INTERTWINING with TORTUOUS WILLOW and TREE PHILODENDRON

In my posting last weekend I was not able to verify Helen's materials, see below. The plant stems were from the Spiked cabbage tree  Cussonia spicata and the yellow flowers were Turkish Sage Phlomis russeliana. 

At the beginning of the week I attended an event celebrating Sogetsu New South Wales' 65th anniversary and anticipating the Sogetsu School of Ikebana's 100th anniversary which falls next year.

I was impressed to see many Jacaranda Jacaranda mimosifolia, trees in full bloom; a fabulous sight as you can see. I am sure it was our good fortune to arrive at the peak of their flowering season.

I also noticed this interesting red carpet of Callistemon stamens on the paving in front of Laurie's sister and brother-in-law's house.

This is a poor quality close-up, taken in haste.

The Sogetsu workshops I attended were led by Master Instructor Misei Ishikawa whom I had first met in 2011. At that time she was regularly working in the classroom at Sogetsu Head Quarters in Tokyo. I was there for three months as a recipient of the Norman and Mary Sparnon Ikebana Endowment scholarship. 

The theme of the first Sydney workshop was "Celebration" and we were asked to use either gold or silver leaf flakes in the ikebana. I must confess I am not a great fan of using gold leaf and find it a challenge; which I know is good for me. One of several positive benefits of attending workshops is that the participant is required to do something that they are unlikely to do spontaneously at home. As an interstate visitor, I also had to use an unfamiliar vessel and botanical materials that were provided, not collected by me.

First I chose this narrow necked symmetrical vase which looked quite elegant to me. I then chose two Lady Palm Rhapis excelsa, leaves and two Gerbera flowers. To start, I added the gold leaf in small patches that formed a broken line on one leaf. I wanted to lightly interweave the leaves to give a broad surface and greater volume than if I had use a single leaf. This made it necessary to bend the stems angling them away from each other, then bending them again to bring them back together slightly interlaced. Though it does not show, there is a second red Gerbera behind the leaves.

The second exercise was to take flat sheets of waxed paper and to make them into a three dimensional form. Then we were to arrange branches of Tortuous Willow Salix, into which we included our three dimensional forms. In doing so, it was required that the finer branches of willow were to pierce the paper so that the materials, botanical and artificial, were clearly integrated.

I once again pleated the paper. The green sheet was pleated from corner to corner because this gave it greatest length and some rigidity. By then pinching the folds off-centre and spreading the folds at either end, two pointed fan-shapes were created. The folds in the purple paper were formed parallel to the long side and the ends were bound. Then the middle of the paper was opened out producing a spoon-shape which I placed with its convex surface toward the viewer. I reused one of the Lady palm leaves and added a multi-headed stem of a small yellow Chrysanthemum.

The third exercise, held on the second day, was "Intertwining Materials". I had chosen a very large Tree Philodendron leaf, Philodendron bipinnatifidum with a curving stem, and a branch of tortuous willow. I began by stripping the blade from the leaf, leaving only the main ribs. This took quite a while. So I only stripped one side.

This is my finished arrangement. I had chosen a small vessel that had two openings. This made it possible, after some struggle, to have both the leaf and branch standing upright. However, most of my intertwining of the branch with the leaf was necessary to hold the leaf from flipping to the left and out of the vessel. As a result I had less time to make the intertwining a design element. A single stem of Gypsophila was added as a textural contrast.

This detail shows some of the intertwining.

Greetings from Christopher

8th November 2026

PLEATED PAPER

After quite a long break for my Geelong and Torquay-based students, we returned to the classroom last Thursday. It was great to see their smiling faces again, and to share our enthusiasm for the art of ikebana.

In Torquay I had set the students the task of making an "Ikebana focusing on Spring-flowering materials and incorporating branch material of ...(their)... own choice".

Pamela used a dried branch, suggesting winter passing. Her floral materials included three different-coloured Geraniums and a small Hydrangea.

Róża used two curving stems of Honeysuckle Lonicera caprifolium, which had a few small flowers opening. In the centre of the arrangement she added three small pink tipped, cream Roses.

