SOME MIDWINTER FLOWERS

The winter solstice passed last Monday in the southern half of the world. In the north, Midsummer's Day has a long history and was celebrated in many cultures. What I have learnt today (!) is that there is a modern tradition celebrating Midwinter's Day among workers on the Antarctic research stations. The first celebration was held in 1902. Have a look at the Wikipedia link above for more information.

I was a little late pruning the Cecile Brunner Rose this year and so, rather than cut them off, I left a small stem of buds that had formed.

This morning the first of them had just begun to open. These buds are particularly beautiful as they begin to open. The fragrance of the opened flowers is also delightful and has a slightly spicy note.

The first flower of my two potted Camellias opened recently (name unknown) and I could not resist taking a photo. At this stage I am not brave enough to plant them out in our very dry hydrophobic soil.

Joan's white Japanese Flowering Quince, Chaenomeles japonica, also started to open its first bud this morning.

Among the Australian natives in the garden the Cootamundra Wattle, Acacia Baileyana, is so covered in buds that the leaves are hard to see. Over the next couple of weeks it will become a mass of soft golden balls.

I was surprised by the Swan River Pea, Gastrolobium celsianum, which seemed to suddenly have flowered quite prolifically. This photo was taken with the sun coming through the beak-like flowers. In the garden it cascades down a bank beside the Cootamundra Wattle and a, now large, Coastal Banksia. 

On the other side of the house is another red flower. The first of the Japanese Flowering Quinces that I planted. Because of its suckering habit it now extends for about three metres along the side fence. The intense red flowers on bare branches seem to emphasise the coldness of winter. Of course they make a beautiful subject for ikebana.

I have set four stems of the Japonica in an asymmetric naturalistic style, paying attention to the space that has been created in the centre of the ikebana. At the base, the green leaves are from the tall-growing Nandina domestica. The green ceramic suiban is by John Campbell who was active in the early 20th century in Tasmania.

Greetings from Christopher

26th June 2021

MAKING A MASS

The week before last saw wild weather and heavy storm damage in the east of Victoria. With large trees blown down over powerlines there are still many households without power. On the western side of Port Philip Bay there was little damage and much less rain.

However the wind from the south was ferocious. This view is from the Torquay surf beach looking west toward the cliffs of Jan Juc beach in the distance.

Bird Rock at Jan Juc was surrounded by white water.

  

A break in the clouds appeared as the sun was about to set. 

A few days later we visited our friends who have moved to Anglesea, the next township along the coast.

The scene could hardly have been more tranquil. This is Point Roadknight viewed from the lookout at Anglesea and photographed just as a late ray of sun lit the rocks on the point. I have always thought this very sheltered beach looks like something you would see in a children's book. 

Closer to the Anglesea river this Moonah tree, Melaleuca lanceolata, is a testament to the effects of the prevailing winds and nature's ability to adapt to the environmental conditions over time. Growing up in this coastal environment made me very conscious of the beauty of the flora, both large and small, to be found here.

Of course, we are also blessed with a considerable variety of birdlife. This Rainbow Lorikeet was feeding in an Olive tree in a front garden that we walked past. It is interesting that ,in this area, the variety of medium-sized birds in particular has increased over the last 60 years. What was once a bare sheep paddock is now a suburb with gardens dominated by Australian native plants (and a few exotics, like olives!).

Now to ikebana: 

Last week I mis-identified Maree's branch material as Cotoneaster. Freya has kindly and correctly identified the plant as Pyracantha, which has the evocative common name of Firethorn. 

This week I have been drawn to another prickly customer, Asparagus Fern, Asparagus aethiopicus. This plant is growing in our garden and had become entangled in netting over a small pomegranate. A branch broke off as I removed the netting and I thought I would use it in my ikebana.

Asparagus fern is often used by Ohara ikebanists to represent the ground in their traditional landscape style. As you can see, it grows in tight little tufts along grey stems, which have thorns. I wanted to use it to create a mass for my ikebana. When doing so with leafy material it is appropriate to manipulate it so that the stems do not show, thus concealing the lines of the stems. 

The mass I have created is dense and a beautiful rich deep green. It was necessary to cut the stems into shorter lengths so that they could be concealed and to make the mass an irregular form, not a smooth ball. The contrasting lines are Coastal Tea Tree, Leptospermum laevigatum, from our garden. Yet another plant that twists into beautiful forms. The ceramic vase has two side openings as well as one at the top.

Greetings from Christopher

20th June 2021

WINTER COLOUR

On May the 27th, my students in Geelong each had a different exercise to complete. It was interesting to see the variety of ikebana created as well as the strength of design.

The exercise for Tess was an ikebana expressing movement. She chose 'Bubbling Over'. She has set her materials in two matching contemporary-styled vessels. The lines are Xanthorrhoea and the two masses created with Gypsophila. 

