HARMONISING COLOURS

This winter our house was surrounded by scaffolding while maintenance work was being undertaken. The project was rain- delayed for some time and the garden was neglected more than usual. Now that the maintenance is finished I am really enjoying the changes that spring brings to the garden. 

Yesterday, after hanging washing on the clothes line, I turned around and was startled to see this mass of climbing rose flowers on the north-facing side of the wire fence. They were not open at the beginning of the week. This rose was planted by our neighbour some years ago and has progressively extended along the fence. Because we are on the sunny side of the fence we benefit most from the flower display. A little bit like the Japanese idea of "borrowed scenery". Only in this case, accidental not planned.

Fortunately for our neighbour, in late winter to early spring they get most of the benefit from our Japonica Chaneomeles. So the benefit of seeing into each other's garden is a reciprocal one. 

Recently, I set my Torquay and Geelong students the task of making an ikebana using materials with at least three different colours.

Róża used Aeonium succulents in the orange-yellow-green range, set in a copper suiban that harmonised with the materials.

Pamela also used the same range of colours with two different Broom Genisteae flowers and Garden nasturtium Tropaeolum majus* flower and leaves. A bare branch provided support for the light materials.  

Lyn's materials were in the green-yellow-orange range. She used Euphorbia, two different Leucadendrons and a Grevillea.

Coralie created a divided ikebana and with effectively two sets of colour combinations. On the lower left blue and green and the upper right, orange to red. The materials are: left side, Strelitzia and right side Nandina and Japanese flowering quince Chaenomeles.

In the Geelong class, Ellie arranged Alstromeria and button Chrysanthemum in yellow and two shades of orange.

Helen used materials in the orange-yellow-green range: Aeonium and Clivia. Her use of clear glass vases led to the interesting creation of space below the waterline in the vases. 

Maureen's ikebana is an example of mazezashi; that is, an ikebana using a variety of materials. In this example of the exercise she has used five kinds of flowering materials. The more materials used the more difficult this exercise becomes.

The photo  below is of an ikebana I made in late September when the Tamarisk Tamarix was in flower.

This is an example of the exercise; "Taking the colour of the vessel into account".  In this instance I have clearly chosen the vessel because of its close colour harmony with the Tamarisk. I have added a single leaf of Acanthus A. mollis for its textural and colour contrast.

The vessel was pit-fired with organic materials including seaweed and, I think, splashed with copper glaze. I bought the vessel in Portland, Victoria, about forty years ago. It is stamped "Cobboboonee". If anyone knows the maker's name I would be pleased to hear from you.

Greetings from Christopher

8th November 2025

* Did you know "Garden nasturtium" is not related to the Genus Nasturtium? 

I didn't, and I bless (and support) Wikipedia.

 

SCOTCH BROOM

Signs of spring are well and truely with us, many exotic bushes are flowering profusely.

I was really surprised when I saw this large mauve-coloured Echium candicans cascading over a near by fence. The fence is about 1.8m high.

This other example, in another nearby garden, has bluish flowers.

In recent years I planted Red valerian, Valeriana ruber, in a small area of our garden. In this case, the pink variety. I find these flowers particularly useful for the flower element, when demonstrating the basic styles in the early part of the Sogetsu curriculum. 

Also flowering profusely in our garden, and currently producing a blaze of yellow in the afternoon sun, is Scotch broom Cytisus scoparius. Its perfume is very strong, so the number of stems needs to be limited in ikebana.

At the last class with my Melbourne students I had set the exercise of "Taking into account the shape of the vessel".

Eugenia used a unique ceramic tetrahedronal-shaped vessel. In it she set a naturally-curved single Strelitzia flower stem and leaf from her own garden. The aperture of the vessel is very small but was able to hold the materials in these positions that suggest a strong movement.

Jacqueline used a blue-coloured metal vase that was extremely narrow front-to-back. She arranged two differently-coloured Asiatic Lilies Lilium. The tall straight lines of the pink lily reflect the vertical lines of the vase while the single curving line of the Clivia leaf contrasts with the vertical movement.

