EMPHASISING THE DIAGONAL LINE

Late last year we had some very strong wind-storms which badly damaged a large Pomaderris bush . It was sited against a side fence in the garden that screened the neighbouring property. After removing the damaged branches I decided that I really needed to replace the whole bush. The gap left was 2.5 metres in diameter.

My remedy was to fill the space with two small Banksia praemosa plants and two hybrid Grevillia plants. Gardening does school us in the practise of patience.

Elsewhere in the garden...

 ...I was surprised to notice one of the Japanese quinces Chaenomeles japonica had produced a large yellow fruit, 7cm in diameter. 

When I looked more closely I counted 10 fruit altogether. Possibly enough to make a single small pot of marmalade!

Recently I had picked a number of Aspidistra leaves for some ikebana practise. I then placed them behind a door in a vase with some water and forgot about them. 

Six weeks later I found they were in a transitioning stage as they started to dry. I thought the colours were particularly beautiful and their lines most elegant. I set them in a red glazed vase by Alistair Whyte in a recessed shelf. The translucence of the leaf on the right was richly enhanced by the overhead light.

This year the Belladonna lilies Armaryllis belladonna, were about three weeks late from their usual flowering. I am sure the delay was caused by the drier-than-usual summer. Their pink trumpets were very eye-catching and ideal for an ikebana arrangement.

Above is my ikebana from two weeks ago. The Golden Rod Solidago canadensis needed to be replaced. However, the Agapanthus stems, which had started to turn yellow, still looked fine.

I started by trying to fill in the triangular space between the dried flower-heads with the Belladonna flowers. However, only one stem was long enough. This meant I needed to change my idea. Instead, by leaning two of the Belladonna stems to the left, I was able to create a cascading diagonal line of flowers above the leaning Agapanthus stems. This created a very different movement to the first ikebana.

Greetings from Christopher

12th April 2026
 

PHOTINIA

Autumn is in the air, warm sunny days with little wind.

Laurie and I had a walk through Taylor Park in Torquay, where I took this photo of a large flock of ducks. After I took the photo I noticed that a duck was sitting on the table beside the older gentleman. 

In the Melbourne class I had set the students the task of making an ikebana using succulent materials.

Jacqueline used a Japanese footed-vase in which she arranged three different materials. The principal line to the right is a stem of silver dollar plant, Crassula arborescens. In the centre is a single small leaf from an Agave attenuata . And on the left is a single "Black rose", Aeonium arboreum. 

Eugenia used a modern ceramic vase made from intersecting cylinders. The striped succulent on the right is Haworthiopsis, behind it is a Sedum flower and the fruiting stalk of another succulent. On the left side Eugenia draped some 'Air Plant'  Tillandsia-subg-diaphoranthema.

Marcia arranged her materials in a hand-made vessel with a large flat surface and a narrow slit. She also used the 'silver dollar' plant and a green form of Crassula.

During last week we spent three nights visiting friends and family in the hilly country about 100km north of Melbourne. This is a very scenic part of the state with a much higher rainfall and lower winter temperatures than on the coast. Hence there are beautiful gardens to visit that look like this one: Forest Glade Gardens. We were taken there by our friends Colin and Tony who live at Woodend. At the back of their garden the Photinia P. glansmispel x fraseri , hedge had recently been pruned which resulted in new growth of strikingly red leaves.

I was permitted to cut some stems of the Photinia, from which I then made two complementary ikebana arrangements in tapering conical glass vases, one white and the other black. The tallest branch on the right side is the main line of the white vase and the low line on the left is from the black vase. Each of the  two ikebana arrangements is complete in itself; however, because of the flattening effect of the photo and being only one material, this is it not obvious.

Greetings from Christopher

5th April 2026

CONTRAST OF MASS AND SPACE

During the week I had a walk on the Pt Roadknight beach.  We are only a week away from a full moon so the tide was particularly low.

Because of the extra low tide it was possible to enjoy the beauty of this exceptionally sheltered beach and walk safely from there to the Anglesea beach.

I have always liked the way the long line of rocky reef stretches to the east at Point Roadknight with its rocky outcrops of diminishing height. At Torquay only the Front and Fisherman's beaches are sheltered from the westerly winds and swell.

