MIFGS

 

Photograph curtesy of Lei Wang

Hello all,

The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show (MIFGS) has been and gone. The Ikebana International site was bigger than any other year. It comprised a 12 metre, white wall with arrangements on both sides. The theme this year was Monet/Manet. Also, each arrangement had an obi incorporated in the design. This was the connecting element for our exhibition. 

Exhibiting at MIFGS can be quite arduous, logistically. It requires weeks of planning, not only by the individual exhibitors but by the committee, curator and other volunteers. I'm happy to declare that things went very smoothly, with everyone cooperating and helping as necessary. And, of course, we were very pleased with the result and the presentation of Third Prize in our category - Visual Display Competition.

The arrangement, above, was done by me and Lucy. We decided to take advantage of the use of both sides of the wall to create an arrangement with an optical illusion. On one side we had a very tall urn with a pine branch that stopped at the wall. On the other side another pine  branch started from the wall and stretched over a 'pond', in which we placed Dutch iris, water lilies and drift wood. We created the illusion that the pine branch went through the wall. As you can imagine, it was quite difficult to photograph. It took Lei's photographic skills to do it.

There should be photographs of the rest of the arrangements on our instagram account - 

ikebanainternationalmelbourne.

So, back at home, my haemanthus coccineus lily produced two flowers, which demanded to be arranged. Their short stems can be somewhat limiting but they worked well in the triangular container. In the other, matching, triangular container I placed beefsteak begonia leaves (Begonia erythrohpylla). They, too, have short stems and worked well, placed at the front of the container. With 2 different massed materials, I needed line and space. That's where the wisteria vine came in handy.

As I mentioned before, I've had great success with my gloriosa lilies and, having staggered the planting, I've had a much longer flowering period. Below is the last of my flowers for the season. I wanted it to be the main feature, so placed it in a simple container and added only some squiggly grass.

I planted a few sunflower seeds some weeks ago and forgot all about them. I was pleasantly surprised to see that a handful of them grew and flowered. Obviously, they were of a small variety but they were welcome anyway. Again, I wanted the flower to be a feature, so I made a mass of cathedral begonia leaves on top of the container, which are rather dark and which allowed the sunflower to shine.

The flowers of stinking iris (Iris foetidissima), are pale and quite insignificant but after they die down they produce pods of bright red berries, which are definitely worth growing for. Because they have a draping habit due to the weight, I placed them in the taller container and in the lower container I placed only leaves - cordylines, cathedral begonia and cala lily leaves. 

Five weeks ago I posted the photograph, below. It is of the arrangement I made at the Sogetsu workshop in which we were to use aspidistra leaves. Those of you who have used this material before will know that it lasts a long time. In fact, the Japanese refer to it as 'cast iron plant'. Well, true to form, the aspidistra leaves are as fresh today as they were then. When the accompanying materials died, I kept replacing them. So far the arrangement has had four incarnations.

     

Original arrangement from Sogetsu
workshop

Second incarnation - dahlias and pomegranates (apologies for the blurry photo)

Third incarnation - Proteas and pomegranates

Fourth incarnation but not necessarily the last.
Pomegranates, chrysanthemums, alstroemeria, crucifix orchid and wooden hoop 

Mary's class theme was changing the look of the material. She used a tree phylodendron leaf from which she removed most of the fleshy material between the 'veins' leaving just the ends. She, then, caught them, creating a balloon shape. Initially, she used roses, inside and out of the 'balloon' but then wanted to try using an amaranthus stem, instead. You decide which you prefer.

 

 

Bye for now,

Emily