DUTCH IRIS

Last week, on a very cool day with some sunny breaks, I had a stroll around the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 

 

One of the first plants to really catch my attention was this Cycad. The red in the photo are a couple of patches where the ripe seeds are exposed.

This photo shows that some of the bright-red woody seeds have fallen to the ground. The shiny surface surface of the hard seeds look as though they are lacquered.

When I was walking toward the small tropical glass house I realised that it would provide me with both a respite from the cold wind as well as a sight of the exotic beauty of its flora. Among the lush plant growth this bright pink ball turned out to be a Fireball lily, Scadoxus mulitflorus. Not an oversized pink Dandelion seedhead.

Among the wattles that have started to flower was this Sandpaper wattle, Acacia denticulosa.  The dense yellow velvety flowers look worm-like with their wavy form.

Another eye catching wattle is Acacia aphylla, the leafless wattle. In this season it is a mass of gold flowers and green thorny-looking stems. The rest of the year it looks just like a lot of green wiry, sometimes thorny, stems.

To continue the theme of yellow flowers I am including this ikebana by my friend Michael from Florida (USA). Michael kindly sent me some photos of his work late last year. This ikebana follows the Sogetsu advanced curriculum theme of an ikebana "Complementing an Art work". Michael has responded to the vertical lines in the painting by creating an upright freestyle work with a small mass of yellow at the base. The white vase is placed side-on to reduce its impact and continue the vertical line.

Last week I showed a moribana (shallow bowl) ikebana using Japanese Flowering Quince, Chaenomeles japonica. Over the week almost all of its flowers have opened. Each new one progressively more pale than the last. I wanted to capture the intense red in a more simple ikebana by using a single stem. These two small similarly-shaped vases have different shades of a celadon-like glaze. Using the two vases together makes them look larger and a better proportion for the stem.

In the garden the Dutch Iris, Iris x hollandica, has flowered for the second year. This photo is actually from last year because I was too slow to photograph the first bud. The colour is so intense I really wanted to use it while still in bud. It was the perfect flower for me to demonstrate a "basic upright" ikebana for my Torquay students.

This is the first exercise in the Sogetsu curriculum. The two branches on the left side of the asymmetrical design are Italian buckthorn, Rhamnus alternus. Their height is balanced by the  line of the low-set Iris stem, still in bud, on the opposite side. The flattening effect of the photograph hides the fact that the left-most line and the stem of the Iris on the right are both extending at an angle coming toward the viewer. The colour palate is reduced to blue and green, except for the small touch of yellow in the open flower. 

Greetings from Christopher

7th August 2022