ACANTHUS

 

At the end of term two, because it is now winter, I set my Torquay students the exercise of making an ikebana using bare branches. They also had to add some fresh materials. 

 

Lyn's ikebana featured a branch of London Plane Tree Platanus x acerifolia. Although not quite bare, this branch certainly had a late autumn look. On the right side of the vase are some stems of Cotoneaster with red berries attached.

Louise used bare branches from a Nectarine tree Prunus persica. The branches on the left are unidentified. At the mouth of the vase is a small spray of Sweet Pittosporum Pittosporum undulatum leaves and berries. 

Róża used a bare branch of Coast tea tree Leptospermum laevigatum which she positioned to emphasise its sweeping lines. The small contrasting fresh material was Pincushion Hakea H. laurina.

Pamela's materials were not specifically identified. The bare branch was positioned to exploit the counter movement of its lines. The small focus of fresh materials includes a red flowering Eucalyptus

The starkness of Norma's bare branches was highlighted by the small mass of orange-red Manchurian pear Pyrus ussuriensis, which has the function of visually holding the branch lines together and connecting them to the vase.

In the Melbourne class the students' task was to make an ikebana using one material only.

Eugenia brought some Hakea branches that were in flower. She commented that she had deliberately chosen this material for the additional variety of texture and colour in the flowers. The branches had long curving lines that she arranged asymmetrically in a tall nageire vase.

Aileen's material was Bushy Yate Eucalyptus lehmannii. Having first removed all of the leaves, she set the material in two unusual ceramic vessels. The branches have irregular curving lines and feature two stages of the flowers buds and one fully opened flower.

In the garden, the red flowers of the Swan River Pea Gastrolobium celsianum caught my eye in the morning a couple of days ago. The plant is growing beside the garden steps and the early sun was dramatically back-lighting the flowers. It is such a joy to have these flowers open in the middle of winter.

Elsewhere, the herbaceous Acanthus mollis... 

...has recently produced its leaves for the new season. This is one of my favourite large-leafed plants and I am delighted to have it in our garden. It has a particularly beautiful form and I am not surprised that in ancient Greece it was used for the design of Corinthian column capitals. I have been monitoring its growth and decided that I would use this leaf material for my ikebana.

I have arranged a single leaf in a black ceramic vase and added two white Chrysanthemums. Because I wanted to emphasise the curving line of the leaf, as well as the pattern of the ribs on the underside, I placed one of the flowers beneath the leaf. The second flower is set high, contributing to a sense of the materials rising out of the vase. They are set facing slightly away from each other.

The vase is by the Australian ceramic artist Terunobo Hirata.

Those of you who are familiar with Acanthus leaves may be surprised to learn that I picked the leaf over two weeks ago. It is still looking fresh two and a half weeks later. The plant is in its early growth phase for this season and I cut it in the morning on a cool day. After cutting I used a process that I developed a few years ago: Once inside, I re-cut the stem under water. Then I held the base under warm running water while I gently rubbed the cut surface until it stopped feeling slippery. I then placed it deep in warm water (40 degrees Celsius) with 10ml white vinegar per litre, and left it in a cool dark place overnight. 

The plant has quite a sticky sap and I think that after the leaf has been cut from the plant it becomes more sticky, preventing water from being taken up. I use this process with other sticky sap plants.

Greetings from Christopher

7th July 2024