BANKSIA PRAEMORSA

January is a splendid time for some of the more spectacular Australian native flowering trees. Three weeks ago, in my Boxing Day post, I included images of Grevillea Robusta in the Royal Botanic Garden Melbourne and last week Bursaria spinosa, from our own garden and nearby.  

This week, when we were in Melbourne, Laurie pointed out to me a row of Brachychiton acerifolius, that have been planted as street trees near the National Gallery of Victoria. Above are the eye catching red panicles, the stems of which are also bright red. This attribute intensifies the dramatic appearance of the leafless tree when it is flowering profusely.

What was particularly interesting is that this tree, above, was the only tree in a long row that was almost totally bare of leaves, but covered in the red flowering panicles. The tree to the left with the bright green leaves is one of those that was not flowering this year. 

This, yet to flower, Brachychiton is in our garden. It is easy to see the deeply divided leaves, that give it the name acerifolius (maple-leafed), showing clearly in this photo.

The next spectacular large shrub is a Banksia Praemorsa. This is a native of the south coast of Western Australia which is tolerant of salty winds. I was interested to learn that all the naturally occurring populations are within 2km of the coast. This particular example is growing in the garden of my ikebana friend Rosemary and her husband, whom we visited on Wednesday.

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Now from plants to ikebana. Earlier in the week we had a guest visit and I decided that I really needed to refresh the small ikebana in the niche in the living room.

I had initially arranged this branch of Pinus radiata with a small Hydrangea. Of course, the pine continued to look quite fresh but not the Hydrangea. This time I replaced the Hydrangea with some stems of Feverfew Tanacetum parthenium. I was pleased at the change in character of this ikebana with the white and yellow of the flowers and light green foliage looking particularly fresh.

On Wednesday as we were about to leave Rosemary's house, she kindly got out her long-handled secateurs so that I could have some of the large Banksia flowers from her garden. I used them to make two ikebana arrangements.

This first one is a "simplified ikebana" being reduced to a single Banksia flower and a short stem of leaves. Its colour harmonises well with the earthy tones of the vessel made by Janet Keefe in Ontario, Canada.

In my second ikebana I have used three flowers, one long principal stem and some shorter ones. Unfortunately, the photograph has rather flattened the appearance of the ikebana. The longest line extends forward to the left and the lowest line goes to the back before then curving forward.

The ceramic vessel is by the Victorian ceramic artist Mel Ogden.

Greetings from Christopher

14th January 2023