New Zealand Flax and Spring bulbs

Sunday 28th August
It is still winter and the Japonica in the arrangement below captures the mood of the season with it's intense red flowers on the bare stem. I have arranged it in a white bottle shaped vase with a dramatic black design on it that I bought in Mashiko. I think the elegant line of the Japonica goes well in this space at the end of the gallery. I have used a vertical fixture to hold the stem in position.

Here is a close up of the work. The vase was made by Akutsu Tadao. 

Last week when I was in the garden I noticed a single blossom had opened on the apricot tree. A week later there are quite a few flowers open. Unfortunately we get very few fruit from the tree because it is self-sown from a seed. However, it looks beautiful and it provides a little shade to the conservatory in the summer.

This rose flower is the first to open since we passed the middle of winter and is on a climbing Lorraine Lee on the corner of the terrace.

I went for a walk in the Royal Melbourne Botanical Gardens on Thursday and these blossoms on a Dwarf Russian Almond (Prunus Tenella) caught my eye. Notice the bee on the left side of the nearest stem to the camera lens. 

Here are a couple of pictures of textures to which I was attracted in particular. 

Below is the bark of a Montezuma Cypress that comes from Texas. The fine horizontal lines and the sheen of the bark make to look like silk fabric.

In my teacher’s class this week the theme was New Zealand Flax and Spring bulbs. This vase has a dull charcoal black glaze with a gold leaf design and is by the Australian ceramic artist Greg Daley.

Greetings from Christopher 
28th August 2011