BARK and BANKSIA PRAEMORSA

This week, I gave my Torquay students the exercise of making an ikebana using pine and any other material.

Coralie used two of the Three Friends of Winter; in this case Bamboo and Pine, no Plum Blossom. The red artificial material (plastic-coated wire) had a structural as well as decorative function, as it helped secure the pine in position.

Lyn arranged curving stems of African flag Chasmanthe floribunda, in a suiban. She then added a small mass of Radiata pine Pinus radiata, at the base of the ikebana.

Pamela used pine, possibly Himalayan cedar Cedrus deodara. The dead branch on the right front is the same material, but was encrusted with pale green lichen. For colour contrast Pamela added an unidentified Acacia.

Last Tuesday the AGM of Ikebana International Melbourne was held. As is customary practice, the Heads of various Ikebana Schools in Victoria gave a simultaneous demonstration of their work. Each Head of School then spoke about the significance of their ikebana.

As the Director of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, Victorian Branch, Aileen Clarke made an ikebana using Mountain Pine Pinus mugo and Camellia "Brushfields yellow".

This is Aileen's completed arrangement. When talking about her ikebana, for which she used three black metal vessels, Aileen told the members that next year is the 100th anniversary of the Sogetsu School's founding by Sofu Teshigahara. There is a coded message here!

The members attending the meeting were asked to complete an "ikebana of your own choice".

This is my ikebana, for which I had chosen bark as my principal material. Over some months I had noticed this large single piece of bark caught up in a tree, on our regular walk along the creek to the cricket oval. During the previous week, I realised that the bark had flattened out following some heavy rain. This change revealed more of the inner surface, which is a warm brown. The upper surface of the bark is a light mottled grey with a fairly smooth texture. These characteristics particularly appealed to me. I bought some yellow Banksia praemorsa to contrast with the bark and add the freshness of living material. The sweeping curve of the bark when arranged in this curving vessel was able to produce an overall continuous "S" curve.  

I reset the ikebana when I came home and found, in the process, that it worked better in this opposite orientation. It is the angle that is seen when coming into the living room from the front entrance.

This is the view straight on. 

Recently, I had the wide shelf made for the wall where our gas heater used to stand prior to the replacement of our colourbond roof in July (winter!) last year.

I am really pleased to now have a blank wall against which I will be able to place more spreading ikebana arrangements.

Greetings from Christopher

15th August 2026

JAPONICA (CHAENOMELES) and NARCISSUS

Last weekend, Hiroshima Peace Day was commemorated by the annual service held at St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne. This year it was the turn of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School to create a large scale ikebana arrangement for the service.

The design and installation of the ikebana was by Aileen Clarke, the Director of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana Victorian Branch, assisted by Karen Thode.

As I made my way to the cathedral, my attention was caught by these two Rainbow Lorrikeets. At first I thought that they were feeding chicks. However, after a short while, it was apparent that they were enlarging a shallow hole where a large branch had been removed some years before. Presumably, the birds were doing this to use the enlarged hollow for nesting. 

In my Melbourne class I had set the exercise of making an ikebana using bare, woody branches and Camellias. 

Aileen used Coastal Tea Tree as the principal material from which she had stripped off the many finer side branches to reveal its twisting lines. In a large black vessel she set some stems of pink Camellias as a fresh flower contrast.

Marcia arranged some thick rough bark as her woody material and added stems of white Camellias projecting through the holes in the side and top of the cylindrical vase.

Jacqueline arranged a long piece of dry branching wood with a sinuous curving line. It was fixed around the outside of the disk-shaped black vase into which she arranged long stems of Camellia with pink flowers.

My ikebana this week is a return to the winter-flowering red Japonica, Chaenomeles, which is still looking beautiful in the garden.

I have arranged two branching stems of the material, which I found surprisingly hard to photograph because the branches radiated in all directions. As a result I have taken the photograph from a rather high angle. Low in the middle of the ikebana are two small masses of white Narcissus nestling between two Arum lily Zantedeschia aethiopica, leaves.

