NEW ZEALAND FLAX and RED "BOTTLEBRUSH"

In the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne last week I was delighted to see more signs of autumn.

The red of the Boston Ivy Parthenocissus tricuspidata, on the old Director's house, now called Gardens House, was quite intense. It is probably more eye-catching because in front of the old house is the Perennial Border, which is looking a bit dull now as most of the late summer flowers have finished blooming.

I also noticed that the ivy is climbing up a large tree to the west of the old building. This photo shows the bright red vine among the green leaves of the tree. 

In a nearby Norfolk Island Pine some Sulphur Crested Cockatoos were chewing away at the bark of the highest branches.

Nearby there is the beginning of autumn colouring on this Pin Oak Quercus palustris, on the Oak Lawn; an early heralding of the cooler weather to come.

At my Melbourne class I had set a revision exercise for the advanced students, of making a slanting ikebana in the nageire style (that is, using a tall straight-sided vase).  

  

Eugenia used Eucalyptus and Leucadendron branches in a tall metal vase.

Marisha also used Eucalyptus branches and one of the very fine leafed Acacias.

A few weeks ago I made the ikebana below for our friends Heather and John who had invited us to dinner.

I used New Zealand Flax Phormium and Coastal Banksia 

B. integrifolia in a simple design which I was able to quickly arrange before our dinner. The vessel is a suiban made by Graeme Wilkie of Qdos Gallery studio in Lorne.

This photo shows the damaged leaves of the Flax that I mentioned in a posting recently. It is the result of three consecutive days in the high thirties while we were away, and the general dryness of our soil. I am trusting that the plant will recover over the winter when we will have more regular rain.

Once again I have used some of the heat-damaged leaves of the Flax in my ikebana. The leaves have developed areas of rust-brown surrounding straw-yellow patches on leaves that are mostly green. Some roadside-collected Red Bottlebrush Melaleuca citrina provides a harmonising colour focus. The use of such materials as these leaves is a reminder of one of the Wabi-sabi ideas. The recognition that beauty maybe found in the imperfect and transient.

The ceramic suiban comes from Seto city.

 
Greetings from Christopher
28th April 2024

KAMO HON'AMI

A couple of weeks ago I set my Melbourne students the exercise of making a "Horizontal Ikebana". The materials chosen have a significant influence on the resulting ikebana. It is an interesting demonstration of the fact that Ikebana is a difficult art. The ikebanist discovers that plants cannot be made to do things against their natures. For the student, who has had a topic set for them, there is also the question of what materials are available at the time. I think some of the ikebana produced in the class should be thought of as "extending laterally". 

Eugenia arranged variegated Aspidistra leaves, creating a strong sense of lateral movement reaching outward. A single dark pink Chrysanthemum sits in the space between the two main lines.

Marcia used two branches of Japanese Maple. The longest branch stretches to the left front while the shorter one provides a counter-balancing movement. White Japanese Windflowers Eriocapitella hupehensis form a light mass in the centre.

Jacqueline's ikebana slowly evolved during the class. Originally, the large leaves stretched to the right and the left. This is the final version where two leaves reach toward the right side, one nestling in the other. Two Haemanthus coccineus flowers provide a strong accent at the base of the leaves. A single wandering line extends to the left.

Marisha used two stems of Protea "Pink Ice" which had a natural gentle curve that sat well in her oval-shaped bowl. Both stems seem to be reaching outward. In the centre is a small mass of pale blue-grey Eucalyptus leaves.

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Earlier this week I noticed that the Firewheel tree Stenocarpus sinuatus, was flowering in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 

This is a large tree. The flowers seem to form towards the end of the branches and are distributed throughout the canopy. Unfortunately the sun was behind a cloud so the red flowers do not look very bright.

Up close they are dramatic because of their intense red and the extraordinary spoked, circular form.

Meanwhile in the garden at Torquay... 

    

    

...the third flower of the Kamo Hon'ami * Camellia opened yesterday. The plant has many buds this year, in spite of being quite small. It is surviving in a pot, having struggled through the summer of 2022-23. I took this photograph today in the late afternoon.

A couple of days ago I picked the second flower as it was on a short stem with only one other bud.

This is my modest, one-flower ikebana arranged with a small bare stem of Tea Tree Leptospermum laevigatum. The form of the flower lends it to a simple-looking ikebana that has a casual elegance, and which carries a strong feeling of quiet beauty.

The vessel is a ceramic lidded box by Don Jones that I bought in 1973. It has a Tenmoku glaze and a slightly domed lid.

Greetings from Christopher

21st April 2024

* This Camellia was named for the Grandson of the famous tea master Sen no Rikyu. 
p. 108,   Sparnon and Waterhouse. The Magic of Camellias. Ure Smith 1968 

LINES IN DRIED NEW ZEALAND FLAX

Last week Laurie and I travelled west along the Victorian coast to the town of Warrnambool to see an exhibition by our artist friend Ben Fennessy. Ben and his wife Helen are long standing friends, since Helen and I worked together in the mid-1980's. Another connection with this area is that the nearby town of Koroit was where Laurie's mother spent her childhood. 

