FINAL CLASS FOR 2018

A couple of years ago I bought a frangipani, Plumeria, at a local nursery. It is the second time that I have tried to grow one in our conservatory. This time I have had greater success.

   

I repotted the plant last autumn and have even managed to successfully grow a cutting. The original plant, now about 90 cms high has three flower clusters. The beautiful fragrance of these flowers immediately takes me back to Papua New Guinea, where I worked for a year in 1966.

On Monday last week, my Melbourne students had their last class for 2018. We gathered at Robyn's home where the students created their ikebana, after which we shared a celebratory meal. 

Helen N made this arrangement in an unfamiliar vase and a location not of her choosing. She used dried kelp and a member of the carrot family, probably Ammi visnaga. The vase is one that Robyn had bought in Japan some years ago.

Robyn used a two tiered, metal ikebana vessel in a difficult elevated location where the top of the vase was above eye-level. I had to re-locate the work to take the photograph as it was situated against a window.

Marisha made an celebratory arrangement which used red and green as traditional Christmas colours. (The photo was taken in haste and is much lower than the natural viewing angle, thus incorrectly showing lines arising from the vessel which, in reality, were concealed by the lowest leaf.)

Margaret chose to make an arrangement in response to an art work, a vividly coloured modern painting.
  

In creating her ikebana that used 'Fresh and Unconventional Materials', Margaret focused on the dominant colours of black, red and yellow in the painting. Her vessel was white porcelain in the form of traditional bamboo vase. 

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A couple of days ago my neighbour Margie gave me two beautiful and spectacularly large artichoke flowers. I thought they would work well in this lovely large (40 cm tall) vase by Graeme Wilkie. The blue-grey ash glaze has a hint of purple in it that is more apparent than shows in this photo. Because of the strength of the flowers for the shin line I have used a curving branch of driftwood which floats forward of the vase.

There will be only one more posting of Roadside Ikebana before the New Year. Whether you are a longterm reader or new to this blog I would like to wish you a very happy Christmas.

Christopher
23rd December 2018