The vase is by the Victorian ceramicist Owen Rye.

Click on the following link to the Sogetsu School of Ikebana Victorian Branch workshop I mentioned last week on the theme,  "A Composition Expressing Movement"

Greetings from Christopher
9th August 2026 

EXPLODING FIREWORKS

Last week I set my Torquay and Geelong students the task of making an ikebana "Incorporating Narcissus".

Coralie arranged Jonquils Narcissus jonquilla from her garden in a naturalistic style, adding small shield-shaped leaves at their base. The Narcissus were set in two groups with a space between and the narrow suiban oriented away from the viewer to provide depth.

Kerryn arranged her materials in a contemporary style using reeds to create three large triangular shapes with a small bunch of cut-off reeds radiating upward. Her Narcissus were set to create an elevated curving line of flowers.

Pamela arranged her Narcissus rising up through a horizontal mass of dark, Broad hop bush leaves Dodonaea viscosa.

In my Geelong class...

...Maureen arranged her Daffodils asymmetrically between two branches of an unidentified, narrow-leafed Acacia.

Ellie created a mass using a variety of Narcissus flowers which were set between two large bare branches with lichen, that were set in a spherical vessel.

Maree created a mass of Narcissus flowers rising in an irregular form from a slate vessel. The vertical form was emphasised by the addition of two Narcissus leaves that were bent into triangular shapes on the right side.

My ikebana was made for the Victorian Sogetsu Branch workshop that was held last Monday. It is a re-working of an arrangement I made early last year. The theme of the workshop was to make an ikebana "Expressing a movement". I cut a number of stems from the Umbrella grass I have growing in a large tub in the conservatory. The colour of the stems varied from green through yellow to a dry brown, and they were cut to different lengths. The stems are arranged radially in an asymmetric design set in a tapering white vase. I then have added bright red Carnations in the centre of the design, most of which were still in bud. The movement I was wanting to capture was the 'exploding' movement of fireworks in the night sky.

The vessel is by the Victorian ceramic artist Arnaud Barraud

Greetings from Christopher
2nd August 2026

 

DISASSEMBLING and REARRANGING (BANKSIA)

Winter is definitely making itself felt with some rather low overnight temperatures. However, it is also the time for winter flowering plants to bloom, which lifts my spirit. 

I recently set my students the exercise of making ikebana using some strong dried branches and combining them with Camellias. Unfortunately, Pamela did not have access to the requested woody material. However, she decided to improvise with some dried twigs that she found.

She also wisely chose this glass vase that allowed the fine material to show well and not be overwhelmed by the vessel. The tall fine line is visible within the vase as well as above. It has been strengthened by the placement of an inverted branching stem that sits outside the vase. A single pale pink camellia provides a focal point that harmonises with the vase.

In the Geelong class...

...Maureen had a very large dried branch with a highly textured surface, and which was stable on the table surface. Some stems of Camellia including two flowers, leaves and some buds were placed tightly against the bulk of the wood. Their small vase was almost completely obscured behind the wood.

Christine set a small thick piece of a very contorted woody branch in a footed vessel. She then placed Camellia branches with small delicate pink flowers around the branch.

Ellie used a pair of matching cylindrical vessels across which she placed a branching piece of dried woody material. The wood was suspended showing its line and creating spaces within and around the ikebana. Although it is hard to tell from the photo the branch was arranged so that it did not actually touch the table. Two open flowers and two small buds provided a floral focus.

Maree also used two vessels that were connected by the woody material. The positioning of the wood allowed the space between the two vessels to be increased making the ikebana feel light in spite of the large vessels and woody material. Three stems of Camellia created a highlight in the middle of the arrangement.

My ikebana is the Sogetsu curriculum exercise of "Disassembling and Rearranging the Materials". This means cutting the material to separate the stems, flowers, leaves, seed pods, etc, from each other. I wanted the challenge of practising the exercise in a Nageire (tall) vessel. 

It is helpful when the material has some very distinctive components, as is the case with the Banksia marginata branch I cut from the garden.