  

While in the area we visited Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve which incorporates the lake and islands within the caldera of a large inactive volcano. The site has been revegetated since earlier farming activity was discontinued. The planting has focussed on the re-introduction of native flora species that were present prior to the European farming. Native fauna have also been re-introduced into the reserve. The view above is from one of the high points on the north side of the crater rim overlooking the lake. In the further distance the Southern Ocean can be seen.

On some of the walls of the crater, layers of volcanic ash deposits are evidence of the past eruptions of the volcano. 

The most conspicuous of the re-introduced fauna are the Emus, Australia's largest birds. They tend to congregate around the car park and picnic area, being the least timid of the re-introduced species. I find their size and general inquisitive nature makes them rather intimidating creatures.

This relatively close-up photo shows the skin of the neck and head is a shiny pale blue. Like ostriches and cassowaries, emus are flightless birds.

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In the world of ikebana, I set my Melbourne students the exercise of making a Mazesashi arrangement a couple of weeks ago. This style requires the use of a variety of materials, five to seven being usual. The exercise is not as easy as it may sound because, among other things, asymmetry in the volume of materials is necessary.

Eugenia's ikebana is composed of the vertical arrangement of flowers with a spray of curving lines made with a Sedge. There are five kinds of flowers of different volumes and two kinds of leaves. The spaces she has created keeps the arrangement feeling light.

Jacqueline's ikebana includes two large Protea flowers and two stems of Leucadendron leaning to the left front. These materials are harmonised with finer stems of "Easter daisy" and Statice Limonium. Unfortunately, the photo was taken before water was added to the vessel and the kenzan is visible.

Marisha's arrangement included a variety of pink flowers which created harmony in the ikebana. She used a small amount of blue-grey Eucalyptus stems which provide a soft colour and shape contrast.

Aileen made an ikebana that is composed mostly of grassy materials gathered from the wayside. Two Morning Glory Ipomoea purpurea, flowers provide a focal mass. The lightness of the materials suggest a late summer / early autumn feeling. I am always enchanted by the beauty of these simple materials that are so easily overlooked and often dismissed as weeds.

My ikebana this week arose from a walk around the garden and my noting that the New Zealand Flax Phormium tenax, suffered quite a battering by the three very hot days we had some weeks ago. Almost all the older leaves had drooped badly and gone pale yellow from their middle to the tips. As I started to cut them away I noticed the beauty of their lines and some subtle marking in the broader sections that had not curled into straws.

The elegance of these lines really appealed to me and are the principle subject of this ikebana. I felt I could best show these lines by extending one across the front of this tall narrow vessel and deliberately have the line end by touching the surface of the niche. The angles created by the flat surfaces of the leaves draw attention to the texture and colour of those surfaces. A single floret and pair of leaves from a small Hydrangea H. macrophylla creates a colour focus.

The Japanese vessel is hexagonal in cross-section and has a tenmoku glaze.

Greetings from Christopher

14th April 2024
 

AN EVERYDAY OBJECT

Early last week, as I was hanging out the washing, a movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. It was a small bird scurrying around the bushes and ground cover. It was obviously eating small insects among the moist leaves, following some recent very welcome rain. 

I had seen a small family group of about seven of these birds about six weeks ago in the garden. They were completely new to me and I learnt that they are Buff-banded Rails. My photo above, is rather poor having been greatly enlarged.

This is a screen-shot taken from the Wikipedia article about them. They are quite beautifully marked birds and, at this stage in our garden, rather timid.

To ikebana.

At my Geelong class recently, Maree's exercise was, "...paying attention to the vase and the area where the ikebana is placed". In this exercise  the student is asked think about the materials extending beyond the vessel. The main focal point of the material is to the side rather than above the vase.

Maree used a large Tsubo vase. The material was a single large Strelitzia reginae leaf and a stem of Oriental lily Lilium with only one bud, the very showy open flowers having been removed. The stems have been aligned so that the bud is cradled by the leaf.

The exercise I set for the senior students was to "use two materials only" in a freestyle ikebana.

Ellie used some Bullrushes Typha orientalis, and some stems of a reed-like grass with a feathery inflorescence. She said that she chose the materials to suit the decoration on her unusual Japanese vessel.

Maureen used some autumn-coloured Manchurian Pear Ussuriensis and colour-matched Grevillea in a hand made bottle-shaped vase.

Helen made a freestanding small-scale abstract sculptural ikebana using only one kind of material. However, she changed the appearance of the elements and used them differently. The three uprights are the stems of a Yucca and the green elements are the detached leaves with their sharp ends cut off.

Technically, this was an example of the exercise: "Disassembling and re-arranging the materials".

My ikebana was made at a Sogetsu Branch workshop held three weeks ago. The theme was to make an ikebana using an "everyday object" and botanical materials in "Tones of the same colour".

I used a stainless steel Pasta machine, that I had borrowed from a friend with another ikebana purpose in mind. The Pasta machine is placed on its side as it looks slightly more sculptural and its usual function is not immediately apparent. My materials were a re-used Cycad leaf (see last week's posting), a variegated Aspidistra leaf and a head of Hydrangea that had turned a pale green.

Click here for more photos from the workshop.

Greetings from Christopher.
7th April 2024