28th February, 2022

 

Hello all,

The arrangement, above, is made using three of my much prized apples and a branch of the same apple tree. I also used some nandina domestica nana that's just changing colour. The tall vase is stainless steel.

All of our fruit trees, apart from the fig, have produced much fewer fruit than previous years. I managed to safeguard from the local fauna, a couple of dozen of the apples by covering them with plastic bags. I suspect this is the reason that they have none of their usual, reddish strips of colour.

It is Amaryllis belladonna time and I have loved going out into the garden to see these snake-like stems come up from the dirt and, in no time at all, they have produced a large flower head comprising of clusters of up to thirty funnel-shaped flowers. In my garden I have pink, cream and one red. I had divided the bulbs a couple of years ago because they were very crowded, so I had only a couple of flowers last year. I'm very pleased to say that I have many more this year.

Belladonna lilies with willow stems twisted, dried and sprayed white. Glass vase

Philodendron selloum and belladonna lilies in ceramic container

Weeping elm stem and belladonna lily in ceramic tsubo vase

Frilly fishbone fern and red belladonna lily in ceramic container

Last week we had our very first Sogetsu workshop, run by Elizabeth Angell. The theme was 'An Ikebana Arrangement Incorporating Paper'. My arrangement is below. 

I had a very pretty, Japanese, double sided paper, which I cut into strips, in similar width to the New Zealand fax I was using. I draped two long strips over the flax and added pink cleome spider flowers, picking up the colour on one side of the paper. To see Elizabeth's demonstration arrangements as well as those made by our members, please click Sogetsu Victoria and then 'Recent Workshops'.

Bye for now,

Emily