At a recent class in Melbourne, Aileen made this ikebana using three glass vessels. She had added food colouring to create a layering of depth and colour. The botanical materials are a trimmed Arum lily Zantedeschia, leaf and a spent Arum flower, also trimmed.

In Geelong, Anne created her first freestyle ikebana She has used an ornamental grass and two Sedum, flower-heads.  Her unexpected challenge was that the hole through the middle of the vessel made it difficult to position the materials.

In the class Jo created the ikebana above "Incorporating Metal" because she had not been able to attend the Sogetsu Branch Workshop on that theme in the previous week. She has used metal-covered flexible connectors for (pumping up bicycle tyres) plumbing (Editor's note) and Japanese Maple Acer palmatum, leaves.

In the garden the Golden Rod Solidago canadensis has done well again this year. Unfortunately, I took this photo just after some heavy rain and the flowers are damaged. However, I had picked some a few days earlier. 

I made this ikebana with four stems of the Golden Rod and three spent Agapanthus stems. I had cut and de-seeded the Agapanthus a week or so earlier and kept them in a cool dark room. Interestingly, the stalks on the inflorescence had started to yellow - which harmonised with the other material. I wanted to emphasise the geometry of mass and space that the materials allowed. In particular, I have created a triangular space between the vertical and slanting lines of the Agapanthus stems. To the left is a triangular mass of Golden Rod flower heads which is inverted, relative to the space.

Greetings from Christopher

28th March 2026

WORKING with METAL

A few weeks ago I noticed this beautiful old Eucalyptus tree in a nearby paddock. I am impressed by the story of survival that it tells. A large portion of the trunk on the left side died sometime ago. However, the part on the right survived and continues to flourish. There is great beauty revealed by the tree's resilience. Sometimes ikebana can reflect this kind of beauty.

At class I set my Torquay students the exercise of making an ikebana incorporating fruit or vegetables.

Róża arranged Kale leaves showing the upper and underside surfaces. She then added a thin Capsicum for its curving form and bright red contrast.

Lyn arranged branches of Kaffir Lime with fruit of various sizes. She also placed a very small Cabbage head Brassica oleracea, at the base of the large branch on the left.

Kerryn arranged some Passionfruit Passiflora edula, vine and fruit around and within a large open clear glass vessel. She was particularly attracted to the fine tendrils of the plant. A large Eggplant Solanum melongena, was added in front of the vessel. 

In my Geelong class Maureen and Ellie did the same exercise.

Maureen used a ceramic bottle-shaped vessel in which she arranged an Agapanthus, seed head, some Spider grass Liriope spicata, and three Bitter gourds Momordica charantia on the side of the bottle..

Ellie arranged a Broccoli, some red-veined Silverbeet Beta vulgaris, leaves and Bananas Musa, in a Japanese stemmed ceramic vase. 

In an earlier class...

...Christine arranged straight and curving stems as well as florets of Aeonium arboreum in a suiban.

On that occasion, Ellie arranged two contrasting types of Crassula leaves as a small sculptural work using a dried piece of driftwood.

Last Monday the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School held its AGM. It was followed by a workshop that was led by my colleague, Emily Karanikolopoulos on the theme of "Working with Metal".

This is my sculptural ikebana from the workshop. I have used two disks covered with aluminium foil, and shiny aluminium mesh which creates a Moiré pattern where it overlaps. The resin vessel is slightly translucent and a deep red. I have set a partially-hidden Crucifix orchid Epidendrum radicans, flowerhead high in the ikebana.

Greeting from Christopher
22nd March 2026

 

INCORPORATING SMALL CHOPSTICK STRUCTURES

I was delighted to see this visitor to our garden today, a juvenile Kookaburra. It is only the second time I have seen one in our garden. About one kilometre away, further along the (intermittent) creek below our house, Kookaburras are commonly seen and, even more often, heard.

My Melbourne students recently completed the exercise of including in their ikebana a structure made with disposable Chopsticks (hashi in Japanese).

Aileen painted her structure blue to complement this unusual Japanese ikebana vase. She used white Freesias to create a small focal mass at the mouth of the vessel.

Eugenia was unable to find any disposable Chopsticks so she bought a small split bamboo table mat which she deconstructed. She then wired the individual lengths of bamboo into triangles and set them in her triangular vessel. Her botanical materials are fine-leafed Nandina and white Chrysanthemum flowers.

