SUPPORTING LEANING MATERIALS

A few weeks ago Laurie took this photo of a Gang-gang cockatoo eating the seeds of a Melaleuca nesophila as we walked into Torquay for our daily exercise. 

The Gang-gangs are winter-time visitors to our part of the world, where they feed on the seeds of indigenous Australian plants. Over the last 40 - 50 years, enthusiastic gardeners have planted many of these species which are more tolerant of our hot, dry summers than exotic plants. The Gang-gangs now seem to have migrated back to the bush where they nest and raise their young. 

Laurie, a week ago, also took this photo of a Wisteria vine at its flowering peak. As you can see I forgot my re-usable mask. Fortunately we have made a point of keeping a packet of disposable masks in the car glove box.

This week's ikebana is a continuation of the use of last week's materials, Arum lilies and leaves. Because of their large size I decided that I would arrange them in a large box-like ceramic vessel that was made by the Echizen-based ceramic artist Yutaka Nakamura. 

To follow the leaning movement of the vessel I decided to arrange the Arum flowers and leaves extending to the left. However, to maintain a feeling of lightness I did not want them to be leaning on the lefthand edge of the vessel and so I needed to make a crossbar support. The box is of slab construction and the walls are quite thin relative to their size. Therefore, to avoid the risk of damaging the vessel, I needed to create a crossbar support mechanism that would not put pressure on its sides .

This was my solution. I have created a cross-shaped support, the upright of which is inserted at an angle into a large kenzan. The lean to the right is to counter the pressure to the left that will be exerted by the weight of the materials. The crossbar has been measured to just touch the sides of the vessel but is not wedged against them.

This is the mechanism in position. The leaves and flowers will be inserted into the kenzan and their lean to the left is supported by the crossbar. Without this they would collapse.

Here is the finished ikebana. Two Arum lily flowers and two leaves are given a feeling of movement rising to the left. Counteracting this is a leaf at the back and a large swirling mass of dried material that moves to the right and down. This material is the dried base of a leaf from a banana plant. It is a variety of banana which has a distinctive red-coloured central rib on its fresh leaf. The dried material also provides a textural contrast to the fresh materials.

Greetings from Christopher

26th September 2020

ARUM LILIES - LINES and SURFACES

* Note to Ursula B. at the bottom

A month ago, in mid August, we had some early warm weather.

The Torquay surf beach looked like this. 

This 'zoomed' photo shows the far end of the surf beach with the cliffs of Jan Juc towering beyond them.

A month earlier, in mid-July, Laurie and I had a walk in Iron Bark Basin on a sunny day after some rain. The understory vegetation has been cleared on either side of the walking track as a bushfire management strategy. As it was the beginning of the change of season, winter to spring, I was on the lookout for a Grass Tree, Xanthorrhoea australis with a developing inflorescence. I have often thought about recording its growth.

 

This photo was taken on the 8th July and the inflorescence was  already about 45 cms from its base.

Last week, on 16th September, the inflorescence had reached about 2 metres and was just starting to flower.

This close up shows the masses of flowers on the more advanced inflorescence of a nearby plant.  Of course it is not legal to collect wild flowers in nature reserves and this is much too large for anything other than an exhibition installation.

*          *          *          *          *

This week I have been watching the development of some Arum lilies, which I find quite beautiful for a couple of reasons. The first is the graceful lines of the stems and the form of the flowers that enchanted the artists of the Art Nouveau movement. The second is the glossy surface beauty of the leaves which contrasts with the matte surface of the complex, three- dimensional whiplash curves of the flower spathe.

In this first ikebana I have focused on the lines of the stems, gently exaggerating the curves with my hands to create a parallel space between them. The asymmetrically placed leaf provides a contrasting mass. The black ceramic vessel is from Seto City in Japan.

In this second ikebana I wanted to focus on the surfaces of the Arum lily.

I have set three large leaves one above the other in a forward movement. Two fully opened flowers are placed below and behind the mass of the parallel leaves. The leaves and the sinuous lines of their edges are the principal subject. The ceramic bowl is by the Melbourne based ceramic artist Isabel Wang.

Greetings from Christopher

19th September 2020

After publishing my post last week I realised that I had not acknowledged the source of information about the use of vinegar in the conditioning of cut plant materials. It came from an out-of-print booklet, "Post-harvest care of cut flowers" prepared by Dr R Jones, Institute of Plant Sciences, Knoxfield Campus, Victoria, prepared for the horticultural industry. 

* For Ursula in Cairns: The Blogger system protects your privacy and I am unable to contact you. I would suggest you contact the Sogetsu Queensland Branch at the following address:

https://ikebanabrisbane.org.au

TAKING A SECOND LOOK

In response to my posting last week one of my students wrote to me saying, in part: "...I realised that I spend a lot of my time worrying about doing garden ‘chores’ instead of just enjoying the garden - especially when it is starting to enter its Spring Best!  That said -inspired by your blog - I wandered around taking photos of as many blue-tending flowers as I could..."