Marisha used two curving stems of branching Leucadendron to contrast with the straight cylindrical form of her vase. The fluted funnel form of the deep red Lily flower also contrasts with the form of the vase.

Marcia said she came across this S-shaped Iris stem in her garden and was pleased that it would complement the lip of her vessel. On the other hand, the straight stem of the Alium contrasts with the vessel. 

This week I decided to make an ikebana demonstrating the harmony that can be achieved by using only materials that are adjacent, that is beside each other, on the colour wheel. In the English translation of the Sogetsu curriculum this idea has been rendered as: "Colours in the same tonal range". However, this creates some confusion as the word 'tone' in visual art, is used to mean the lightness or darkness of a single colour. More specifically the muting a colour by adding grey.

I started this ikebana with the small branch of Scotch Broom Cytisus scoparius, with its bright yellow flowers. In the middle is a mass made with Euphorbia, which is a lime-green and on the left are two leaves of deep green Acanthus mollis. 

The cylindrical Bizen ceramic vase is by Isezaki Jun.

Greetings from Christopher

2nd Novwember 2025

 

AN ARRANGEMENT SET ON THE FLOOR

I recently set my Torquay students the exercise of making an ikebana featuring "Line and mass, plus some dried material".

Lyn made her mass with Euphorbia and set some pale,dried roses within the mass. She used Irises for her line material.

Pamela used some home-grown Cymbidium orchids for her line and Cushion Bush Leucophyta brownii, for the mass.

In the Geelong class I set the same exercise (with a more strict interpretation, particularly for the senior students).
It is important to note that, in the Sogetsu School, a mass has to be created by the ikebanist. It is not correct to use a single naturally-occurring mass such as a Hydrangea flowerhead or like the large Gymea inflorescence used by Helen below. However, using two or more such naturally occurring flowerheads is acceptable. Also a mass may be created with multiple materials or just one kind of material.

When Helen spoke about her ikebana she acknowledged that it did not meet the requirements of the exercise and therefore was a freestyle arrangement. She explained that she had cut the single, very large inflorescence, and leaf of Gymea Doryanthes palmeri, from her garden. She was interested to experiment in the class, with techniques for fixing such heavy material. Her interest was with a view to possibly use this material in a future exhibition. 

Ellie used a single branch of drift wood for the line and five Banksia coccinea  flowers to make the mass. The interesting vase is made from sections of large diameter plumbing pipe joined together and painted red.

Jo used a ceramic hot water bottle as her vessel. She then set a single line using a dried branch, and created a mass of using dried Serruria florida flowers. A single long green leaf was added to give a feeling of freshness.

Maree's ikebana exercise was "Composing with branches, a two step approach." In this exercise she first made the branch structure so that it would stand self-supporting on the table. It was then repositioned on the vase with the addition of a Tree Philodendron P. bipinnatifidum, leaf and a single Aurm Lily Zantedeschia, flower.

On the 14th of the month, I joined my Ikebana International Melbourne colleagues on an outing to the Ferny Creek Horticultural Society Garden. It is situated at the foot of the Dandenong ranges, which are famous for the spectacular Mountain Ash wet Eucalypt forest.

We were shown around by a very knowledgeable volunteer Keith Ross, seen here talking to our group about the extensive display of Azalea's.

My attention was particularly captured by these beautiful Mountain Ash Eucalyptus regnans. These trees are the world's tallest flowering plants. 

They are quite majestic. I think I find them particularly impressive as on the coast at Torquay most trees are low and often grow at an angle because of the prevailing winds. 

I also find the subtle colours of the bark quite beautiful.

Of course there is quite a lot of bird life in the forrest. We were blessed by the appearance of this Kookaburra, which did not produce its characteristic call but sat silently on its high branch. 

We had a lunch time meeting in the garden's hall, where Lucy Papas gave a demonstration of floor-set ikebana arrangements. Photos of Lucy's and the members' ikebana arrangements can be seen on the I.I. Melbourne instagram account.