In the Geelong class...

 

Anne's exercise was to make a "Composition of Straight Lines". She arranged two groups of Ixia flowers and leaves in a naturalistic manner. To counter the upward movement slightly she bent some of the shorter leaves. A few stems of Statice Limonium, were placed low in the vessel for their richer colour.

Coincidently, I had set the senior students the task of making an ikebana "Emphasising straight lines...". However, I had added the additional criteria of "...using two nageire vessels"

 

Maureen used a structure she had made from lengths of black- painted bamboo, through which she set straight-stemmed Asiatic lilies Lilium. for her botanical material. The square section ceramic vessels had a matching glaze.

 

Christine used an unidentified material from her garden that had small greenish-yellow seed pods at the end of pendulous branches as her principal material She added three straight lichen-covered branches which she  placed horizontally. The materials were chosen because of the colour harmony between the lichen and the seed pods.

Helen used Yucca/Dracaena stems from her garden, with the leaves stripped away, as her main material. For a floral focus she added Jerusalem sage flowers.....

Ellie used a Strelitzia leaf, showing its central rib from the back. To emphasise this line she added a section of a Strelitzia flower stem behind the leaf. The red flowers are Ixia maculata.

Maree used white-painted Corky Elm Ulmus branches as her principal material. She has arranged the vertical stems outside the vessels because it is dry material. The horizontal stems pass through openings on both sides of the forward vessel. A mass of Cushion bush Leucophyta brownii is set in the other vessel and three Billy buttons Craspedia are added as colour accents.

Jo placed three flowerless Arum lily Zantedeschia stems vertically in the upright yellow glass vase. She set single partially-opened Arum flower nestling against the vertical stems. A structure made with yellow painted chopsticks sits across the upright vase and reaches down toward the horizontally placed vase. 

On Monday last week I attended an afternoon workshop of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School. The theme of the workshop, that was led by the Director Aileen Clarke, was to incorporate paper into the ikebana so that it was the principal material, thereby functioning as the Shin. I spent a considerable amount of time that morning pleating two large sheets of Washi paper that I had bought some years earlier but never used. My idea was to bind one end to create a narrow fan, but bend it in the middle. The precarious construction fell apart at the very moment that Aileen was appraising my work during the critique! 

Well, that was not a success. 

When I got home I eventually re-worked the materials, making a new ikebana altogether. In this case I bound both ends of the paper then opened out the "fan" in the middle. This approach gave the structure more rigidity and it held together for the rest of the week. My floral material is red Bottle brush Callistemon, from the garden.

I really like the appearance of pleated paper and need to do some more experimentation of this idea.

 

Greetings from Christopher

1st November 2026.

COMMON BROOM

The beginning of this last week has been very warm. Great weather for being in the garden to pull out all those weeds that have also been enjoying the warm weather; and doubling or tripling in number, it seems. In addition to the  proliferation of the weeds, the spring flowering plants have been flourishing also.

I had pruned the Broom Cytisus scoparius hard in the winter, as it was looking straggly and unhealthy. I cut out a few secondary stems to try to improve the shape of the bush. However, the wind got the better of the new growth and made the bush asymmetric again. Recently, when I looked at it closely, I decided I rather liked the leftward leaning stems and decided to use some as the starting point for my ikebana.

I cut some stems and arranged them with a slightly more upward movement than was the case on the bush. To hold them at this angle I have used a 'cross bar' to stop the main stem from flipping out of the vase. I then added a very dark Aeonium 'Zwartkop' rosette, Aeonium arboreum, for its contrasting colour and form. The hand-built vessel is by my ikebana colleague and friend from Sydney, Margaret Hall. 

Rather than waste the remaining Broom flowers that I had collected, I trawled the garden and noticed a particularly tall, straight-stemmed Strelitzia reginae. The ikebana from these materials is formal, in the style my first teacher called a "Shin"  arrangement. The materials arise from the centre of the bowl-shaped vessel with the elements reaching upward from a single point.  

