WINTER IKEBANA

Dear Reader,

                      If you are an automatic email recipient of this blog, you will have received a posting from last December. This mystery is probably a result of the "Blogger" system changing its software last week. I hope we do not have any further un-planned reappearances of past postings. 

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When a cold front comes in from the Southern Ocean we often see a large well-spaced swell, much loved by the surfers. The wide expanse of white water in the photo below gives an indication of the power of the waves.

In the garden, winter changes are beginning to appear. I have been watching the development of blossom buds on the Cootamundra Wattle, Acacia Baileyana, over the last few weeks.

 

The buds are beginning to enlarge and have become a lime green; another few weeks before they become soft masses of yellow gold. 

By the front steps the Swan River Pea, now called Gastrolobium celsianum, from Western Australia has suddenly developed masses of these little red beaks. This is a very successful spreading 'ground cover' up to a metre high that is doing well in shade and sun.

I am finally having some success with the winter -flowering Jasmine, Jasminum polyanthum, which I have just learnt from Wikipedia, 'can be regarded as invasive (in some places) in Australia'.

  

My big surprise a couple of days ago was this bud of Japanese flowering quince, Chaenomeles. The shrub still has quite a number of leaves so I had not expected the buds just yet. 

These plants are all part of the winter garden pleasures in this part of the world; which my students have been continuing to enjoy in the absence of classes, three of whom have sent me the photos below.

Tess created an autumn arrangement using branches of Cotoneaster with leaves that had coloured beautifully.

Eugenia added some brightly coloured strips of card to this arrangement of Asparagus fern in a contemporary black ikebana vessel.

Marcia sent me this photograph in early May. She arranged Japanese anenome (A.hupehensis) in an iron Japanese tea pot; the exercise theme being 'Using an every-day object as the vessel'.

When I was in Melbourne yesterday I took the opportunity to gather some small bare branches of Elm shoots that have a corky appearance in their early growth. I was particularly wanting to make an ikebana that expressed the feeling of winter. 

Because the branches are dry material they do not need to be arranged inside the vase. I have used three short branching stems balanced across the top of the vase and added a single white Camellia. There is also a small bud to the right of the flower that may not be easy to see in the photo. The vase is by the late Japanese ceramic artist Shigeo Shiga, who came to Australia in 1966. More information about Shigeo Shiga is at this link: Australian Potters Marks.

Greetings from Christopher

7th June 2020