DISASSEMBLING and REARRANGING (BANKSIA)

Winter is definitely making itself felt with some rather low overnight temperatures. However, it is also the time for winter flowering plants to bloom, which lifts my spirit. 

I recently set my students the exercise of making ikebana using some strong dried branches and combining them with Camellias. Unfortunately, Pamela did not have access to the requested woody material. However, she decided to improvise with some dried twigs that she found.

She also wisely chose this glass vase that allowed the fine material to show well and not be overwhelmed by the vessel. The tall fine line is visible within the vase as well as above. It has been strengthened by the placement of an inverted branching stem that sits outside the vase. A single pale pink camellia provides a focal point that harmonises with the vase.

In the Geelong class...

...Maureen had a very large dried branch with a highly textured surface, and which was stable on the table surface. Some stems of Camellia including two flowers, leaves and some buds were placed tightly against the bulk of the wood. Their small vase was almost completely obscured behind the wood.

Christine set a small thick piece of a very contorted woody branch in a footed vessel. She then placed Camellia branches with small delicate pink flowers around the branch.

Ellie used a pair of matching cylindrical vessels across which she placed a branching piece of dried woody material. The wood was suspended showing its line and creating spaces within and around the ikebana. Although it is hard to tell from the photo the branch was arranged so that it did not actually touch the table. Two open flowers and two small buds provided a floral focus.

Maree also used two vessels that were connected by the woody material. The positioning of the wood allowed the space between the two vessels to be increased making the ikebana feel light in spite of the large vessels and woody material. Three stems of Camellia created a highlight in the middle of the arrangement.

My ikebana is the Sogetsu curriculum exercise of "Disassembling and Rearranging the Materials". This means cutting the material to separate the stems, flowers, leaves, seed pods, etc, from each other. I wanted the challenge of practising the exercise in a Nageire (tall) vessel. 

It is helpful when the material has some very distinctive components, as is the case with the Banksia marginata branch I cut from the garden.

This photo shows part of step one. I have stripped all the leaves from branches and removed some flowering inflorescences. I maintained their small stems for fixing purposes.

I also separated these two small inflorescence buds. 

When I looked at all the separated materials I decided to not use the leaves on this occasion and then considered how I might use the geometric forms that actually make up the  Banksia branches.

The vessel I chose has three openings. One at the top that I did not use, plus a small one high on the left side and a large one on the right side. My starting point for the structure was to invert two of the branches and interlock their finer side branches. The curves of the branches created a lens shape with their main branch extending below and above the lens. I stabilised the form by inserting an additional branch horizontally through both openings in the vase. The two small inflorescence buds were joined and placed on the left and three flowers were set on the right side against the vessel.

When such sculptural ikebana forms are made in this exercise, it is said that the nature of the original material should not immediately be obvious.

Greetings from Christopher.

26th July 2026

HORIZONTAL IKEBANA with FRESH AND DRIED MATERIALS

We were very surprised to see Spike at lunchtime on Wednesday as the temperature was quite cool, at 11 degrees centigrade. Although Echidnas tend to be much less active in the winter months, they do not really hibernate.

Here is Spike walking past some Silver dollar plant Crassula arborescens, plants just outside the window.

In my Melbourne class...

...Chen made a Slanting Variation No.3 arrangement. The branch material is sometimes known as the Rough-barked apple, Angophora bakeri, the flowers are Geranium.

Julie-Ann's exercise was a Slanting Variation No.2 in a nageire vessel. She used unidentified branch material and yellow Chrysanthemum flowers.

Aileen's exercise was to make an ikebana "Incorporating Narcissus". She has used the "paper white" species, looping the leaves and bending the flower stems to create sharp angles that reflect the design of her vase.

Aileen made a second arrangement using variegated Ginger leaves Alpinia zerumbet. In this instance,she arranged the leaves first, and then "incorporated' a small mass of re-used Narcissus from the previous ikebana. 

Over the last few weeks a couple of leaves on the Tree Philodendron Philodendron bipinnatifidum have faded, then fallen. In the process, the colour change is first to a warm pale yellow before becoming progressively straw-coloured. The lobes of the leaves curl in different directions, creating a loose mass.

I had been watching these changes and wondering how to use them in my ikebana. The leaves lent themselves best to being arranged horizontally as the major element in this narrow, dark-glazed Japanese vase. A Birds nest fern Asplenium australasicum frond provided a strong contrasting line to the right. The rich pink flowers are Geraniums.

Greetings from Christopher

18th July 2026

 

FRUITING JAPONICA (CHAENOMELES)

Thank you to Michael who picked up my error last week, of naming Jacqueline's Camellias as 'Chrysanthemums'. I have amended and re-published that post.

A couple of weeks ago the red Japonica Chaenomeles, in the garden started to flower. This is one of my favourite delights of Winter.

I took the photo above at the time. Unfortunately, the first flowers had begun to fade  by the time I decided to pick them this week. So now I was back to rather bare branches with just a couple of open flowers and a single fruit. One of at least ten that formed this year.

The branches have particularly interesting lines, which makes this plant such a good ikebana subject. I have set two branches opposite each other, creating a central space. Into the space I have added mass using two florets of Hydrangea leaves. The fruit low on the left branch along with the leaves gives the arrangement a central focal point that connects the branches. 

As always, these branches bring back childhood memories of my friend's mother arranging large flowering branches from the fruit trees in their orchard.

The tapering square-based vase is by the Victorian ceramicist Paul Davis.

Greetings from Christopher
12th July 2026

 

BOUGAINVILLEA IN WINTER

A couple of weeks ago I commented on the warmer than usual autumn and winter weather. Since then we have had a reasonable amount of rain and much cooler weather. 

However, we have also had days where the sun has shone, giving a very summery appearance to the terrace outside the conservatory, despite the really very cool air temperature. This photo was taken just last weekend.

In my Melbourne class...

Julie-Anne's exercise was to make a Variation No 2 Upright nagerire ikebana with unidentified branch material and Chrysanthemums.

The senior students' exercise was to make an ikebana in which the materials were intertwined, and using two vessels, .

Aileen used Dietes leaves and two small stems with pink buds of an unidentified flower. 

Jacqueline had brought some very long, bare stems of Japanese Ivy Parthenocissus tricuspidata. The long tendrils were woven in and around a bare branch that was supported by the vase at the rear. Two large white Camellias were floated in the bowl at the front.

Yesterday, I finally got around to doing some pruning of two climbing plants in the conservatory, a Mandevillea splendens that has reached the ceiling and...

...this variegated Bougainvillea which, has bright pink bracts. Some of the branches were cascading below the shelf on which it sits. It was looking untidy so I also tip-pruned it to make the growth more compact. 

So what does an ikebanist do with pruned branches?

Give them a second life in a vase! After removing the long, viciously sharp thorns, and stabbing myself in the process, I was able to insert the remainder of the stem through the narrow mouth of the bottle-shaped vase. For a second element that complemented the delicate paper-like bracts and pale leaves, I chose a dried Aspidistra leaf that had turned a beautiful amber colour. I secured it into the vase so that a space was created between the two elements. The leaf has a twist in it that turns the upper surface toward the viewer. toward its top. 

The vase by the late Barrie Singleton, has an off-white surface that was sprayed with a copper-red glaze which has run slightly during the firing process.

Greetings from Christopher

5th July 2026