KABU WAKE

This week I visited the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne in the early morning, where I was delighted to see a large number of Sacred Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, flowers blooming at the edge of the lake.

They really are a beautiful plant and make a wonderful display at this time of year. 

The first time I saw Lotus growing wild was in the Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory where it occurs naturally.

In this photo of a fully open flower, the large greenish-yellow seed pod can be seen. As a green or dried material, the seed pod can make an interesting ikebana material as the stem often has interesting curves.

While in Melbourne I also visited the National Gallery of Victoria, which currently has a huge contemporary exhibition, the NGV Triennial 2020. I took the photo above while standing inside an installation created by Kengo Kuma and Geoff Nees, who used recovered timber from the Botanic Gardens to make a semi-circular wooden pavilion. My attention was particularly caught by the pattern of intersecting shafts of light on the floor. Here is a link to the NGV Triennial website, which has a video interview with Kengo Kuma. It is certainly worth a visit to the Gallery if you are in Melbourne between now and the 18th of April.

Meanwhile, the garden at Torquay is looking quite lush with the recent (and current) rain stimulating summer growth. One of the long-flowering exotic plants in the garden is Scabiosa atropurpurea which, being from the Mediterranean, copes well with our conditions.

Here it is, going a little wild in its first flowering.

I love this rich, deep colour. However, occasionally it produces a pale pink and even white bloom.

I have been wanting to use it in an ikebana with Verbena bonariensis, as they both have long, fine stems. They also have a symmetrical growth habit, producing branching stems of equal length on opposite sides of each growth node. 

I made this upright "kabu wake" (seperate groups) ikebana in a deep, cylindrical ceramic vessel. I wanted the space between the groups to allow each element to be seen clearly and their growth habit to unite them. In the process of creation I realised that the symmetrical growth habit of these plants disrupted the vertical form of the ikebana. I found it interesting that to achieve the desired form it was necessary to remove one side branch at each of the nodes on several stems of the Scabiosa. I have placed the Verbena stems so that the side branches project to the front or the rear emphasising the verticality of their growth. It is a paradox in ikebana that it is necessary to remove elements of a plant to reveal its character.

Greetings from Christopher

3rd January 2021