I bought the bowl at the Potters Cottage Warrandyte in the mid 1970s. It has a brushed wax resist design in the centre of bowl but, unfortunately, no potter's mark. 

Greetings from Christopher

25th October 2027

 

APPLE BLOSSOM in BASKET

This week has been particularly busy, as a result my posting must be brief as it is now Sunday night.

last Autumn I bought some Pink (and white) Everlasting Daisy Rhodanthe chlorocephala, which grows in Western Australia and South Australia. I was delighted when this small patch flowered recently.  

Some other small flushes of pink on white flowers have appeared on the Apple "bush"Malus domestica, which appeared under the Apricot tree a few years ago. Rather than pull it out I have allowed it to grow somewhat horizontally, and don't pretend that the fruit will ever survive to harvest time. I think it may be a little late flowering. It occurred to me that it would be suitable for a Spring Basket ikebana. 

Using a long narrow open-weave basket, I arranged the principal stem reaching to the right. A smaller mass of flowers reaching to the left were set at the base of the main line. Because of the delicacy of the flowers I did not add any other material that would compete with the Apple blossom. When I photographed the ikebana, I placed a black backdrop behind the work as the wall behind the shelf is white-painted brick and the flowers were very hard to see.

Greetings from Christopher

18th October 2026

 

 

RED CALLISTEMON in TWO VESSELS

Over recent weeks the change of season to Spring has become very evident. Lots of annual flowering plants are more noticeable in the gardens around the area where we live. 

I tend to look at other people's gardens as we walk past.

When I saw this garden, one with a one and a half storey high Gymea flower Doryanthes excelsa, I was really surprised.  It is on one of the routes we often take walking up to the town centre. I think I must have been looking to the other side of the road in recent months.

In our garden, by the path, is a lovely Slender velvet bush Lasiopetalum baueri which, as you can see, has soft pink flowers and very narrow straight leaves. The plant is endemic to central and western Victoria and is found in nearby bushland where we enjoy walking.

Other northern hemisphere plants in our garden that have flowered recently include:

The climbing Lorraine Lee rose,

Some very colourful Nasturtiums,

and Wisteria. Unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to use it for ikebana as we were away during its peak flowering.

To ikebana..

In my Melbourne class, Chen made a Variation No 6 in which the three principal lines radiate at low angles. This positioning makes it suitable to be placed on a table where it can be seen from all around. The principal material is Mint bush, Prostanthera ovalifolia. In the middle and leaning to the right and back is a red flowering Grevillea.

Marcia made an ikebana incorporating paper which was the exercise that I had set. She folded squares of blue paper into triangles that repeated the shape of the vessel and the design she had made with Umbrella grass Cyperus alternifolius stems.  

*          *          *          *          *          

Also in our garden at the moment the "African daisy" is in full bloom. In this case I think it is Dimorphotheca fruticosa. Above the mass of the daisy in the photo, is a red flowering bottlebrush, now classified as Melaleuca citrina. 

This next photo, of a neighbour's garden, shows flowers growing on arching branches creating a cascade of red flowers. We have two of these bushes in the garden and I decided to use some branches in a single material ikebana. 

I have arranged the stems in two "L" shaped metal vessels. They can be arranged in either of the two positions as shown above. Both branches were set leaning toward each other. I placed the longer branches in the taller vessel on the right so that they would reach over, but not touch, the stems on the left side. The small "S-shaped" space between the ends of the branches has become emphasised. 

The metal vessels were given to me by Dr Harry Unglik in memory of his wife Robyn, who was a former student of mine.

Greetings from Christopher

11th October 2026
 

VIBURNUM and DRIFTWOOD

Toward the end of August in my Geelong class...

...Anne's curriculum exercise was to make a "Kabuwake" (two groups) ikebana. This is an arrangement made in a suiban and requires the use of two kenzans. The space between the groups becomes an important element in the ikebana. Anne chose to use the same materials, Photonia and pink Tulips, in each of the kenzans and, as she has clearly shown, one of the groups must be stronger than the other. The stronger group functions as the Shin or principal line and contributes to the necessary asymmetry of the ikebana.

