AN ARRANGEMENT SET ON THE FLOOR

I recently set my Torquay students the exercise of making an ikebana featuring "Line and mass, plus some dried material".

Lyn made her mass with Euphorbia and set some pale,dried roses within the mass. She used Irises for her line material.

Pamela used some home-grown Cymbidium orchids for her line and Cushion Bush Leucophyta brownii, for the mass.

In the Geelong class I set the same exercise (with a more strict interpretation, particularly for the senior students).
It is important to note that, in the Sogetsu School, a mass has to be created by the ikebanist. It is not correct to use a single naturally-occurring mass such as a Hydrangea flowerhead or like the large Gymea inflorescence used by Helen below. However, using two or more such naturally occurring flowerheads is acceptable. Also a mass may be created with multiple materials or just one kind of material.

When Helen spoke about her ikebana she acknowledged that it did not meet the requirements of the exercise and therefore was a freestyle arrangement. She explained that she had cut the single, very large inflorescence, and leaf of Gymea Doryanthes palmeri, from her garden. She was interested to experiment in the class, with techniques for fixing such heavy material. Her interest was with a view to possibly use this material in a future exhibition. 

Ellie used a single branch of drift wood for the line and five Banksia coccinea  flowers to make the mass. The interesting vase is made from sections of large diameter plumbing pipe joined together and painted red.

Jo used a ceramic hot water bottle as her vessel. She then set a single line using a dried branch, and created a mass of using dried Serruria florida flowers. A single long green leaf was added to give a feeling of freshness.

Maree's ikebana exercise was "Composing with branches, a two step approach." In this exercise she first made the branch structure so that it would stand self-supporting on the table. It was then repositioned on the vase with the addition of a Tree Philodendron P. bipinnatifidum, leaf and a single Aurm Lily Zantedeschia, flower.

On the 14th of the month, I joined my Ikebana International Melbourne colleagues on an outing to the Ferny Creek Horticultural Society Garden. It is situated at the foot of the Dandenong ranges, which are famous for the spectacular Mountain Ash wet Eucalypt forest.

We were shown around by a very knowledgeable volunteer Keith Ross, seen here talking to our group about the extensive display of Azalea's.

My attention was particularly captured by these beautiful Mountain Ash Eucalyptus regnans. These trees are the world's tallest flowering plants. 

They are quite majestic. I think I find them particularly impressive as on the coast at Torquay most trees are low and often grow at an angle because of the prevailing winds. 

I also find the subtle colours of the bark quite beautiful.

Of course there is quite a lot of bird life in the forrest. We were blessed by the appearance of this Kookaburra, which did not produce its characteristic call but sat silently on its high branch. 

We had a lunch time meeting in the garden's hall, where Lucy Papas gave a demonstration of floor-set ikebana arrangements. Photos of Lucy's and the members' ikebana arrangements can be seen on the I.I. Melbourne instagram account.

At the meeting I made an arrangement using driftwood and Red Valerian Centranthus ruber, in a blue suiban.

Because of the placement on the floor, I have taken this photo from a standing position. I deliberately kept the arrangement small so that the surface of the water would be a significant element of the ikebana.

Here is a photo taken at a more usual angle.

Greetings from Christopher

25th October 2025

GREEN AND GOLD

  

  

I am pleased to report that this spring the "Lorraine Lee" Rose is looking the best it has ever been. I think it is a combination of the weather and the protective guard which I attached to the base of the support structure. The guard protects against predation by possums, which particularly like the tender new shoots and leaves when they are just forming.

This photo shows a close-up of two clusters of these beautiful, fragrant flowers.

At class in Melbourne, Chen made his second freestyle ikebana.

He had found an interesting large branch from which he removed most of the leaves to reveal its structure. This became an exercise in trimming, in which most of the leaves and some of the branches were removed. 

I had set the senior students the task of making an ikebana 'taking into account the shape of the vessel'.

