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