OBIJIME

   

On Tuesday I attended the monthly meeting of Ikebana International Melbourne, which was the 61st birthday of the Chapter. The theme of the meeting was Japanese Day with a focus on the kimono. Members were encouraged to create ikebana on that theme.

   

In my ikebana I arranged flowers from a cane- stemmed Begonia, Crocosmia and a single leaf of Dietes grandiflora in a black ceramic vase. In keeping with the theme I wrapped two obijime around the vase. These are the ties that are used to hold the obi (sash) around the waist on a woman's formal kimono. The obijime were given to me by Kazuko Suzuki, the wife of Minoru Suzuki - one of Laurie's former students from his year in Japan in 1978.

The advent of autumn in our garden has brought two particularly conspicuous plants from Southern Africa into bloom. Both of these plants grow from bulbs that are dormant over the summer, flowering at this time of year before their leaves appear. They survive well in our climate of dry summers when the rainfall is lowest.

The first of these to appear in our garden is the Belladonna lily  Amaryllis belladonna.  This is a plant that is seen in many places where there are remnants of an old farm garden that survives after the farmhouse has gone or is derelict.

The second is Haemanthus coccineus, which was a gift from a neighbour who successfully grew this plant from seed for us.

As you can see its short stem is very fleshy, as are the petals.

Another Southern African plant in our garden is this Strelitzia juncea. It is particularly notable for its minute leaves that are mere ridges along the ends of the stems, making them quite spear-like. It had passed its flowering peak and I have removed the spent flowers.

When removing the old flowers my attention was caught by the intense pink at the base of each flower. At their prime the flowers are striking because of the intense orange and deep blue of the stiff looking petals. As I looked at the flowers even the dried petals showed subtle beauty in their colouring and twisting lines. However, the pink was so intense I decided to focus on it for an ikebana. One of the characteristics of ikebana is to try to reveal some aspect of the materials that otherwise would not be immediately apparent to the casual observer.

I have stripped off the green covering of the stems in all but one case. Six flowers are carefully arranged in a triangular mass inside a large glass vase. They are seen from the 'back' to show the maximum amount of the pink colouring thus showing their beauty even though the flowers are finished.  

More photos from the Melbourne Chapter meeting.

Greetings from Christopher
14th March 2020.

Thanks to Ròźa Marciniak for the photo of the Strelitzia ikebana.