AUSTRALIAN NATIVES

 

Hello all,

Those of you who have been following my blog may have noticed that I don't often use Australian native materials. It took me very long time but, I finally, worked out what it is about eucalypts that I don't like. I have been avoiding them instinctively and it recently occurred to me to question why. And here's the revelation - the leaves grow in all directions on a stem and that clashes with my sense of order.

The wall arrangement, above, is made with a eucalypt that I love -  E. Lehmannii. (I did remove most of the leaves). Its chartreuse coloured flowers resemble pom poms. It produced large gum nuts and the buds are tiny, pointy cones which drop as the fluffy flower unfurls. When in an arrangement the little cones make a soft clatter as they drop onto the wooden floor....

.....this is what I found on the floor the morning after I made the arrangement.

We had some very heavy rain yesterday, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Sam and I went to my daughter and son in law's new house to babysit the grandkids. I mentioned before that their new house is on a half acre block with a mature garden. 

In the early evening, when the rain had stopped, I ventured outside. The trees were still laden with water and dripping and the grass was soaked, wetting my feet in my sandals. The birds were starting to chatter again and there was even an odd, confused cicada carrying on very loudly. As I looked around and breathed in the clean air, I realized just how lucky I am to be in a position to enjoy this scene. To me this was like a salve for the soul.

Then, of course, it was time to look around for potential material for ikebana. As a gardener of 34 years, I recognized almost all of the plants on the property. And I was quite delighted to come across a couple I'd never seen before. 

One of them is the tall branch material in the arrangement, below. What I find charming about it is that it has long, thin stems with masses of soft, fluffy foliage at the ends. I haven't worked out what it is called but I'm almost certain it is a native. I teamed it with another native - cream coloured Corymbia ficifolia in a variation No 4 Upright style nageire.

I had featured the arrangement, below on my blog last week. I had the Australian native,  woolly bush (Adenanthos sericeus) with agapanthus. In the interest of recycling and reusing, when the agapanthus died, I replaced them with red and pale pink corymbia ficifolia.

The first of my gloriosa lilies had flowered and I placed them in this very simple arrangement together with curculigo leaves.

A couple of years ago, my sister-in-law, Betty gave me some pineapple lily plants (Eucomis). This is the second year that they are flowering. They're rather soft and floppy and have a delicate fragrance. I used a gold coloured, elm stem for line but also to help with stability.

I was inspired to make an arrangement 'With Green Materials'. This is not to be  confused with the lesson 'With Leaves Only'. Here we can use any kind of material as long as it is green and, also, not artificially coloured. Here I used the seedheads alstroemeria psittacina, aeoniums, gum nuts, pinellia pedatisecta leaves and that mystery material I found at my daughter's garden.

I chose the red, glass container for the contrast in colour with the materials.

Bye for now,

Emily