Jacqueline was unfamiliar with the exercise of wiring chopsticks into small structures. Being a creative and resourceful person, she devised her own method of creating two seperate structures. She did not break the chopstick pairs apart, but inserted the points into each other. She then created two structures, with three pairs of interlocked chopsticks in each, connecting them with a spiral of stiff green paper ribbon. Her botanical material was also white Chrysanthemum flowers. She used a Japanese footed trough-shaped vase.

In my ikebana this week I reused a Chopstick structure I had  previously made at a workshop in October 2018. On this occasion I positioned it horizontally in a ceramic vase so that it stretched to the right. I then added a single Aralia leaf at the mouth of the vase and a single branching stem of Dietes grandiflora inserted through the framework of the structure.

The vase, which was a gift to me, is by an as yet unidentified Australian ceramicist.

Greetings from Christopher

15th March 2026

AGAPANTHUS and CHRYSANTHEMUM

A couple of days ago I photographed this beautiful Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo munching on a pine cone as we were walking along the nearby creek path.

I am suspicious that the loud thump of a falling pine cone close to where we were standing was the result of a deliberately aimed projectile. I don't think it liked being stared at.

The following day there was a  pair of the cockatoos in the Banksia in our front garden. The bird is facing to the left and chewing on the seeds of a "cone" (which I have just learnt is an 'infructescence') that it is holding in its claw.

Last week I gave my senior Geelong students the exercise of "exchanging materials and vessels". This meant making an ikebana using an unfamiliar vessel with materials that had not been chosen with that vessel in mind.

Ellie had some branches of crabapple Malus, and some Hydrangea to arrange in a small suiban. Her final solution was to create an ikebana to be viewed from above. She set the Hydrangea toward one end of the vessel and floated a single flower and three Malus fruit on the surface of the water. When I took the photo the fruit had inconveniently floated up against the Hydrangea inflorescence.

Helen had a narrow square-fronted vessel which she angled away from the viewer. In the vessel she secured a tall branch of Grevillea and a mass of Clivia fruit.

Maureen's materials were Euphorbia (serpens, I think), two Lotus Nelumbonaceae, pods and a bunch of Grass tree Xanthorrhoea leaves. The hand-made ceramic vessel was quite challenging, having flat inwardly-sloping sides. However the result was successful.

Christine had been absent from class so she chose her own subject: making an ikebana in a clear glass vessel. She made three arrangements on this theme. This one was using a single Grevillea inflorescence in an irregularly-shaped vessel. This material almost sparkled when placed under the water.

For my ikebana this week I decided again to take advantage of my neighbour's Agapanthus flower stems that had gone to seed. After carefully removing all the seeds, I also removed the small dried remains of flowers that had fallen into the centre of the mass of spiky-looking small stems. After cutting the three stems to different heights I arranged their bases in a triangle in a kenzan, so that the tallest was at the back. The right hand one is the furthest forward of the three. I then set two disbud Chrysanthemums toward  the front with their growth points angled so that they are "talking to each other".

The bowl-shaped vessel is by the Australian ceramicist Isabella Wang.

Greetings from Christopher
8th March 2026

 

GLASS VESSELS

This week I set my Geelong students the task of making an ikebana incorporating a small structure made from chopsticks (hashi, in Japanese) that had been joined together. They had made these small sculptures previously, which I think is a good opportunity to practise wiring techniques. Disposable chopsticks are the most suitable to use as they are soft and the wire can be pulled tight to keep the structure rigid. It is also easy to paint them to change their colour in any subsequent re-use of the structure.

Ellie's structure was made from disposable chopsticks that were painted green. Her structure was the dominant element in her ikebana. She created a small focal mass with unripe, green Persimmon Diospyros kaki fruit. 

Helen created an ikebana in which the principle material was two variegated Aspidistra leaves, with a floral focus of Zinnia. Her dark red structure is made from bamboo kitchen skewers and has been designed to visually connect the elements of the ikebana.

Maureen's chopsticks were of the re-useable kind and therefore had a shiny lacquer-like surface. This meant they were not amenable to wiring because their hard surface is very slippery. She cleverly devised her own solution. By cutting decorated paper straws into short lengths she was able to join pairs of chopsticks and create a structure. The materials, Nandina berries and leaves, were harmonised by the use of red and black as the principal colours. On the left side is a pair of stainless steel rods that have been treated in the same manner as the chopsticks. 

