UNUSUAL TREES and FOLIAGE

On the 12th of January I posted some photos of a 150 year old White Oak, Quercus Alba, that had started to split and then was blown apart by a severe wind storm around Christmas-time.

I was fascinated to see nature's tenacity at work on a number of the branches that were sprouting new growth. The connection of this branch with the main lower trunk is small, but obviously sufficient for nutrients to get through.

In another botanic garden, the Geelong Botanic Gardens this time, I passed these wonderful Queensland Bottle trees Brachychiton rupestris that have been planted at the entrance to the 21st Century garden. That particular section of the garden is devoted to 'dry' garden species.

These three, which are nearby, have exaggerated bottle shapes.

I had come to the gardens especially to learn the correct name of this extraordinary bush that is native to southern South America. Because of its leaf shape, it is known as the Anchor Plant Colletia paradoxa. I had used a stem of it at the demonstration that Helen Quarrell and I gave to the Friends of the Geelong Botanic Gardens and reported two weeks ago.

Here you can see the leaves silhouetted against the sky. I re-used the stem at the February meeting of Ikebana International, Melbourne Chapter. 

    

Our guest speaker was Philip Rhodes, a professional milliner who, in addition to his own salon, has extensive experience in making head-wear for theatre, ballet and opera productions in Melbourne and London. As is the usual practice, the members at the meeting made ikebana inspired by the theme of, in this case, millinery.

This is my ikebana, in which I reused the stem of Colletia Paradoxa stretching dramatically to one side and a single white chrysanthemum as a focal mass to balance the movement to the left. I have added two sheets of stainless steel mesh that partially cover the materials, and the spherical vase, in the manner of a fascinator. 

The ceramic vase is one of the first vases that I bought, some time in the early 1970's, when I was working in Adelaide. It was made by the South Australian potter Don Jones, whose work I greatly admired for its attention to detail and high quality finish.

Follow this link to other photos from the I.I. meeting.

Greetings from Christopher
22nd February 2019

THE EMPEROR'S BIRTHDAY

We have finally had fairly widespread and prolonged rain over much of Victoria in the last 24 hours, which has been a great relief after the bushfires over December and January.

When we came home to Torquay after spending most of the last week in Melbourne I was delighted to see, for the first time ever in our garden, a Kookaburra sheltering under the canopy of one of the trees. The poor bird was looking rather bedraggled after a day of rain.

The parting rain clouds... 

...were beautifully illuminated by the setting sun. 

Many readers of this blog will know that last year, on the 1st May, the new Reigning Emperor ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan, beginning the new era of Reiwa. Last Thursday, his birthday was celebrated at the residence of the Consul-General of Japan in Victoria. It was the turn of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School, on behalf of Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter, to provide flowers for the formal reception of guests who were invited to a garden party. As the Director of the Sogetsu Branch it was my privilege to create the large ikebana in the formal reception room and two smaller ikebana works, with the assistance of my colleague Margaret Wilson.

This was a fairly big undertaking and required extensive preparation.

This is the first practise of my small arrangement. The botanical materials include dried stems of a Marguerite daisy Argyranthemum frutescens painted gold, two blue hydrangeas and some gypsophila. In this photo you can see the smaller hydrangea at the back of the ikebana. The vessel is by Graeme Wilkie of Qdos gallery Lorne. 

Here is the ikebana in situ. It was placed on a table in the entrance hall of the residence.

Close up view.

Margaret created a simple arrangement of two aspidistra leaves and a single Oriental lily flower and bud. The arrangement was carefully planned as it had to sit on a side table where the visitors' book was placed on the right hand side of the table. The elegant white vase with a white-on-white crystalline glaze was a gift from her sister and made by a Japanese ceramic artist.

After much preparatory work, this is the first 'mock up' of the large ikebana that had to stand in the principal reception room. I created a structure from three inverted branches of Silver Birch, doweled together, which stood beside the large amphora-shaped porcelain vessel. The hand-thrown vessel, by Alistair Whyte, has a pale blue Chun glaze over a deep red-brown iron glaze. 

For the principal fresh material I chose branches of Acacia Baileyana, from our garden. In this first trial I had thought to use blue Hydrangeas and Sunflowers, but quickly decided the Sunflowers were not suitable because of the straightness of their stems and that their colour was too contrasting to the other materials. 

On the day of the reception the Consul-General Mr Matsunaga and Mrs Matsunaga, co-patrons of I.I. Melbourne Chapter, stand in front of the gold screen to receive their guests who then to exit through the door on the left to the rear garden.

On the day prior to the reception, Margaret and I felt quite relieved to have got to this stage by the middle of the day.

Here is the completed work, which included the addition of white Oriental Lilies and Gypsophila, together with a large mass of gold mizuhiki.

Greetings from Christopher
15th February 2020

FIRST CLASSES for 2020 and a DEMONSTRATION

  

On the first of the two hot days I mentioned in last week's posting, a couple of the flowers on the new Corymbia ficifolia in our garden opened. The approximately 1.5 metre tree was a carefully chosen gift, being a dwarf variety and not likely to cause any major problems in the future. 

I had not expected the flowers to open so soon.