At the meeting I made an arrangement using driftwood and Red Valerian Centranthus ruber, in a blue suiban.

Because of the placement on the floor, I have taken this photo from a standing position. I deliberately kept the arrangement small so that the surface of the water would be a significant element of the ikebana.

Here is a photo taken at a more usual angle.

Greetings from Christopher

25th October 2025

GREEN AND GOLD

  

  

I am pleased to report that this spring the "Lorraine Lee" Rose is looking the best it has ever been. I think it is a combination of the weather and the protective guard which I attached to the base of the support structure. The guard protects against predation by possums, which particularly like the tender new shoots and leaves when they are just forming.

This photo shows a close-up of two clusters of these beautiful, fragrant flowers.

At class in Melbourne, Chen made his second freestyle ikebana.

He had found an interesting large branch from which he removed most of the leaves to reveal its structure. This became an exercise in trimming, in which most of the leaves and some of the branches were removed. 

I had set the senior students the task of making an ikebana 'taking into account the shape of the vessel'.

Marisha had brought along an irregularly-shaped angular  vessel. She made the vessel the focus of the ikebana then used only four strappy leaves and three single orange Clivia flowers to complete her ikebana. The horizontal leaf is from a Matchstick Bromeliad Aechmea gamosepala.

Jacqueline used an unusual narrow curving vessel, across which she placed a dried Eucalyptus branch with curving lines. She added a mass of Clivia flowers and leaves, which she curved and placed on one side.

 

Aileen chose an unusual Japanese-made ikebana vase in the shape of two semi-circles connected by a horizontal bar. She trimmed two Strelitzia leaves that were cut to repeat the forms in the vase. Two stems of Hippeastrum were set centrally to create a focal point.

 

Eugenia chose a annular vessel with a hole off-set from the centre. She then placed dried vine material to repeat the lines in the vessel. A single branch of flowering Callery pear Pyrus calleryana, was placed to show a strong diagonal line and contrasting masses of white flowers.

My ikebana this week was focussing on the contrast of colours; in this case, a dark green and bright yellow. 

The Acanthus leaf had been sitting in the black vase for eight weeks! I had previously arranged it with Arum lilies (27th August). As various Wattle trees in the area had started to flower, successively, from late winter, I was waiting for this particularly bright yellow one, Acacia saligna, to flower. It has long narrow leaves, most of which I removed before making this ikebana. These two colours are close to each other on the colour wheel yet seem to intensify each other as distinct from blending. Both colours convey the feeling of freshness and vitality of spring.

The vase is by the Japanese-born Australian ceramicist Terunobu Hirata.

Greetings from Christopher

18th October 2025

The symbolism of Green and Gold in Australia.

TAMARISK and DUTCH IRIS, KABUWAKE

In my Melbourne class...

...Chen recently made his first freestyle ikebana. The branch material is Calistemon stripped of most leaves and the flower material is Californian Geranium Roldana petasitis. The design is a mass and line ikebana, with the line being the principal feature and the mass the subordinate. When I was processing this photograph I was astonished to find that I had unintentionally aligned the horizontal line on the vase with the back edge of the table top. 

I had set the senior students the task of making a spring-time ikebana incorporating metal. Aileen's botanical material was Jasmine and the metal, wire mesh. She folded the wire mesh to make a convoluted form that appeared to be floating. The mesh provided a framework that supported the very light vine. The lines in the mesh echoed the design on the small vase.

Eugenia used two pieces of welded reinforcing rods that she wired together to create a larger structure. They were secured to a triangular ceramic ikebana vase to which the botanical material was added. Eugenia chose Sea Holly Eryngium for its strong straight lines and angles that harmonised well with the metal and the vase.

Marisha chose a rather challenging metal material, aluminium foil. This material when spread out as a sheet does not have enough strength to support its own weight. However, with experimentation it proved to become self supporting when formed into a flattened cone and crushed slightly at its tip. Her botanical materials are small pink multi-headed Chrysanthemums and two rich pink roses.

