SEED PODS and FLOWERS

This week as I was finally pruning the Hydrangeas I discovered three flowers partially hidden under some of the remaining leaves.

This one particularly surprised me because it had obviously developed very late and still had not fully opened because of the onset of wintery weather. It was completely hidden under other leaves and against a brick wall that may have been keeping it slightly warmer than the surrounding air. In this photo you can see that the tiny pink flowers have not opened but the usually pale pink sepals have already started to turn green before developing their autumn colouring.

When I brought this flower in I removed all but one of the leaves and quickly placed it in this simple, dark green ceramic vase. This ikebana is in the style of a chabana, tea ceremony arrangement. In chabana, the materials should be simple, reflecting the season, and placed very quickly in the vase without the use of usual ikebana techniques for fixing the materials ( Shozo Sato * ). 

The second of the three flowers was entirely green. However, the third one, above, had developed its autumn colour and surprisingly had not been damaged by rain. I have circled a section that shows a sepal has remained green where it has been sheltered by the sepal above - which in the photo is the one on the left.

When I brought this small flower inside...

...I realised that its colour was very close to that of the warm pink of seed pods on the Red Flowering Gum, Corymbia ficifolia, which was planted in our garden about two years ago.  

This is a Corymbia in flower. This tree is in an adjacent garden and the small group of open flowers are out-of-season, being really rather early.

In my second ikebana I have combined these materials making a mass using the two remaining Hydrangea flowerheads and a bunch of the Corymbia seed pods. The branch extending to the right, which I cut from our Corymbia, has kept its natural shape. However, I have removed about two thirds of the leaves.

The bottle-shaped ceramic vessel is by Sergio Sill.

Greetings from Christopher

3rd July 2021

* Sato, S. "Ikebana: The art of arranging flowers." Tuttle Publishing 2008