WHITE PETALS, ORANGE LEAVES

The highly variable spring weather has continued with warm sunny breaks followed by rain and occasional hail. A few days ago we were threatened with a cold front bringing more rain...

...so I decided to take a photo of this lovely camellia, Kamo Hon Ami, before it was damaged. It is a new addition to the garden; and I have learnt from 'The Magic of Camellias' (Norman Sparnon and E. G. Waterhouse) that this flower was named after a grandson of the tea master Sen no Rikyu. 

The soil in our garden is totally unsuited to growing camellias, being rather alkaline. The soil is also hydrophobic, so that water runs off the surface rather than penetrating and being held in the soil. I have been assured by my ikebana friends that camellias can do well in pots! I certainly hope so.

Last week I showed photos of arrangements incorporating narcissus, by my Melbourne students. Among the large number of my photos I managed to miss this one by Marcia. She had made a main subject of two lichen- encrusted branches balanced by a small mass of narcissus enclosed in a 'cage' of their leaves.

In Geelong, my advanced students made arrangements in clear glass vessels using leaves only.

Helen M cleverly suspended a small sprig with fine yellow leaves from two dietes leaves balanced across the top of the vase. 

She also curved two dietes leaves and a succulent rosette inside a glass bowl, proving that minimal material is needed in a glass vessel with a spherical curve.

Maureen was interested in showing the beautiful curve and repeated lines in this cycad frond, to which she added a curled yucca leaf. 

In this second arrangement Maureen has suspended a mass of small orangey, shiny leafed material that floats in an empty glass vase.

Ellie also used some cycad fronds and a single leaf of a prayer plant, maranta leuconeura, in three glass vessels. She wired two cycad fronds together and has arranged them vertically on the edge of a glass vase so that they float. 

On Monday last week I attended a Victorian Sogetsu Branch workshop led by Emerald Leung. She had set the topic of making an ikebana arrangement that accentuates line, mass and colour, using two kinds of materials only. Branches and leaves could be used but not flowers. 

How fortunate was I to notice these brightly coloured leaves of Eucalyptus Lehmanii, some of which were growing outside the bathroom window. They were ideal for making a colourful mass. The autumn colouring at this time of year is the result of insect damage. I have used Pomaderris paniculosa from the garden for the lines. To emphasise the lines I cut them all to one length. I also stripped the leaves off, except for a small line of leaves on a single branchlet.

When I got home I re-worked the ikebana, removing the lowest of the lines and bringing it up to a more horizontal position. The Bizen style vase is by the Australian ceramic artist Ian Jones.

Greetings from Christopher
25th August 2019 

Click here for photos from the Sogetsu Branch workshop.

TRANSITIONING TO SPRING

Today the sun is shining brightly, the breeze is gentle and spring is definitely in the air. I began the morning by doing a little removal of weeds before they become a problem that requires a chainsaw. There is one little pesky weed that flowers very quickly and sends out seeds in great numbers. With the spring also comes more blossom like the tree below.

Every year it suddenly has a mass of white blossom transforming not only the tree but the streetscape near our city apartment. 

A few weeks ago I noticed this beautifully-shaped blossoming tree in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. I did not stop to check its name as I was hurrying elsewhere at the time. However, I could not resist a photo.

As ikebana pays attention to the seasons, I recently set my students the exercise of making an arrangement with narcissus; by which I meant any flowers from the narcissus family.

Eugenia created this very informal freestyle work in which the leaves were the principal subject. She has used a double nageire style black ceramic vessel.

Helen N has created a modern-style ikebana with a small bunch of daffodils and three leaves arranged to create repeating geometric forms.

Margaret also focused on the leaves to create rhythmic lines that flow around a small bunch of white narcissus. In class we discussed the challenge of arranging narcissus in Australia, unless you grow them. Our florists usually sell bunches of flowers only, or sometimes with two or three leaves.

Last Tuesday was the annual general meeting of Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter. After four years on the committee I retired from the position of Vice-President. It is the custom of the branch that the Heads of the Schools each give a demonstration of their ikebana.

The Heads of four of the five schools in Melbourne participated. In this photo, from the left are: Yukako Braun, Ikenobo school, Lyn Wong, Ohara school, Christopher James (me) Sogetsu school and Chieko Yazaki, Shogetsudo koryu school. After making the arrangements we each spoke briefly about our work. The next three photos are of the completed arrangements.

Yukako Braun, Ikenobo

Lyn Wong, Ohara

Chieko Yazaki, Shogetsudo koryu

Here I am speaking about my ikebana in which I have used Japonica from our garden. The white Japonica (Japanese Flowering Quince) is from a bush given to me by my ikebana friend, Joan Norbury.

