30th January, 2023

 

Hello all,

The piece of nandina domestica nana, above was broken accidently and was the beginning of the arrangement, above. The agapanthus is one I manipulated to create that curve. The ceramic container has a metallic finish on the top half and black on the lower half.

My next door neighbour's Port St John Creeper (Podranea ricasoliana) grows vigorously over our fence and is now in flower. The flowers tend to drop quite quickly but I enjoy using them even for their short duration.

I used a metal container selected for its curved shape to reflect the curves of the vine. I added a small mahonia leaf.

In the wall arrangement, below, I used a mass of the pale pink, Port St John creeper flowers and another mass of darker pink hydrangeas. The branch material is from a Ficus Benjamina plant I have growing at the front door and which needed trimming. It has an interesting, weeping form.

In the next arrangement, using the same wall container, I used blue agapanthus and crocosmia.

I have my cousin, Nick to thank for the next two arrangements. He brought me this palm inflorescence which is partially dried with the inner parts still green. I managed to secure it in this ceramic container and added gloriosa lilies to one side, creating asymmetry in a very symmetrical piece.

He, also, brought me, among other goodies, these cycad fronds, which I placed in the asymmetric, resin container and added the red berries of Arum Itlicum pictum. 

Bye for now,

Emily

ROSES

 

Hello all,

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!

After 32 years of practicing ikebana, I've come to the realisation that roses are more trouble than they're worth. Yes, I can hear your collective gasps through the ether but hear me out. I have always loved roses and have had them growing all my adult life (that's a long time). But I have struggled with spraying them, pruning them, feeding them and dead heading them, only to find that the roses that appear are often damaged by heavy, spring rain or cooked to a crisp by searing summer heat. And then, when I do manage to cut some healthy flowers, many of them do not last in an arrangement for more than a couple of days. So, it's with a heavy heart, that I acknowledge I can't be bothered with them any more. Some will have to go.

However, having said that, when I was deadheading them for the second time this season, I cut the viable ones and made a couple of arrangements. In the one, above, I used the pink Queen Elizabeth roses with white agapanthus at the back in a ceramic vase. The branch is tortured willow, from which I had stripped the bark than sprayed black.

In the arrangement, below, I used two altissimo roses, placed so as to be looking at each other in this double container. The branch is loquat.

As I was pruning the altissimo rose I almost cut a stem that had this papery nest of an Australian flower wasp attached to it. Some wasps chew leaves into a papery pulp which they use to build their nests, the cells of which are often hexagonal in shape.

My gloriosa lily plants are going gang busters. So many flowers, so little time to arrange them. The problem with these gorgeous blooms, as I mentioned before, is that they have a short stem. This time I extended their length placing them in water vials which I attached to a longer stick, as per photo.

Of course, this can only work if the vial and stick are concealed by other materials. Case in point, the arrangement, below. The lilies make such a vibrant, strong mass that I chose these strong calla lily leaves for balance. I lit the arrangement from the back to highlight the translucent quality of the white spots on the leaves. The ceramic container is one I made a very long time ago.

My stephanotis floribunda is at its absolute best, full of delicately fragrant, pure white flowers. It is a twining, sparsely branched liana, native to Madagascar. Despite knowing that it would only last a couple of days, I wanted to use it anyway.

Once they wilted, I retrieved the hydrangeas and re-used them in the next arrangement. The monstera deliciosa leaves are just too big and floppy to use successfully, so I cut them into these sharp, triangular shapes and hid the hydrangeas behind them.

Bye for now,

Emily

AEONIUM

Hello all,

My aeonium plant (aeonium arboreum 'velour') has grown very big very fast and, because the stems are very soft, pieces have been breaking off. I picked some up and started playing with them.

The very simple arrangement, above, still required some expertise to arrange. Firstly, I selected an interesting piece and trimmed away some flowers as well as some of the lower petals from the flowers that I kept. Then I used a stick wedged between the stem and the wall of the vase to hold the aeonium upright.

You'll notice that the vase has a very convenient slit a third of the way down, allowing for the New Zealand flax to fit through and reach the water.

The next arrangement didn't require much work at all, apart from the selection and trimming of the stems. Also, the choice of container was crucial.

In the next arrangement the vase has three holes on either side. Very handy. I put the stems on either side, meeting inside the container and pinned them together, thus holding each other in position.

Having finished the two nageire arrangements, I put them to the side whilst I worked on the next one. I noticed, then, that they look rather good together as one arrangement using two containers.

Sam was doing some work in the vege patch and rescued the garlic flower in the arrangement, below. There was a New Zealand flax leaf in the bucket, which I took and had a quick look at the shelves of containers. One of them seem to call out to me.

All my arrangements thus far seem quite monochromatic. This is not by design but a coincidence. So lets spice things up a little and add some colour.

My crocosmia are in full bloom, finally. At least one month later than others I've seen in the area. Still, I'm grateful for them now. This beautifully bent one happened naturally. I put a piece of wire through the stem inside the neck of the container to prevent it from resting against the lip.

