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.
Greetings from Christopher
18th October 2025
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