This is the finished work (that did not photograph to my satisfaction). There are more photographs from the AGM on the I.I. website blog. 

Tomorrow we are expecting rain (back to winter?).

Greetings from Christopher
17th August 2019

SURF COAST ARTS TRAIL 2019

For me, today began with a hail storm and strong winds at about 7.00 am. This was 

not an auspicious start to a weekend of arts-related activities sponsored by our local shire council. The event is called the Surf Coast Arts Trail and is a weekend when local artists and community arts groups put their work on public display in venues across the shire. 

Members of the public are able to wend their way through 50 venues to see the work of 120 local artists and arts groups. Individual artists open their otherwise private studios where they do their serious and highly-focused work.

I teach an ikebana class through the local branch of the University of the Third Age (U3A), a community organisation that offers informal classes to residents who are over 50 years of age.

This year we were in a new venue which we shared with the U3A Arts Group. The photo above shows one part of the exhibition which was held in a large room that can be divided into three spaces using sliding screens. The screens had the advantage of being able to be used as pin boards for the display of paintings and drawings. The ikebana was set on tables.

Six of my students took part in the exhibition creating a variety of individualistic work. 

Val used a small round blue ceramic vase with three disbud chrysanthemums and a silver painted piece of driftwood.

Helen gathered some dried branches of Coastal Beard Heath, leucopogon parviflorus which had some lichen attached.  After bracing the branches across a suiban she arranged three tulips supported by the branches.

Marion raided her vegetable garden, where she had allowed her rhubarb to go to seed, and arranged the stems, leaves and flowers in a suiban.

Marta arranged branches of pink Japanese Flowering Quince, Chaenomeles, in a black trough.

Kim created a simple arrangement using a arum lily stem in bud and a single open flower in a traditional bronze vessel.

Ròsä used succulent leaves and red flowering Aloe, with a large piece of driftwood as a table arrangement without a vessel.

In preliminary discussions with the tutor of the Art Group she proposed that I set up an ikebana work as a still-life subject that could be drawn or painted by members of her class. This was a great way to integrate the two group's work. Unfortunately I did not think to photograph the drawings that were made of the ikebana.

For the still-life I arranged a recently pruned branch of our apricot tree so that it could stand upside down. I then placed a ceramic vessel by Graeme Wilkie at its base to which I added some orangey-pink snapdragon, antirrhinum. The branch had really interesting lines and texture that contrasted with the vessel and flowers. The rather playful work reminded some observers of an insect, others of a giraffe. 

Greetings from Christopher
10th August 2019

WATTLE

The climbing Lorraine Lee rose bud I showed last week has opened along with a few others, much to my delight. 

Their short stems make them a bit difficult to use in ikebana. 

However, they are so high from the ground they are rather hard to pick anyway. When more flowers are open the fragrance on the terrace will be delightful. 

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had to cut the top off the Cootamundra Wattle, Acacia Baileyana, because of a borer infestation. It is now in full bloom and cascading over the path. I do hope that the treatment I gave it works and that it lasts a few more years.

Here it is seen from the bathroom window where it is a bright yellow screen at this time of year.

It is interesting that the prostrate version of the Acacia Baileyana flowers a few weeks later, creating a mass of yellow blossom carpeting the ground.  I felt that this week's ikebana had to include the wattle flowers before they are damaged by winter rains.

Wattle dries rapidly after picking, but can do well with the following treatment. As soon as possible after picking, strip leaves from the  stem that will be underwater. I also give it a quick wipe with detergent if it is dirty. Re-cut the stem underwater removing about 3 - 4cm. Then place in warm water (40C) with 1% white vinegar solution (10ml per litre) and leave in a cool place for a couple of hours or overnight if possible *. A few drops of bleach will also prevent the growth of mould and bacteria on the stem, which restrict the uptake of water.

The second material I decided to use was the leaves of the Gymea lily Doryanthus, which are very broad. These leaves are excellent ikebana material because they are long lasting and their robustness allows them to be manipulated into interesting shapes.

I wanted to show the broad surface of the leaves and have formed three open rectangles that sit on their sides on this box-shaped ikebana vase.

The mass of wattle has been arranged in the opening created by the lowest of the rectangles.  The leaves pick up the rectangular form of the vase which was made by the Canadian potter, Leta Cormier. 

Greetings from Christopher
4th August 2019


*  Dr R Jones. "Post-harvest care of cut flowers". Institute of Plant Sciences, Knoxfield Campus. 1991.