STRELITZIAS

  

Summer is definitely in the garden. Such a change from a week ago.

The Red Flowering Gum Corymbia ficifolia, that we planted five years ago is now about two and a half metres tall. I noticed the buds forming some weeks ago, which now have begun to open. It looks splendid on a sunny day and is obviously very attractive to the bees.

I took this photo of the largest clump of African Iris Dietes Grandiflora, in the garden a couple of weeks ago. On the previous evening I had noticed that the clump was covered in unopened buds. The next day was predicted to be warm, after a cool spell. True to form, all the flowers opened at once making a very conspicuous splash of bright white in the garden. It ocurred to me later that the simultaneous flowering may well be a strategy to provide a highly visible target to attract pollinating insects.

Also the Strelitzia juncea is flowering well, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. In spite of that, I was delighted when we were visited by friends who brought a gift of some Strelitzia reginae including several large leaves with very long stems.

This gift was presented to Laurie but provided an enjoyable challenge for me. I took advantage of the long stems to create this ikebana in a large Shigaraki storage vessel. I massed five leaves in a line to the left. Four flower heads form a mass in the centre and a fifth flower provides a counter movement to the right. A sixth leaf is placed forward to neaten the mouth of the vessel, by concealing the stems of the massed flowers.

Later I re-used two of the leaves and three flowers in a suiban. I particularly like the form of Strelitzia leaves and find them very elegant. The tallest leaf is mostly seen from the back. However, at the top the leaf twists a little showing more of the upper surface. A shorter flower at the back gives depth to the ikebana while the flower on the right creates an interesting space. 

The suiban has an ovoid shape formed by a sinuous line. It was made by Graeme Wilkie at his studio, Qdos, in Lorne.

Greetings from Christopher

17th December 2023