This photo shows part of step one. I have stripped all the leaves from branches and removed some flowering inflorescences. I maintained their small stems for fixing purposes.

I also separated these two small inflorescence buds. 

When I looked at all the separated materials I decided to not use the leaves on this occasion and then considered how I might use the geometric forms that actually make up the  Banksia branches.

The vessel I chose has three openings. One at the top that I did not use, plus a small one high on the left side and a large one on the right side. My starting point for the structure was to invert two of the branches and interlock their finer side branches. The curves of the branches created a lens shape with their main branch extending below and above the lens. I stabilised the form by inserting an additional branch horizontally through both openings in the vase. The two small inflorescence buds were joined and placed on the left and three flowers were set on the right side against the vessel.

When such sculptural ikebana forms are made in this exercise, it is said that the nature of the original material should not immediately be obvious.

Greetings from Christopher.

26th July 2026

HORIZONTAL IKEBANA with FRESH AND DRIED MATERIALS

We were very surprised to see Spike at lunchtime on Wednesday as the temperature was quite cool, at 11 degrees centigrade. Although Echidnas tend to be much less active in the winter months, they do not really hibernate.

Here is Spike walking past some Silver dollar plant Crassula arborescens, plants just outside the window.

In my Melbourne class...

...Chen made a Slanting Variation No.3 arrangement. The branch material is sometimes known as the Rough-barked apple, Angophora bakeri, the flowers are Geranium.

Julie-Ann's exercise was a Slanting Variation No.2 in a nageire vessel. She used unidentified branch material and yellow Chrysanthemum flowers.

Aileen's exercise was to make an ikebana "Incorporating Narcissus". She has used the "paper white" species, looping the leaves and bending the flower stems to create sharp angles that reflect the design of her vase.

Aileen made a second arrangement using variegated Ginger leaves Alpinia zerumbet. In this instance,she arranged the leaves first, and then "incorporated' a small mass of re-used Narcissus from the previous ikebana. 

Over the last few weeks a couple of leaves on the Tree Philodendron Philodendron bipinnatifidum have faded, then fallen. In the process, the colour change is first to a warm pale yellow before becoming progressively straw-coloured. The lobes of the leaves curl in different directions, creating a loose mass.

I had been watching these changes and wondering how to use them in my ikebana. The leaves lent themselves best to being arranged horizontally as the major element in this narrow, dark-glazed Japanese vase. A Birds nest fern Asplenium australasicum frond provided a strong contrasting line to the right. The rich pink flowers are Geraniums.

Greetings from Christopher

18th July 2026

 

FRUITING JAPONICA (CHAENOMELES)

Thank you to Michael who picked up my error last week, of naming Jacqueline's Camellias as 'Chrysanthemums'. I have amended and re-published that post.

A couple of weeks ago the red Japonica Chaenomeles, in the garden started to flower. This is one of my favourite delights of Winter.

I took the photo above at the time. Unfortunately, the first flowers had begun to fade  by the time I decided to pick them this week. So now I was back to rather bare branches with just a couple of open flowers and a single fruit. One of at least ten that formed this year.

The branches have particularly interesting lines, which makes this plant such a good ikebana subject. I have set two branches opposite each other, creating a central space. Into the space I have added mass using two florets of Hydrangea leaves. The fruit low on the left branch along with the leaves gives the arrangement a central focal point that connects the branches. 

As always, these branches bring back childhood memories of my friend's mother arranging large flowering branches from the fruit trees in their orchard.

The tapering square-based vase is by the Victorian ceramicist Paul Davis.

Greetings from Christopher
12th July 2026

 

BOUGAINVILLEA IN WINTER

A couple of weeks ago I commented on the warmer than usual autumn and winter weather. Since then we have had a reasonable amount of rain and much cooler weather. 

However, we have also had days where the sun has shone, giving a very summery appearance to the terrace outside the conservatory, despite the really very cool air temperature. This photo was taken just last weekend.

In my Melbourne class...

Julie-Anne's exercise was to make a Variation No 2 Upright nagerire ikebana with unidentified branch material and Chrysanthemums.

