27th June, 2022

 

Hello all,

A couple of weeks ago I came across a clump of green goddess lilies, which were bigger than any I'd ever seen before. They grow close to a creek, which explains their size but I had difficulty reaching them because the ground is boggy and overgrown with vegetation. It necessitated a subsequent visit, armed with my extendable cutter and gum boots, to reach the flowers. 

Then, at home, I was faced the challenge of arranging such large flowers. In the arrangement, above, I made the wisteria structure large enough as a balance against the size of the lily.

In the arrangement, below, I partially obscured the large flowers with a cascading 'curtain' of cotoneaster branches, laden with berries and the leaves removed.

We, ikebanists, always have a bucket (or, in my case, buckets) full of materials, which we are loathe to discard and which we intend to use at some point. Of course, quite often, these materials become smelly and unusable, necessitating major cleaning jobs. ARGH! 

The photograph, below, is of the bucket around the side of the house in which I have been keeping some bamboo canes. With recent rains the bucket has filled and one of the camellia flowers fell into it, floating on the surface. I found this so charming that I had to share it with you.

I mentioned in a recent post the virtual exhibition of Ikebana International, Mumbai Chapter. The next two arrangements were my contribution to the exhibition.

Mahonia branches with flowers and white and gold chrysanthemums in
ceramic vase

Fig branches and agapanthus in ceramic container

Over a week ago our Ikebana International chapter, in preparation for our upcoming virtual exhibition, had organised for our arrangements to be professionally photographed. More about this later. I bring it up only as a segway to explain my next two arrangements. In my exhibition arrangements I used black pine branches, 'Pinus Yatsubusa', from which I removed a considerable amount of pine needles. These pine needles are much stronger, harder and long lasting than the 'Pinus Radiata' ones, which I usually use, due to the fact that I'm surrounded by them. Well, looking at the mound of needles, I was inspired to do something with them. In the first arrangement I selected pine needles of the same length and used florists' foam in a triangular suiban, into which I inserted them. The salvia stem with flower provided the line to the mass of pine needles.

In the second arrangement I attached pine needles to the rims of two unusual, glass vases with  uneven bases. I added bromeliad flowers, 'Billbergia saundersii'. I, initially, placed the vases on opposite sides.

.....then I tried a different placement.

Mary's curriculum theme was an arrangement 'To Be Viewed from All Sides'. She used Japanese flowering apricot, 'prunus mume', cotoneaster, hydrangea leaves and chrysanthemums.

Bye for now,

Emily