Marisha had brought along an irregularly-shaped angular  vessel. She made the vessel the focus of the ikebana then used only four strappy leaves and three single orange Clivia flowers to complete her ikebana. The horizontal leaf is from a Matchstick Bromeliad Aechmea gamosepala.

Jacqueline used an unusual narrow curving vessel, across which she placed a dried Eucalyptus branch with curving lines. She added a mass of Clivia flowers and leaves, which she curved and placed on one side.

 

Aileen chose an unusual Japanese-made ikebana vase in the shape of two semi-circles connected by a horizontal bar. She trimmed two Strelitzia leaves that were cut to repeat the forms in the vase. Two stems of Hippeastrum were set centrally to create a focal point.

 

Eugenia chose a annular vessel with a hole off-set from the centre. She then placed dried vine material to repeat the lines in the vessel. A single branch of flowering Callery pear Pyrus calleryana, was placed to show a strong diagonal line and contrasting masses of white flowers.

My ikebana this week was focussing on the contrast of colours; in this case, a dark green and bright yellow. 

The Acanthus leaf had been sitting in the black vase for eight weeks! I had previously arranged it with Arum lilies (27th August). As various Wattle trees in the area had started to flower, successively, from late winter, I was waiting for this particularly bright yellow one, Acacia saligna, to flower. It has long narrow leaves, most of which I removed before making this ikebana. These two colours are close to each other on the colour wheel yet seem to intensify each other as distinct from blending. Both colours convey the feeling of freshness and vitality of spring.

The vase is by the Japanese-born Australian ceramicist Terunobu Hirata.

Greetings from Christopher

18th October 2025

The symbolism of Green and Gold in Australia.

TAMARISK and DUTCH IRIS, KABUWAKE

In my Melbourne class...

...Chen recently made his first freestyle ikebana. The branch material is Calistemon stripped of most leaves and the flower material is Californian Geranium Roldana petasitis. The design is a mass and line ikebana, with the line being the principal feature and the mass the subordinate. When I was processing this photograph I was astonished to find that I had unintentionally aligned the horizontal line on the vase with the back edge of the table top. 

I had set the senior students the task of making a spring-time ikebana incorporating metal. Aileen's botanical material was Jasmine and the metal, wire mesh. She folded the wire mesh to make a convoluted form that appeared to be floating. The mesh provided a framework that supported the very light vine. The lines in the mesh echoed the design on the small vase.

Eugenia used two pieces of welded reinforcing rods that she wired together to create a larger structure. They were secured to a triangular ceramic ikebana vase to which the botanical material was added. Eugenia chose Sea Holly Eryngium for its strong straight lines and angles that harmonised well with the metal and the vase.

Marisha chose a rather challenging metal material, aluminium foil. This material when spread out as a sheet does not have enough strength to support its own weight. However, with experimentation it proved to become self supporting when formed into a flattened cone and crushed slightly at its tip. Her botanical materials are small pink multi-headed Chrysanthemums and two rich pink roses.

My neighbour Margie, who is an excellent gardener, recently allowed me to cut some of the blue Dutch Irises Iris X hollandica growing in her garden. Her blooms were straight and tall. My single bloom this year was horizontal as were all the leaves. I have these bulbs growing in a trough and you would think I placed them in a wind tunnel. I need to find a much more sheltered position before next spring. 

I have also been keeping my eye on a couple of large bushes of Tamarisk Tamarix ramosissima, which had just started to flower. The irises and the tamarisk were two interestingly contrasting materials that I wanted to arrange together.

The number of branches and flower stems made me decide to use two kenzans when arranging them. This is the Kabuwake,(two groups) style, which is characterised by the creation of a space between the groups. I was particularly attracted to the tallest branch as it had a slight, rather angular, "S" bend; so I placed this stem first. The branch itself needed to be placed on the right-hand side so that its 'front' was facing forward.  While adding the second group, I had to pay attention to the created space as well as the overall balance of the ikebana. The irises provide a high focal point and harmonised with the blue suiban.

I took the above photo against a black backdrop as it seems to give a more accurate colour.

Here is the ikebana in the living room niche.

