AGAPANTHUS and CHRYSANTHEMUM

A couple of days ago I photographed this beautiful Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo munching on a pine cone as we were walking along the nearby creek path.

I am suspicious that the loud thump of a falling pine cone close to where we were standing was the result of a deliberately aimed projectile. I don't think it liked being stared at.

The following day there was a  pair of the cockatoos in the Banksia in our front garden. The bird is facing to the left and chewing on the seeds of a "cone" (which I have just learnt is an 'infructescence') that it is holding in its claw.

Last week I gave my senior Geelong students the exercise of "exchanging materials and vessels". This meant making an ikebana using an unfamiliar vessel with materials that had not been chosen with that vessel in mind.

Ellie had some branches of crabapple Malus, and some Hydrangea to arrange in a small suiban. Her final solution was to create an ikebana to be viewed from above. She set the Hydrangea toward one end of the vessel and floated a single flower and three Malus fruit on the surface of the water. When I took the photo the fruit had inconveniently floated up against the Hydrangea inflorescence.

Helen had a narrow square-fronted vessel which she angled away from the viewer. In the vessel she secured a tall branch of Grevillea and a mass of Clivia fruit.

Maureen's materials were Euphorbia (serpens, I think), two Lotus Nelumbonaceae, pods and a bunch of Grass tree Xanthorrhoea leaves. The hand-made ceramic vessel was quite challenging, having flat inwardly-sloping sides. However the result was successful.

Christine had been absent from class so she chose her own subject: making an ikebana in a clear glass vessel. She made three arrangements on this theme. This one was using a single Grevillea inflorescence in an irregularly-shaped vessel. This material almost sparkled when placed under the water.

For my ikebana this week I decided again to take advantage of my neighbour's Agapanthus flower stems that had gone to seed. After carefully removing all the seeds, I also removed the small dried remains of flowers that had fallen into the centre of the mass of spiky-looking small stems. After cutting the three stems to different heights I arranged their bases in a triangle in a kenzan, so that the tallest was at the back. The right hand one is the furthest forward of the three. I then set two disbud Chrysanthemums toward  the front with their growth points angled so that they are "talking to each other".

The bowl-shaped vessel is by the Australian ceramicist Isabella Wang.

Greetings from Christopher
8th March 2026