18th July, 2022

 

Hello all,

As I was removing dead leaves from a large strelitzia reginae clump. I noticed the flower, above, that was about to burst out of its sheath. It's my favourite of all of its stages. I stopped my pruning, cut the flower and walked around the garden, looking for accompanying material. I settled on the agave but I had to  find just the right shape. More searching through the three different clumps of very thorny agaves until I found the one that pleased me most. My haste was due to the fact that the flower was threatening to open at any minute and I wanted to photograph it before it did. As it turned out, it wan't until the next day that it flowered fully. The arrangement still looks great, more than a week later.

At our Ikebana International meeting we were asked to make arrangements using unusual materials. My garden is a little bit bare this time of year but my haemanthus lily leaves, which are growing in a pot, are doing very well so I cut a couple and played with them. The peacock feathers were recently given to me by my student, Maren Buckett, who is decluttering. The bamboo container, apart from being aesthetically appropriate, served as a support for the heavy leaf, which could not be held up by the kenzan alone. 

Having cut a second leaf, I had to arrange it, also - waste not and all that! This time I used with it amaranthus and squiggly grass (Juncus effusus spiralis) in a ceramic container. And here's something I discovered recently about amaranthus. These plants self seed in my garden year after year. I've always cut them to use in ikebana but, recently, I pulled them out, roots and all, washed the soil off and placed them in the container. They lasted longer than two weeks.

At our II meeting I got a large piece of black pine (Pinus thunbergii) for the price of a gold coin. The pine was donated by Chieko Yazaki, head of Shogetsudokoryu School, who is lucky enough to have a large tree. 

I cut a side branch and looked at it. The correct way to place pine in an arrangement is with the pine needles pointing up, the way it grows in nature. See placement, below....

.....but I really liked and wanted to feature the tufts of pine needles face on. They look like some alien creature. I snuck  in a Brushfield's Yellow camellia below the branch with some camellia buds to the back, sadly not visible here. The container is some kind of reconstituted stone and, because of its curved shape, is surprisingly stable and is able to hold the heavy branch, whereas other shaped containers of similar size, would not.

 Ah camellias! Nature's gems. 

To the uninitiated, the simple arrangement, below, looks easy to make. Not so. Firstly, an inordinate amount of time is spent in scouring the tree for just the right shaped branches. Then, some judicial trimming has to take place and, lastly, the right size, shape and colour container must be chosen. Then one hopes that the branches will sit in the container as one had envisaged. If not, mechanics have to be employed. And don't even get me started on the pesky leaves that often face the wrong way. Camellias are stunningly beautiful but require years of experience to handle them properly.

My daughter-in-law, Jeannine, very kindly brought me some long, cumquat branches from her parent's place. I knew she was bringing them but I was expecting there would be a lot more fruit on them, as I wanted to use them in a mass. However, the fruit were quite sparse, necessitating a change of plans. I stripped off all the leaves and left only the fruit. I then had to chose the container, taking into account the length and lightness of my material. At the back of the bottom shelf of containers I had these two glass vases, which have holes on the top half. I placed the branches through the holes and added a couple of Kamo Hon Ami camellias, but, unfortunately, in the photo we lose the space between the vases, in which the tall camellia sits comfortably.

Mary's revision lesson this week was 'An Arrangement in Two or More Containers'. She used New Zealand flax leaves split in half and lisianthus in two, triangular suibans.

And now, I hope you will indulge a doting grandmother showing off her amazingly talented grandson. At today's school athletics competitions Xavier brought home 5 ribbons - 3 firsts, 1 second and 1 third. So proud!

Bye for now,

Emily