Greetings from Christopher
11th October 2025

 

WISTERIA AT LAST

In my Torquay class I recently set the exercise of making an ikebana focusing on straight lines.

Lynne used Watsonia fulgens in a suiban. By using two kenzans and crossing the materials, she has emphasised the lines in the ikebana. The leaves that come from the kenzan on the left side pass behind the flowering stems so as not to break that line.

Coralie stripped all of the leaves from her branch material Germander teucrium, which she inserted upside down in the tall vase. She placed a Gymea Doryanthes palmeri leaf at an angle across the branch material. She also placed a Strelitzia flower at an angle in alignment with the branch material, aligning the flower head with the Gymea leaf.

I challenged my senior students in Geelong recently by asking them to bring two vases and material for one ikebana arrangement. I then chose which vase would be used and gave it to one of the students. I then gave the botanical materials to a different student. In this way, none of the students had their own materials or vases, and none of the materials being used were chosen with that vase in mind. 

Ellie was provided with a small spherical vase in which she arranged green materials only, from the selection she was given. She arranged the Grasstree Xanthorrhoea so that it formed a cone with the apex in the vase. Behind the conical screen she placed two Green Goddess Lilies Zantedeschia; then placed a single green Lily low at the front of the arrangement. 

Helen was given a tall narrow vessel. Her material included a large fern-like leaf and some pink Grevillea. She cut most of the side stems from one side of the leaf and placed it forward. The Grevillea was then massed at the mouth of the vessel partly obscured by the leaf. 

Jo received some pink flowering Prunus branches, perhaps a plum. She also had some large round leaves Bergenia cordifolia, I think. The lines of the branches made it very difficult to arrange in the shallow vessel, as the branches tended to curve in contrary directions.

Maureen was given some tortuous Willow Salix, a Eucalyptus branch with gumnuts attached and a large pink incurve Chrysanthemum. Her vessel was placed with a forward opening aperture. The pink chrysanthemum was set forward and low in the arrangement, and was embraced by the other materials.

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In the garden recently I was delighted when the struggling Wisteria flowered again this year. 

The vine is very slowly making its way up a pole and has become surrounded by the apricot tree and a self-sown apple. I now need to disentangle it from these other plants a the end of autumn each year.

It seems to me that the racemes of flowers are very modest by what I think most gardeners achieve. However, I am pleased that the vine has survived to this stage. For the first time, there has been a side branch that I have been brave enough to cut for ikebana purposes.

I had to cut two racemes off this small stem because it looked too congested and needed some space between the flower clusters. The other material in the middle and left side, is an Australian plant Sticky boobialla Myoporum petiolatum, endemic to south eastern Australia. I  chose this for its small white flowers that do not detract from the Wisteria. The small narrow J

apanese vase has an almost black Tenmoku glaze.

Greetings from Christopher

4th October 2025
 

ONE KIND OF MATERIAL

Towards the end of last month I set my senior Geelong students the exercise of making a freestyle ikebana with one material only.

Helen used Cycad as her material which she set in old disused ceramic insulators from electric power poles. The three intersecting "cones" (strobili) are arranged in a criss-crossing design. The insulator at the left-rear contains a small number of individual leaflets taken from the larger frond-like bipinnate leaves of the plant. 

Ellie arranged two stems of green Cymbidium orchids from her garden and two leaves. The  placement of the flower spikes creates a diagonal dense line which is contrasted by the finer line of the strappy leaves. She has used three matching bottle-shaped vessels.

Maree's material is Papyrus, Cyperus papyrus. She has used two stems, the smaller at the back being dried, and the taller still fresh. The two stems are secured in a small glass cube with short lengths of stem cut at irregular lengths and angles. The glass cube has been placed diagonally and to one side of a square black mat.

Also in a glass vessel, in this case a tall cylindrical one, Jo arranged Arum lily Zantedeschia flowers and stems. The curling lines within the vase are lily stems that have been split longitudinally. The curls form with the process of splitting the stem. She has kept the lower part of the vase free of plant material.