The reason so many of the crocosmias are bent is because they grow tall and heavy and fall to the ground. As the flower stem grows, it reaches upwards towards the sun, thus creating these interesting angles.

My next arrangement is one of contrasts. The black and white containers, the bent and curved stems of the materials and the orange and blue colours, which are on the opposite side of the colour wheel.

More orange and blue. This time it's the agapanthus and the stem of tiger lily (lilium columbianum). I had manipulated the stem of the agapanthus to create a curve but not the tiger lily. It grew amongst rose bushes where it found an obstruction, causing it to bend.

Bye for now,

Emily

 

A LESSON IN MECHANICS

 

Hello all,

As arrangements go, the one in the photograph, above, is quite large. The urn itself stands a metre tall. I had used it previously for a Christmas arrangement using pine and giant dahlias. 

The arrangement started with Sam, once again, risking life and limb by climbing the ladder to cut the three flowers of the strelitzia nicolai.

Once, safely, on the ground the flowers needed to be prepared by removing dead petals and scraping away the sap that dries on the outside of the 'beak' and looks unsightly. I, then, polished the 'beak' part with an oily cloth to give it a shine but also to bring out its dark green colour.

Before

After

So, having prepared the flowers, I thought I'd give you an explanation of how I managed to use such a big urn. Firstly, I found a plastic bucket that fit snugly in the 'neck' of the urn and cut off the excess, leaving a small piece to act as a handle. I, then, sprayed the edges of the bucket black so as not to show the bright green through the arrangement. I pierced holes and threaded strong wire in a cross pattern just like a cross bar. 

This facilitated the placement of the heavy strelitzia nicolai flowers and stopped them from tipping forward due to the weight.

Once the flowers were in place, I was able to fit in between them the leaves of the same plant. I had, however, cut the leaves down because they are far too big to be used whole. From go to whoa it took me over two hours, not including the work I had done previously on the urn.

The berries in the arrangement, below, are from the plant 'Arum Italicum pictum', the leaves of which have died down and only the stems with the berries remain. I love them at this stage, before all the berries turn red. I wanted to display them the way they grow but I did add some squigly grass as a contrasting element.

A couple of years ago my sister-in-law, Betty gave me a pot of pineapple lilies (Eucomis pallidiflora subs. pole-evansii). This year they produced three flowers, two of which I used in the arrangement, below. I wish I had a way to share their delicious fragrance.The leaves are from the dwarf, variegated iris japonica.

The little container in the photograph, below, looks quite unremarkable, however it has an ingenious feature. In the second photograph you'll notice a protrusion on its underside. This created a hole inside the vase, so that a stem that is inserted there stays perfectly upright. If, like me, you've struggled to keep your material upright in containers that have a small opening, you'll appreciate this little feature. I would like to shake the hand of the person who created it.

Bye for now,

Emily

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Hello and a happy new year to everyone.

The photo, above, is of the 'Vasilopita' we had yesterday. That's a traditional, Greek, New Year's bread, in which is placed a coin. It is, then, divided equally amongst the family members, with everyone hoping that the lucky coin will be in their portion. This year it was in Lucy's piece, the theory being that she will be lucky for the rest of the year.

After the family left, having devoured the 'vasilopita' with copious amounts of iced tea, I started thinking about the blog and realised that I had very little material for this week's post. I went into the garden looking for materials and inspiration. Fortunately, there was plenty of both. It is unusual for me to start making ikebana without any theme or idea or, even, a container to start with. I enjoyed this process and quickly had a number of arrangements ready to photograph.

I have eight pots of sansevieria, four that live on the balcony and four in the bathroom. The particularly cold weather we experienced this past winter affected the plants on the balcony. They were looking quite 'ratty', so I removed a number of the affected leaves and, after tidying up the pots, I swapped them with the bathroom ones, which have done so well up there that they are now flowering. The leaves that I had removed were in the bucket and became the start of the arrangement, below. I used with them the creamy-yellow calla lilies and, because this type of arrangement can look a little two dimensional, I added the vine. The stainless steel trough was a gift from my former student, Margaret Wilson.

The clematis had brought out a few more flowers, after its first flush had died, all of them facing the neighbour's garden and, therefore, had to be cut and brought inside. Both arrangements look very simple but, I can assure you, they were not simple to create.

This elegantly shaped, variegated agave leaf was perfect for my creamy-yellow calla lily. Strong mechanics had to be employed to secure the heavy agave vertically in my self made, ceramic container,

The golden elm (Ulmus glabra Lutescens) is always good value. The branches, often, have interesting shapes and their luscious, golden leaves last quite well in an arrangement. I was looking for a way to display my one and only agapanthus 'Black pantha' flower and the space created by the two elm stems seemed ideal.

I was delighted to see the first two gloriosa lilies fully open and ready for ikebana. However, their short stems are somewhat limiting. Growing nearby is the wisteria, which I cut and removed the leaves from the leaf stalks to create a spiky but delicate structure.

To quote the late Peter Cundall, my guru from Gardening Australia, 'That's your lot for the week'.

Bye for now,

Emily