cellocias and gypsophila with pine in a table arrangement.

And the second, using the delphiniums and some of my hydrangeas in a heavy, ceramic container.

We, also, received a lovely bunch of Singapore orchids from our daughter and her family for a recent wedding anniversary. These orchids are not easy to use in ikebana but I was prepared to rise to the challenge.  Because the individual flowers tend to droop downwards, I put them in this narrow, glass vase where I could coax them to look up as they wedged against the glass. The coloured, wisteria vine was necessary to create both space and line.

The second arrangement gave me a lot more trouble. Firstly to get the three stems of pine to sit upright when they were not long enough to reach the kenzan, necessitating other mechanics, including wiring. And, secondly, trying to photograph it. I lost count of how many photos I took. This is the best of a bad bunch. The container is ceramic with a twisted wisteria handle.

I leave you with two arrangements I did just for fun.

Left over pine with an interesting stem and Asiatic lily

Distorted calla lily and leaves.

Bye for now,

Emily