Christine also used Arum lily flowers and leaves. The ikebana was originally facing the opposite way and did not work well because the flowers are curving away towards the back of the large triangular vessel. With this re-positioning, the flowers come forward and leaves peep around from the back. 

Maureen has used two Strelitzia flowers and three leaves. The  two leaves at the front have had one side cut off the mid-rib. Then sections have been cut out of the remaining part, changing the appearance of the material. The third leaf sits low in the arrangement behind the other material.

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A couple of weeks ago the Victorian Sogetsu Branch held a workshop led by Thea Sartori. She had chosen for her subject "Spring flowers in a basket". One of the interesting ideas Thea put forward was that the basket should be the primary subject and the botanical materials secondary. (My words, not Thea's.) She also commented that the materials should be light so that they complement the basket. 

The basket that I used belonged to my friend and mentor Kath Dacy. It is Japanese, made from split bamboo and lacquered. Its form is like a wide bowl and has a very open weave. I noticed that the outer surface of the basket looked best but was less noticeable when presented upright. So I decided to set it upside down, over a small white bowl. The materials could then be arranged coming through the openings in the weave. Being spring time, I massed some yellow "double" Daffodils Narcissus, within the bowl, allowing only a few longer stemmed ones to protrude. Because this was an unconventional use of the basket, I then set some bent Watsonia leaves to create a bold contemporary feel to the ikebana.

Here is a link to photos from the workshop.

Greetings from Christopher

28th September 2025

 

PAYING ATTENTION TO THE CURVE

At the beginning of the week, Laurie and I went to Cape Schanck on the southern tip of the Mornington Peninsula. It is on the eastern side of Port Phillip Bay, an area of Victoria I had never visited before. 

The lighthouse at Cape Schanck has always held a particular fascination for me since my childhood. At night, the lighthouse's unique signal, its "light characteristic", is visible from the high cliffs on the west side of Torquay, 24km away. However, in daylight the distant lighthouse is not visible. 

This view is on the Bass Strait side of the peninsula looking west along the coast toward the narrow opening of Port Phillip Bay.

The cliffs below the lighthouse face directly west and therefore get the full force of the swells generated by the prevailing westerly winds.

Although the lighthouse is now automated, the original 1859 lighthouse keeper's residence is now maintained as a museum, with other historical buildings at the site. 

This is a view through some Moonah Melaleuca lanceolata trees showing a basalt sea stack, at the tip of the Cape, known as Pulpit Rock.

Here is a clearer view of the tip of the Cape, which is approached by a series of staircases and a long wooden walkway.

My attention was caught by the particularly writhing appearance of these branches beside the staircase to the Cape.

A short distance away, we were directed to a small area of remnant Banksia forest. The trees were predominantly Banksia integrifolia. I was really impressed to see the large girth and height of the trees.

 

Another delight was to come across this bright white Clematis. I think it is C. glycinoides. The flowers are larger than the pale cream C. microphylla which grows in our garden.

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To ikebana:

Thanks to my friend, and passionate gardener, Fermi for identifying the branch material on the right in Lyn's ikebana from last week. It is one of the Eremophila genus. 

As I mentioned previously, I conducted a demonstration for a small group last month. In one of the ikebana arrangements I used a yellow Banksia praemorsa which had a strongly curved stem. The curve made it virtually impossible to arrange in any conventional vase. It is because of this sort of material that many Sogetsu Ikebana practitioners like to have vessels of unusual shape, or with multiple or oddly positioned openings.

Fortunately...

...I have some of those. This large heavy vessel with a single opening curves to an almost horizontal position. When I looked carefully at the Banksia inflorescence, it was best positioned curving upward to the right, so I placed the vessel in the opposite direction. Thus creating an "S" curve overall. As the inflorescence was small relative to the vessel I added some dried material; in this case a wide, curling length of Banana Musa acuminata leaf base.

The vessel is by the Victorian ceramicist, Graeme Wilkie, of Qdos Gallery Lorne.

Greetings from Christopher

21st September 2025