Last Monday, the first meeting of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School for 2026 was held. I was asked to be the presenter of the workshop and given the theme of "Ikebana in a glass vessel". I decided to not restrict the topic to the advanced Sogetsu curriculum exercise on the same topic because it specifies paying attention to the transparency of glass. Many glass vessels are completely opaque and I wanted the members to be able to use whatever suitable glass objects they have in their collections.

This was a previously-prepared example of the exercise. The vase is hand-made by a Victorian glass artist. The vase is very opaque and the surface has subtle iridescent patches on its upper surface in particular.  The branch material is Bracken fern Pteridium aquilinum, which I had picked four days earlier. It was fresh the night before, but I found it had started to dry when I arrived at the meeting. In drying, the fern had developed some interesting curving lines. This called for a change of plan from my anticipated upright ikebana. With a little trimming to emphasise the curling lines, an impromptu slanting ikebana was made instead. The floral focus of the ikebana was two disbud Chrysanthemums. I also used a "stick" sculpture to assist with the positioning of the materials in the slippery glass vase. This sculpture had been an intense red previously, so I repainted its colour to pale gold to better harmonise with the vase.

I demonstrated the making of this modern style ikebana at the meeting. Using a cylinder of plain glass I began by cutting off the inflorescence of an Agapanthus A. praecox, that had finished flowering, and submerging it below the water level. Then I floated a small number of Cumquat fruit on the surface of the water. Lastly, I pushed the cumquats down into the vase with a second Agapanthus stem and held it in position by bending the stem to stand on the surface of the table.

I was thinking of this as playing with the geometry of the radiating green lines and orange spheres, as well as the bold line of the Agapanthus stem.  The clear glass cylinder almost completely filled with water made this possible.

Greetings from Christopher

1st March 2026

 

AUTUMNAL HYDRANGEAS and EMPHASISING WATER

This afternoon we had a walk in the Jarosite mine track, a nearby part of the discontinuous Great Otway National Park. This area is very exposed to the south west prevailing winds and close to the sea. As a result the trees, perhaps Brown stringybark Eucalyptus baxteri, on the ridges are very low. However, in the valley and more sheltered areas, Iron Bark Eucalyptus tricarpa trees grow tall and straight.

Along the path we came across a number of Mountain daisy Ixodia achillaeoides bushes in full flower. 

These dainty little flowers dry as the season continues, without loosing their form, rather like the everlasting "Paper daisies". It is a great privilege to have such easy access to bushland parks like this.

In class I set my students the task of making an ikebana which emphasised the water in their vessel.

Marcia used a low broad-bottomed, faceted, clear glass vase. 

In it she set some small Pomegranate fruit that were placed both inside and outside the vase. Leaves and flowers from the same bush were arranged at the mouth of the vase.

Eugenia used a conically-shaped vessel with a slightly-mottled black glaze on the inner surface. She set a single floret of Dwarf umbrella grass Cyperus alternifolius, on the edge of the vessel so that the leaves were reflected in the surface of the water. 

Marisha used a tall rectangular clear-glass vase in which she suspended a single purple Phalaenopsis orchid with the aid of a clear glass test tube. On the right hand side she set two leafy stems of the orchid.

Maureen achieved a similar dramatic arrangement with four small red Anthurium flowers in a clear glass cylinder. The flowers are set at different heights and attention is given to the spacing.

Ellie also arranged her materials below the water level in a clear glass vase. The red lines are a painted Corokia cotoneaster branch. Two focal points were created with the addition of small red and yellow Capsicum peppers. 

Helen set two long stems of Asparagus 'fern' Asparagus densiflorus across the water surface in a deep blue glass bowl. The flowers are a hybrid of Hydrangea macrophylla.

Coincidently, in my ikebana this week I used Hydrangeas from the garden. I had noticed that a number of the deep pink coloured flowers had started to fade, developing autumnal tones.

I was really quite fascinated to see this single pink flower among the autumnal ones on the inflorescence.

I decided to arrange three of these flower heads in this tall, traditional style, porcelain vase. The long stem stretching to the right is supported with a cross-bar fixture to maintain the line above the top of the vase.

Greetings from Christopher

22nd February 2026