ANNUAL EXHIBITION OPENING SATURDAY 26th OCTOBER

  

On Tuesday last week I attended an outing organised by Ikebana International Melbourne, to the Alowyn Gardens in Yarra Glen, north east of Melbourne. I had not been to these gardens before and was surprised by their extent and variety. The gardens are described by their creators as a "labour of love over the last 25 years". Having been created on almost 

3 hectares of neglected farm land, the gardens are divided into 9 separate themed gardens.

The first of these is the Wisteria arbour, which is the main entrance into the other sub-gardens. 

I was intrigued to learn that the Wisteria seen above is the Japanese variety, W. floribunda, which has the longest flower racemes of all the Wisterias. The longest measured in this garden was 1.6m.

Another very eye-catching garden was the vegetable garden, which contained a very long bed of poppies. I assume they were being grown for their seed.

While walking along this bed, my eye was caught by this sole red flower with highly fimbriated petals.

On a much more modest scale, Laurie and I were delighted to see many small ground orchids in the Iron Bark Basin reserve recently.

This is the Angahook Caladina, C. maritima, which is endemic to the Anglesea area.

In our own garden the Spanish Broom  Spartium junceum has suddenly flowered, creating a bright yellow mass that stands out among the green. The yellow is so intense I thought I would use some in my ikebana.

I have combined a number of tightly-arranged stems with a New Zealand Flax Phormium leaf. To balance the strong vertical lines, including the vase, I have added a now dried tangle of Strelitzia juncea stems that I had made some months ago.

News items: 

Next Saturday, 26th October, the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana's annual exhibition opens in the Whitehorse Artspace in the old Box Hill town hall. The exhibition will run for a month, with the arrangements being changed each week.

Don't forget the demonstration by Master Instructor Kosa  Nishiyama being held at Federation Square's The Edge on Thursday 31st October.

 

 

Greetings from Christopher

20th October 2024