DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES OF AUTUMN

When I was in Melbourne last week I was delighted to see the beginnings of rich autumn colouring in the trees on the Oak Lawn of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

This specimen turned out to be a Pin Oak Quercus Palustris, native to southern Ontario in Canada, as well as the central and eastern United States. 

Nearby, this very large tree is a Liquidambar which has a natural range from southeast Asia across North America and the Mediterranean.

The nearby bushland to the west of Torquay looks like this in the late autumn. The visual changes in this bushland between the seasons are subtle and are most apparent through the flowering of particular species.

For example, here is a recent photograph of Common heath Epacris impressa, the floral emblem of the state of Victoria. The photo was taken by Laurie in the area where the previous photograph was taken.

Now to ikebana classes. I asked my Torquay students to make an ikebana incorporating woody material.

Kerryn brought a single small branch that looked like a wind blown tree in miniature. At the base she added some Sage Salvia officinalis, in flower, maintaining the sense of movement.

Pamela had an upward-reaching dry branch to which she added some seed heads of what may be Sorghum and Dietes. These materials also had an upward movement.

In Melbourne, my senior students made autumn ikebana arrangements.

Marcia used red Siberian dogwood Cornus alba, some unidentified seed-heads, Billy buttons Pycnosorus, and Dwarf Nandina domestica, to make a vertical ikebana reaching up from a mass in a bowl-shaped vessel.

Eugenia arranged ornamental Grape vine Vitis vinifera, in two small bronze vases. The lines stretch horizontally with leaves ranging from pale pink to deep maroon.

Julie-Ann's exercise was a basic upright ikebana in a nageire vessel. In my opinion, it is the most difficult exercise in the early part of the Sogetsu curriculum. She has used Magnolia branches for the principal lines and mauve Chrysanthemum flowers.

A week and a half ago I attended a meeting of Ikebana International Melbourne. The guest speaker was the artist 

Jo Reitze who spoke about her work of capturing images of private gardens by painting them. The members were asked to create ikebana arrangements inspired by their gardens. I think my ikebana is inspired by my local environment more generally. The vessel I have used is a very narrow-mouthed tall, black ikebana vase. Around the vase I placed a piece of driftwood, over which I draped a dried Papyrus flower-head from the conservatory. Then I added a single Dietes leaf and a single bright-pink Anthurium flower. The latter was bought from a florist. I was a bit astonished that, from this view, one might get the impression of a seated figure with very long hair. However, this was not part of the plan at all. This was an arrangement which evolved as I was assembling the elements.

Greetings from Christopher 

23rd May 2026