THE BEAUTY OF AGEING

  

There are two varieties of ornamental grape vines, Vitis coignetiae, in our garden. Both grown for their beautiful fresh green leaves during the summer and their rich colouring in autumn. Neither of them like the soil in our garden, it being hydrophobic and alkaline. The consequence of this is that they struggle to grow well.

This first photo shows a smooth-leafed variety that I grew, initially, in the forlorn hope that it would shade the terrace. As you can see it colours to a beautiful claret-red.

This second ornamental grape has a thicker leaf with a beautifully textured surface. It colours to rich oranges and reds in autumn. I grew this plant to screen a wall and to use in ikebana.

A few weeks ago I noticed a couple of out-of-season flowers on the Broom bush which had striking angular lines which I wanted to use in an ikebana arrangement. I then thought to team them with a couple of the ornamental grape leaves. I have arranged them in an angular Bizen vase by Hiroshi Toyofuku. 

I set up the ikebana on the table as the late afternoon sun was still coming through some high windows, creating a pattern of light and shadows. When I noticed this I positioned the Broom flower on the left so that it was silhouetted against a small patch of light. 

Here is the ikebana in the living room niche with an additional long-stemmed flower adding height to the arrangement.

A second plant in the 'grape' family (Vitaceae) that we have in the garden is Boston Ivy, Parthenocissus tricuspidata, which also colours beautifully in autumn.
  

Here it is towards the end of its glorious blaze of red just before the leaves fall. 

This week's ikebana is a re-working of last week's material. I have changed the angle of the Umbrella Grass lines and used a different vessel. When I first created the surfaces with massed lines, I deliberately used two stems that had already started to yellow with age. Now, a week later, the process has extended to some other stems. I really like this tonal change and think it works especially well with the autumn theme. These beautiful leaves were what I originally had in mind when I began to make the structure last week.

Here is the arrangement on the shelf in the entrance. The shino-glazed ceramic bowl is by the New Zealand ceramic artist Elena Renker.

Greetings from Christopher
9th May 2020