Maree's exercise was Variation No 8, using two cylindrical nageire vases. The arrangement in each of the vases is a discrete exercise from earlier in the curriculum. They are combined to make a single ikebana. I think the branches with bright orange berries are one of the many Cotoneasters and the flowers, Proteas.  

Helen M's exercise was to make 'Miniature Ikebana', a concept developed by the second Sogetsu Iemoto, Kasumi Teshigahara. Each miniature 'vessel' contains only elements of a plant on which the ikebanist has chosen to focus. They are not tiny individual ikebana arrangements. Instead the group is seen as a whole with multiple points of interest.

Helen had brought enough material and vessels to make a second set.

The exercise I set for Ellie was 'Inspired by Music'. When ikebana is made on a theme removed from the world of botanical materials, Japanese festivals or the seasons, they should be appreciated simply in design terms. The exercise I set is not a guessing game to identify the source of the ikebanist's inspiration. However, Ellie told us that  her inspiration for this first work was the 'trial scene' from Verdi's 'Aida'.

This second work that Ellie created was quite abstract. Her inspiration was the third movement, Adagio, 'Eternal Memory' from the 11th Symphony of Shostakovich. 

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This morning I heard some noisy chirping in the garden...

...that, as I thought, was a few Rainbow Lorikeets in the large Banksia integrifolia by the garden path. 

They were after the nectar in the many blooms at this time of year.

Also in the garden some of the leaves on the Hydrangeas are developing strong red patches before they fall.

One Hydrangea colours very strongly with the onset of the cold weather while, surprisingly, another produced a very late new pink flower. I think it has flowered late because I pruned it too hard last winter.

The two flowers from different pots were growing very close together. I thought they would continue to look lovely in a vase and last a little longer than on the bush. I have created a mass with the flowers and removed almost all the leaves. The ikebana vessel, which I bought in Kiso-Fukushima, is made from lacquered linen. I was told the inspiration for the vessel was the lacquered helmets worn by firefighters in the Edo period. The maker is Hiroyasu Takizawa.

Greetings from Christopher

13th June 2021

 

WINTER BERRIES

Wednesday last week was officially the second day of Winter in this part of the world. Victoria is back in Covid-19 lockdown, but fortunately Iron Bark Basin in the Great Otway National Park is within our travel restriction of 5km (now 10km). Laurie and I decided to break our routine and take our permitted daily exercise there.

When we arrived, I suddenly realised how summery the scene looked in the bright sunshine, in spite of it being fairly cool. Because the majority of trees in our landscape are evergreen, the signs of winter are much more subtle than many northern hemisphere environments. At this time of year there are fewer flowers and it is a little too early for the first of the wattles (Acacias) to bloom. In spite of the sunshine I found a jumper was required.

This glimpse of the sea was all the more deceptive of the actual season because the ground cover in the foreground has been slashed making the scene appear like a hot dry summer's day. In fact, the slashing of the low vegetation beside this part of the path has been done to prepare a fire-break for the next summer when the bush fire risk is our major concern.

A couple of weeks ago I had set one of my classes the exercise of making an ikebana arrangement that incorporated 'Branches with Fruit or Berries'. 

Judy used branches of Pittosporum in a shallow black bowl.

Róża used three branches of lemons. Placement and securing the stems was quite a challenge because the vessel is narrow and wide.

Coralie used Nandina in her ikebana. Unfortunately the small berries are not easy to see in this photo.

Marion set a single branch of fig in this small shell shaped vessel. She then added two short stems with one leaf each to give the work depth to the rear and forward. 

Marta arranged branches of small Pomegranates in a shallow trough vessel. She used two kenzans to create space in the work and added a stem of Cotoneaster to provide height.

Over the past couple of weeks I had noticed a Cotoneaster bush by the path around the local sports oval. I thought its red berries would make a good ikebana subject for an unusual facetted vase I had been given by the South Australian Branch of the Sogetsu School. The vase has been dipped in a black glaze except for a small area at the top which has been dribbled with a bright red glaze. 

I am conscious of the fact that in making ikebana I am usually drawn to, or inspired by, a particular material which becomes my starting point. It is relatively unusual for me to begin an ikebana arrangement by choosing the vessel first. Doing so makes one consider carefully the nature of the materials that will complement the vessel's colour, texture and form. Both the unusual shape, but more particularly the colours of this vase, require careful consideration of materials that will be suitable.

When I went to collect the Cotoneaster berries I was pleased to notice that some of the leaves had also coloured rather beautifully. I have stripped almost all of the (many) green leaves on the Cotoneaster. The two branches of Cotoneaster are asymmetrically placed on opposite sides and visually connected by a mass made with two bunches of Pittosporum berries and leaves. 

Greetings from Christopher

6th June 2021