LAST CLASS FOR 2025

At the last ikebana class of each year we meet at one of the student members' houses to celebrate and socialise. The usual order of the day is for everyone to bring materials for an ikebana, and food to share. The students select a vase from the host's collection and are allocated a space to set up their ikebana. This year, my Melbourne class met at Aileen's house and made their arrangements.

Marisha used a double-ended U-shaped vessel. Her branch material was a few stems of Eucalyptus. The flowers on the left are Delphinium and on the right, pink Chrysanthemum.

Jacqueline had a single multi-branched stem of Tortuous willow Salix, that she had twisted together. She made a mass with yellow Roses to which she added some green leaves from Climbing fig Ficus pumila. The vessel is made from several ceramic cylinders of irregular height.

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Julie-Anne chose a Sogetsu-style split cylinder in which she set two long stems of Russian sage Salvia yangii, on the left side, and made a mass with some white Snapdragon Antirrhinum, on the right.

Eleanor, who was a visitor at the class, made an abstract style ikebana using de-constructed Lady palm Rhapis excelsa, and Billy Buttons pycnosorus. The vessel is a narrow curving trough.

Aileen used Tortuous willow for her branch material and two Calla lily Zantedeschia, flowers of such a deep purple that they looked black. The unusual vessel is by Mel Ogden.

Eugenia set two Leucospermum flowers in the tall, square- section vase; around which she then fixed some dried palm inflorescence.

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We have had some rather hot days in the last week. It seems that is what has driven Spike (the echidna) to visit the garden in search of ants. 
 

I took this photo in the mid-afternoon on Thursday. Spike returned again on Friday evening and was fossicking between the bricks on the garden path when I came in from a walk on the beach.

My ikebana this week comes from the last meeting of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School for 2025. All of the senior teachers holding the Riji certificate, who were able to attend the meeting, were asked to simultaneously set up an ikebana on the theme of celebration. We then briefly spoke about our ikebana. I chose Summer Holidays as my theme.

I have used a particularly unusual driftwood branch I found on the beach earlier this year. Where it sits at the top of the tall vessel the branch makes a complete loop turning back on itself. I have secured it with a vertical fixture so that it floats above the mouth of the vessel. The additional materials are Cushion bush Leucophyta, and two bright red Anthuriums. To me the Anthuriums suggest a joyous happiness, while the other two materials speak to me of the freedom of summer holidays spent on the beach.

Greetings from Christopher

14th December 2025

TWO FLOWERS, ONE LEAF

At the beginning of November, among my Melbourne students... 

...Julie-Anne's Sogetsu curriculum exercise was to make an Upright Variation Number 2 in a suiban. In this variation the Hikae (main flower line) is set on the left side of the Shin (principal upright branch line) leaning forward at an angle. Her materials are Eucalyptus leaves, most likely E. pulverulenta and Chrysanthemum flowers

I set the senior students the exercise of making an ikebana focussing on "colours in contrast".

Marisha used two differently coloured bunches of Alstromeria, white and red. They were set in an earth-coloured cylindrical vase.

Jacqueline set some unidentified blue flowers with three red Anthuriums, one of which is just visible at the back of the arrangement. To these she added a dried branch as a linear horizontal element to the otherwise vertical arrangement.

The two examples above do not strictly conform to the set exercise because the colours are not directly opposite each other on the colour wheel.

Eugenia used two green Aspidistra leaves for her main colour, which she contrasted with two small buds of Red orchid cactus Disocactus ackermannii.  Her black vase and branch lines created a non-colour foil to the two principal subjects of the ikebana.

Aileen began with a glass vase that conformed to the exercise being predominantly orange, and having blue glass knobs on its surface. She chose for her botanical material Strelitzia flowers, that also have these colours.  Blue paper tape was added to reinforce the contrast with the vase.

In the garden...

...to my delight the Grevillea robusta tree is having its best flowering yet. This, no doubt, is a result of our part of the state having its wettest Spring in the last 12 years. Unfortunately, the north of the state has been much drier.

The Strelitzia juncea is also flowering well. The Grevillea is well out of reach, but the Strelitzia is not. Therefore it is ideal for this week's ikebana.

I picked two flower stems from the S. juncea and a single small leaf from the base of the Strelitzia nicolai, elsewhere in the garden. The leaf has a particularly attractive, slightly spiralling, curve, which is lost with the flattening effect of the photograph. The tallest flower sits within the embrace of the front of the leaf while the lower flower sits at the back of, and outside, the fold of the leaf. 

The vase is by the US ceramicist Mark Bell.

Greetings from Christopher

7th December 2025