A week later and two more 40+ degree days resulted in the whole corymb (compound flower head) opening and seeming to glow in the late evening light. What makes this tree so striking is that the flowers are borne on the ends of the branches. As a result much of the canopy can be densely covered in flowers.

At the first classes for 2020 I set my students the exercise of making an ikebana work representing their 'Memories of Summer Holidays'. This year was especially memorable for the dreadful, extensive bushfires in south-eastern Australia that have made news headlines around the world.

Eugenia took on the theme of fire and its aftermath in this table-top installation. The black rectangle is a ceramic trough standing on its end. A single charred branch stands against the black trough with dried pine needles at the base. A small tuft of pale green grass at the base offers hope for renewal. 

Margaret said that over this summer she had noticed quite a number of pink flowering plants in her garden that she had enjoyed seeing; and that was a surprise to her as pink is not a favourite colour. This simple-looking arrangement of one flower (not from her garden) and a few leaves turned out to be an exercise in the adage of 'less is more'. A significant amount of pruning and exclusion of other materials had to occur to reach this strong statement.
  

Jacqueline has just commenced the advanced part of the Sogetsu curriculum. Her exercise was to make a 'Vertical arrangement' in a suiban, in which there is a strong sense of upward movement. She has achieved this with some bullrushes and agapanthus flowers, some of which had the flowers removed. The space between the two groups of stems adds to the strength of the design.

Marisha's exercise was to make a massed ikebana arrangement that is contrasted with a single line. The mass is of Queen Anne's Lace Daucus carota, with white through to burgundy flowers. The latter flowers picking up the colour of the vessel. The flowers are contrasted with a long stem of a Dietes leaf. Marisha was delighted to use the small ceramic vessel that her husband had brought back from Japan.

On Wednesday last, my colleague and fellow Sogetsu teacher Helen Quarrell and I gave a one-hour Sogetsu ikebana presentation and demonstration for the Friends of the Geelong Botanic Gardens. We had the good fortune of being able to gather some materials from the garden, albeit under close supervision. 

I could not resist taking this photo of Helen by this contorted trunk of a large and ancient Coastal Tea Tree, Leptospermum laevigatum. The Geelong Botanic Gardens are a hidden treasure located in a shallow depression within the greater Eastern Park.

Unfortunately, we were not sufficiently organised to take photos of all our work. Above is an ikebana arrangement I made using a branch from a dry climate tree with very strange, triangular, opposed leaves (and vicious thorns) plus the berries of Cordyline petiolaris. The black vase has two side openings.

The main subject of this ikebana is the flower and stems of Brachychiton acerifolius, which I have shown in previous postings (see Final Classes). This tree is especially spectacular because the flower stems have the same intense red as the small bell-shaped flowers. As a textural contrast to the multiple curving lines of the flower stem I have created a broad-surfaced mass using two aspidistra leaves. The bizen-style vase is by the Australian potter Ian Jones.

Greetings from Christopher
9th February 2020

RESCUED FORM THE HEAT

On Monday, last week, Laurie and I had a morning walk in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. The day was bright,  sunny and not too hot.

The herbaceous border was looking splendid, surely at its peak. The view above is from the north-west end of the curving path... 

...and this view is from the opposite end. I really like the dense massed planting of this huge bed (and am glad it is not my responsibility). Creating such a garden must take an enormous amount of time and talent.

We also walked by the Ornamental Lake to see how the Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, flowers were doing this year. The water level had been getting quite low because of the lack of rain. Fortunately, following heavy rains two weeks earlier, the level of the lake had increased significantly and the Lotus were looking glorious in the morning sunshine. The following sequence is of four seperate flowers, but would make a great slide-show.

   

   

    

    

Finally, this photo shows half of the 'bed' of the Lotus flowers. The bed continues for an equivalent distance to the right of this line that stretches away from the camera.

Back in Torquay I was most anxious about the survival of the potted hydrangeas, as we were predicted to have two days of 40-43 Celsius. The problem is not simply that such days are hot, but that they are caused by strong hot dry winds from the interior of the continent. These winds have a desiccating effect on plants with soft foliage from cooler and more moist climates. It does raise the question of how much effort I should expend on trying to grow plants from a totally different climate and environment. 

This is how one of the plants looked on the morning of the first hot day.

Next to that pot this flower was showing the damage from an earlier 40 degree day. My solution to the threatened heat was to water the pots heavily the night before and again in the morning. Then I decided to harvest the majority of the flowers so that I could make one or two ikebana arrangements. 
  

When I was carrying the flowers inside I noticed the deeply-coloured stems of these flowers and was enchanted by the beauty and wonder of nature. This plant has been grown from a cutting taken from the garden of Laurie's childhood.

In thinking about creating ikebana with these flowers it occurred to me that they would go well in the modern lacquered vase I had bought in Japan three years ago.

Here is step one. Three blue flowers with a very pale pink one at the back...

...now peeping on the right-hand side.

To change the feel of the ikebana, I added a cascade of Miscanthus sinensis zebrinus , creating a light screen that visually reduced the mass of the largest flower-head.

Here is the final photo of the ikebana against a plain backdrop.

Greetings from Christopher
1st February 2020