6th June, 2022

Hello all,

For last week's class the theme for the advanced students was 'A Floor Arrangement'. Above is my example. I used two mahonia branches only in a heavy container with with splits on two sides. There was enough interest created by the flowering branches that any more flowers would have been superfluous. Or, to quote Kawana sensei, merely decoration.

Nicole used a single, spreading, bare, magnolia branch in a nageire vase and leucodendrons. We could not, successfully, photograph her arrangement in situ because the pale coloured branches were lost in the background, so we placed it on the roller blind I use for photography.

Vicky used kiwi vine and chrysanthemums in a large glass bowl. She chose to make a low arrangement and placed it under the stairs.

Bredenia also chose to place her very tall arrangement under the stairs. She used two gymea leaves and three strelitzia reginae flowers in two, triangular suibans.

Lucy was absent from class but she did the exercise at home. She made a tall arrangement, which she placed in a corner, using bird's nest ferns, nandina domestica nana and spear grass in a tall ceramic vase.

Mary's curriculum theme was 'Intertwining Plant Materials'. She used red dogwood branches (Cornus

Sibirica Alba), through which she wove dietes leaves. Two disbud chrysanthemums added the floral interest and completed the arrangement.

Wendy had the same theme and she used twisted willow (Salix matsudana 'Tortusa') in two, U-shaped, ceramic containers at some distance from each other. She intertwined the fine branches and added cotoneaster berries to the back and Asiatic lilies in the space created towards the front.

Lei's lesson was 'With Vines Only'. She used a jasmine vine with leaves on it, as well as a bare kiwi vine in a ceramic container with several openings. The chrysanthemum's added the colour.

During some recent, wild and wooly weather a large branch broke away from our fig tree. It still had a few figs on it, which inspired the arrangement, below. I used a mass of pink nerines and agapanthus in a ceramic container with two openings.

I usually write and post my blog on Monday nights. However, this week I will be attending a high school reunion that night, so, I'm posting a little earlier. We have a standing arrangement to meet every year on the first Monday of June at a local pub, with the only exception having been the last two years, due to Covid.

I'd like to share a little reunion anecdote with you. Some years back I walked into the large room at the pub, which is usually slow, being a Monday night, and I looked around to find our group. There was only one table in the far corner of the room with a group of old people sitting around it. I kept looking around to find our group when I noticed one of the 'old people' waving to me. And that's when the realisation hit me like a  sledge hammer - WE ARE THE OLD PEOPLE! If it wasn't so tragic, it would have been hilarious.

Bye for now,

Emily