My neighbour Margie, who is an excellent gardener, recently allowed me to cut some of the blue Dutch Irises Iris X hollandica growing in her garden. Her blooms were straight and tall. My single bloom this year was horizontal as were all the leaves. I have these bulbs growing in a trough and you would think I placed them in a wind tunnel. I need to find a much more sheltered position before next spring. 

I have also been keeping my eye on a couple of large bushes of Tamarisk Tamarix ramosissima, which had just started to flower. The irises and the tamarisk were two interestingly contrasting materials that I wanted to arrange together.

The number of branches and flower stems made me decide to use two kenzans when arranging them. This is the Kabuwake,(two groups) style, which is characterised by the creation of a space between the groups. I was particularly attracted to the tallest branch as it had a slight, rather angular, "S" bend; so I placed this stem first. The branch itself needed to be placed on the right-hand side so that its 'front' was facing forward.  While adding the second group, I had to pay attention to the created space as well as the overall balance of the ikebana. The irises provide a high focal point and harmonised with the blue suiban.

I took the above photo against a black backdrop as it seems to give a more accurate colour.

Here is the ikebana in the living room niche.

Greetings from Christopher
11th October 2025

 

WISTERIA AT LAST

In my Torquay class I recently set the exercise of making an ikebana focusing on straight lines.

Lynne used Watsonia fulgens in a suiban. By using two kenzans and crossing the materials, she has emphasised the lines in the ikebana. The leaves that come from the kenzan on the left side pass behind the flowering stems so as not to break that line.

Coralie stripped all of the leaves from her branch material Germander teucrium, which she inserted upside down in the tall vase. She placed a Gymea Doryanthes palmeri leaf at an angle across the branch material. She also placed a Strelitzia flower at an angle in alignment with the branch material, aligning the flower head with the Gymea leaf.

I challenged my senior students in Geelong recently by asking them to bring two vases and material for one ikebana arrangement. I then chose which vase would be used and gave it to one of the students. I then gave the botanical materials to a different student. In this way, none of the students had their own materials or vases, and none of the materials being used were chosen with that vase in mind. 

Ellie was provided with a small spherical vase in which she arranged green materials only, from the selection she was given. She arranged the Grasstree Xanthorrhoea so that it formed a cone with the apex in the vase. Behind the conical screen she placed two Green Goddess Lilies Zantedeschia; then placed a single green Lily low at the front of the arrangement. 

Helen was given a tall narrow vessel. Her material included a large fern-like leaf and some pink Grevillea. She cut most of the side stems from one side of the leaf and placed it forward. The Grevillea was then massed at the mouth of the vessel partly obscured by the leaf. 

Jo received some pink flowering Prunus branches, perhaps a plum. She also had some large round leaves Bergenia cordifolia, I think. The lines of the branches made it very difficult to arrange in the shallow vessel, as the branches tended to curve in contrary directions.

Maureen was given some tortuous Willow Salix, a Eucalyptus branch with gumnuts attached and a large pink incurve Chrysanthemum. Her vessel was placed with a forward opening aperture. The pink chrysanthemum was set forward and low in the arrangement, and was embraced by the other materials.

*          *          *          *          *

In the garden recently I was delighted when the struggling Wisteria flowered again this year. 

The vine is very slowly making its way up a pole and has become surrounded by the apricot tree and a self-sown apple. I now need to disentangle it from these other plants a the end of autumn each year.

It seems to me that the racemes of flowers are very modest by what I think most gardeners achieve. However, I am pleased that the vine has survived to this stage. For the first time, there has been a side branch that I have been brave enough to cut for ikebana purposes.

I had to cut two racemes off this small stem because it looked too congested and needed some space between the flower clusters. The other material in the middle and left side, is an Australian plant Sticky boobialla Myoporum petiolatum, endemic to south eastern Australia. I  chose this for its small white flowers that do not detract from the Wisteria. The small narrow J

apanese vase has an almost black Tenmoku glaze.

Greetings from Christopher

4th October 2025