The senior students were given the task of making an ikebana incorporating paper. In this case, the paper needs to be an essential element of the arrangement.

Jo used honeycomb packing paper. In a suiban she made a climbing mass with the paper which was supported by a number of fine metal rods which also became part of the work. No water could be put in the vessel because it would weaken the paper. Therefore, for her botanical materials, she used two Billy buttons Craspedia, which do not require water.

Maree created a hanging vase using cardboard and some paper tubes she made from magazine pages. Her botanical materials were a small stem of pink Cymbidium Orchids which harmonised with the colours in the paper tubes. A single leaf from the same Cymbidium plant was added for the freshness that green leaves provide.

Ellie chose to use Christmas wrapping paper with a design of musical notation and gold stars. She cut the paper to the shape of two of her three Aspidistra leaves and applied it to the underside of each leaf. Her floral material is a small mass of Alstroemeria 

Christine used corrugated cardboard which she cut to different widths. She then placed them so that they stood with the corrugations arranged vertically, this created strong irregular "tubes". Arum lilies Zantedeschia were then arranged in some of the supporting "tubes".

My ikebana this week was made using a particularly convoluted piece of driftwood, and a stem of Viburnum plicatum as the fresh material. The branch of the Viburnum on which the particular stem grew was hanging down, making the flowers curve upward. I had thought this would make it easier to arrange in this vessel. That proved not to be the case. After some working on the stem I have got it into a more horizontal position. 

I do like the contrast between the textures of the unglazed vessel and the wood, compared with that of the fresh material. The vessel was a gift and I do not know its maker.

Greetings from Christopher

4th October 2026

DRIED MATERIALS ONLY

Last week Laurie and I travelled down the New South Wales coastal highway to Sydney, taking a couple of days. One day we stopped at Coffs Harbour to for a lunch break and were delighted to discover the North Coast Regional Botanic Garden. It is a beautiful sub-tropical 20 hectare garden sited on a peninsula in a bend of Coffs Creek, which surrounds the garden on three sides. 

We were surprised to see quite a number of Stag horn ferns platycerium, growing almost at ground level attached to small trees. Easy viewing for the visitors. This one was a little higher than many others.

I had never come across the Nun's hood orchid Phaius tankervilleae var. australis, before. It is an endangered endemic species on the eastern coast of Australia with the southern end of its natural range between Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie. It caught my attention because the flowering stems were about a metre tall and dense with strikingly coloured flowers.

The garden also has a quite large Japanese section with this pavilion projecting over a small lake.

 

L-R: Me, Julie and Laurie. 

In Sydney we stayed with Laurie's sister (Julie) and brother-in-law (Alan) who, one morning, took us for a walk along the harbour side among lush green surroundings... 

...and ended up at Tambourine Bay.

To ikebana: 

In a recent class with my Melbourne students I had set the topic of "Disassembling and re-arranging" the materials. Jacqueline had brought some Clivia leaves and stems with orange flowers,  Her very simple, bold arrangement was set in a clear glass dish. 

I was interested to take this photo from directly above and realised that it simplified the ikebana even further making it look two dimensional.

Marcia used Umbrella Grass Cyperus alternifolius and a purple stemmed Euphorbia. Her design had a strong diagonal movement to the right side  created with the stems. The flowers and leaves were used to create a counterbalancing mass in the centre and lower left.

In my ikebana this week I have used naturally dried materials only. 

This came about by the unexpected find of a branch of Eucalyptus (probably Messmate E. obliqua) that had fallen to the ground, which was quite wet after recent rain. The striking thing was that the leaves had been "skeletonised" by some tiny black insects. I think they were caterpillars but were too small for me to see clearly. 

I arranged the branches reaching horizontally to the right with a smaller mass on the left side. 

In the small mouth of the bottle-shaped vase are three stems of Mountain Daisy Ixodia achillaeoides, a small white multi-headed native flower that grows in South Australia and Victoria.

The vase is by the Australian ceramicist Sergio Sill.

Greetings from Christopher

27th September 2026