This comment and my own experiences of the last week led me to this post's title.

Three days after I photographed the blue iris bud included in last week's posting it suddenly opened fully. As the day was going to be warm and windy I cut it and brought it inside before it was ruined by the sudden heat. What to do with a single flower?

I arranged it within the gentle curve of two Acanthus leaves *. The leaf at the back is deliberately turned to show the veins on its underside. The blue crystalline-glazed vessel is by the Castlemaine ceramic artist Dean Smith. I was disappointed when the iris started to wilt after three days, but a little consoled to discover a smaller and paler bud opening behind the first flower

Recently, I set my Torquay students the exercise of making a single ikebana arrangement using two vessels.   

Val used two black, contemporary vessels in which she set two Strelitzia reginae leaves and one flower, with a double head. This is another example of showing the back of a leaf for the textural contrast it provides.

What a difference a week makes! Suddenly there is an extra zing in her ikebana when the flower started opening.

In spite of these delightful surprises we must not get caught up in the desire for our ikebana to last indefinitely. It is essentially an ephemeral art form and therein lies an aspect of its richness. Each ikebana arrangement is a unique encounter with those particular materials, that can never happen again in exactly the same way.

In the garden the Pandorea pandorana vine is putting on a strong spurt of spring growth and has started to flower. It seems to be especially vigorous this year, perhaps because of recent rain.

Here some of the new growth is silhouetted against the early morning sky. I cut some of the thicker old stems as well as fresh growth and flowers.

I have arranged them in a tall modern ceramic vase with two side openings. The lines of the vine created interesting spaces which I kept principally on one side and emphasised by removing most of the leaves on the newer stem. The contrasting mass of flowers has been placed on the opposite side with a single line of the fresh vine connecting the two sides.

The flowers did not last as well as I had hoped. However, as I walked past the ikebana multiple times each day I realised that I had not taken my photograph from the best angle.

A couple of days later I had to remove the wilting flowers and I added a small bunch of Dwarf Nandina Domestica for the mass that balances the lines. From this slightly different angle each group of green leaves sit in their own space without any further adjusting.

Greetings from Christopher

12th September 2020

* Acanthus leaves are a favourite of mine for the beauty of their shape, shine and deep green colour. Owing to their sticky sap they are prone to wilting very quickly. The remedy is to re-cut the stems under water and then stand in warm, deep water with 10ml of white vinegar per litre for a couple of hours.

Note to Ursula B. The Blogger system protects your privacy and I am unable to contact you. 

I would suggest that you contact the Sogetsu Queensland Branch at the following address:

https://ikebanabrisbane.org.au/

BLUE

A week ago I noticed that the first two flowers had opened on the apricot tree. When the leaves unfurl the tree will give some welcome shelter in the summer, if it is not too ravaged by the possums.

 

In the meantime, the blossoms are a delight to the eye...

...and today, a week later, the blossoming continues. 

Spring has also brought some strikingly blue flowers into bloom. For  most of the year blue is present in our garden in the Lavender and Rosemary by the path. We planted upright, semi-prostrate and prostrate varieties of Rosemary years ago, and all have seeded freely around the garden. Many of these second generations plants have been allowed to grow if they are not in the way of anything else.

This little patch of Grape Hyacinths, Muscari neglectum, came from my parents' garden and are a flower that my mother particularly loved. I am intrigued by the inclusion of "neglectum" in the Latin name. They get plenty of that in our garden.

Next is a small patch of Echium candicans, that I recently transplanted to a position where it will provide a screening function in the garden. It is also self-seeded from an original plant that has since died. 

This wonderfully intense blue is the first bud of a 'Dutch Iris', Iris latifolia, that was given to me by a neighbour. I have planted this one in a pot with a water well, and some others in the garden. It will be interesting to see how those in the soil will manage. In checking the botanical name I was amused to see that it is known as: Dutch Iris, Spanish Iris and English Iris. Take your pick! 

My final blue flower in the garden is this Hardenbergia violacea, a fairly vigorous Australian native vine, growing on a mesh fence and known locally as the Happy Wanderer. In this instance it is wandering into the Nandina domestica, also growing against the fence. The blue is fairly strong and I decided to use it as an ikebana subject. 

  

        

I have cut the long tendrils of the vine into shorter lengths so that I can make a dense mass of the flowers. As a contrast I have added the strong green lines of Costal Sword sedge, Lepidosperma gladiatum, which gives a feeling of vigorous movement to the explosion of the flower mass.

The ikebana vessel is by Graeme Wilkie of Qdos Arts, Lorne.

Greetings from Christopher,

5th September 2020