TWO VESSELS and a WINDFALL

In the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, I was recently surprised and delighted to see this huge sweep of pink everlasting flowers. They are in light shade under some tall Eucalyptus trees. My internet research tells me that they are no longer called Helichrysum but have been transferred to a new genus Xeruchrysum. 

I did not notice a label for these, however they may be a hybrid of X. bracteatum. Or they may be naturally occurring in this colour. Please contact me if you know the answer.

They are particularly beautiful in this massed planting.

Three weeks ago I mentioned that we had some extremely windy weather, particularly on the Saturday night. I was relieved when I walked around the garden the following morning not to find any large branches blown off the trees. 

However, when I walked along the creek path we came across a Bushy Yate  Eucalyptus lehmannii, that had split at its lowest forking branch. I think somewhat less than half the small tree had survived. The tree was aged and I think had passed its prime.

This was the largest of the branches that lay beside the path. When I passed the branch again on my return I noticed that there were a few open flower-heads and quickly rescued a couple of shorter branches before the Shire workers came along with their mulching machine. "Waste not, want not", as the saying goes; an impulse which many Sogetsu practitioners will recognise. A literal wind-fall. 

I immediately knew that this material would make for an interesting ikebana opportunity.

The mop-like, greenish-yellow inflorescence is quite fascinating, as is the fruit when it forms. The one on the righthand branch has only recently lost most of its stamens. I am not sure of the technical name of the remaining curving structures. 

In planning this ikebana I wanted to show the three phases of the inflorescence development from bud to open 'flower' and then fruit

I decided to make an ikebana using two smoke-grey glass vases with the lines spreading widely. 

  

To start I removed about eighty percent of the leaves to reveal the lines of the branches and the phases of the flower from bud to fruit. There is a small bud on the branch just to the right of the central mass. The large spiky mass on the left branch is a well-developed, but as yet unopened, inflorescence. The line on the left is stretching slightly to the back and the other is stretching slightly forward. The flowers are on very short stems and could only be positioned side-on. 

Greetings from Christopher

28th September 2024