MANCHURIAN PEAR

During the week, on a relatively cool day, Laurie and I walked in Iron Bark Basin where I was delighted to see these five Grass Trees, Xanthorrhoea Australis, all with flower spikes. The tallest of the flower spikes, on the slightly-left-of-centre plant that is closest to the camera, is just over one and a half metres tall.

  

Perhaps it is the fairly consistent, and relatively light, rain in recent months that has led to so much flowering. There certainly was no fire in this area last summer; fire being one of the triggers for the flowering of these wonderful Australian native plants.

Earlier today we had another walk in the same area. This time I had my eyes on the ground as it is coming towards the time when the ground orchids begin to flower. 

We were rather too early as the only orchids we came across were this small cluster of Nodding Greenhood orchids, Pterostylis nutans. 

However, my eye was caught by the brightness of this very small white flower of this Whittaker sundew, Drosera whittakeri, one of several endemic insectivorous plants in the area. The white looked brilliant against the deep red of the sticky leaves.

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In the class room...

... I had set Marcia the task of making an ikebana incorporating Narcissus. She chose to make a naturalistic two kenzan ikebana using a large and miniature daffodil with some branches of Manchurian Pear in flower.

Jacqueline's exercise was to make an ikebana "Focusing on the uses of water". The significance of water to all life can be recognised by its symbolic use across many cultures. By minimising the materials and, in this case, completely immersing the flowers under the water, the water itself becomes the major feature of the ikebana.

Because of the propensity of these white Jonquils to float it was necessary to brace the bent stem across the width of the glass vessel. This device and the use of only two stems of the Jonquils achieved the result of focussing on the element of water.  

Three and a half weeks ago I pruned the Manchurian Pear, Pyrus ussuriensis, in the front garden of one of my sisters-in-law. She happily reported to me 12 days later that the prunings she had brought inside had burst into blossom. I had also brought home two branches thinking that I would be able to use the bare stems to make a structure for my ikebana. However, I kept the stems in water to keep them supple and they too burst into bloom. They were slower to do so as they were in the conservatory which is very cold at night at this time of year.

 

As this photo shows, the stems were very long, almost 1.2 metres, and fairly straight. To contrast with the lines of the blossoming branches I made a mass in the ikebana with Dutch Irises, Iris x hollandica, and Kangaroo fern leaves, Zealandia pustulata, from the garden.  

The angle of the single branch on the right side bothered me. To balance the large mass of lines on the left side it should be lower. However that was not possible to photograph as my backdrop is only 1.5 metres wide. The following day I re-worked the ikebana.

Having removed the branch that was on the right and trimmed one on the left, the ikebana now reaches in one direction only. I feel much happier with this version as it is a stronger statement. The feel of this version also seems more characteristic of the Sogetsu school because of the emphasis on the element of design in the ikebana.

The vase is by the New Zealand ceramic artist Keith Blight.

Greetings from Christopher