The senior students' exercise was to make an ikebana in which the materials were intertwined, and using two vessels, .

Aileen used Dietes leaves and two small stems with pink buds of an unidentified flower. 

Jacqueline had brought some very long, bare stems of Japanese Ivy Parthenocissus tricuspidata. The long tendrils were woven in and around a bare branch that was supported by the vase at the rear. Two large white Camellias were floated in the bowl at the front.

Yesterday, I finally got around to doing some pruning of two climbing plants in the conservatory, a Mandevillea splendens that has reached the ceiling and...

...this variegated Bougainvillea which, has bright pink bracts. Some of the branches were cascading below the shelf on which it sits. It was looking untidy so I also tip-pruned it to make the growth more compact. 

So what does an ikebanist do with pruned branches?

Give them a second life in a vase! After removing the long, viciously sharp thorns, and stabbing myself in the process, I was able to insert the remainder of the stem through the narrow mouth of the bottle-shaped vase. For a second element that complemented the delicate paper-like bracts and pale leaves, I chose a dried Aspidistra leaf that had turned a beautiful amber colour. I secured it into the vase so that a space was created between the two elements. The leaf has a twist in it that turns the upper surface toward the viewer. toward its top. 

The vase by the late Barrie Singleton, has an off-white surface that was sprayed with a copper-red glaze which has run slightly during the firing process.

Greetings from Christopher

5th July 2026

VALE MARISHA ROTHMAN

In my Melbourne class...

...Julie-Ann's curriculum exercise was to make a Variation No1 Upright nageire (tall vase arrangement). She used an unidentified branch material and roses.

Chen's exercise was to make an Upright Variation No 3 moribana (shallow vessel arrangement). Chen also used unidentified branch material and Grevillea for the flower line. 

I set the senior students the exercise of making an ikebana "Taking into account the colour of the vessel, as well as incorporating fruit or vegetables"

Jacqueline used an interesting pot that was ribbed like an orange pumpkin cucubita pepo. She used two pumpkins to support the vessel and added a stem with two Mandarins and  some leaves. The Calendula officinalis flowers in the vessel are supported by some dried vine.

Marcia has supported a fruiting Passion fruit vine Passiflora edulis, on a dried Corky Elm branch. Two leaves of Artichoke Cynara cardunculus, broaden the base of the ikebana. 

In an Art Nouveau glass vase, Eugenia harmonised the colours of her materials, including Strawflowers Xerochrysum, New Zealand Flax Phormium and Manchurian pear Pyrus ussuriensis. Her fruit is a small bunch of Clivia berries which are just visible peeping from the back on the left side of her ikebana.

Last Monday the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School held a workshop that was led by Thea Sartori, one of our senior teachers. She set a challenging theme, which was to make three ikebana arrangements in three different vessel, using the same kind of three materials in each. The materials were to be collected from our gardens, or wherever we usually collect our material. I confess I did not read the instructions closely. 

One of my materials was a smallish new leaf from the base of the Strelitzia nicolai. Unfortunately, I had only brought one leaf - not realising that I needed to use that material in the three vases. I quickly cut the leaf down its central rib to give me two halves, From the tip of one of these I tore a small kite-shaped section, This gave me three leaf sections for my three arrangements. My other two materials were stems from the "leafless" Strelitzia juncea in the garden. Dutch Irises  Iris X Hollandica. My friend and neighbour grows these flowers but I had to buy them from a florist, as the friend's were not yet flowering.

This photo is of the three arrangements placed together at the end of the workshop. The spherical vase has the small "tip" segment of the leaf, while the other two have the half leaves  placed sideways within the vessels and just peeping above the rim. 

*          *          *          *          *

Sadly, last weekend my Melbourne student Marisha died peacefully at home. She had taken up ikebana as my student 10 years ago. In spite of compromised health, she remained a determined and keen student and was appreciated by her peers for her cheerful and generous nature.

Below are two photos of her work from class.

March 2021

February 2026

Vale Marisha

Christopher

28th June 2026