APPLE BLOSSOM in BASKET

This week has been particularly busy, as a result my posting must be brief as it is now Sunday night.

last Autumn I bought some Pink (and white) Everlasting Daisy Rhodanthe chlorocephala, which grows in Western Australia and South Australia. I was delighted when this small patch flowered recently.  

Some other small flushes of pink on white flowers have appeared on the Apple "bush"Malus domestica, which appeared under the Apricot tree a few years ago. Rather than pull it out I have allowed it to grow somewhat horizontally, and don't pretend that the fruit will ever survive to harvest time. I think it may be a little late flowering. It occurred to me that it would be suitable for a Spring Basket ikebana. 

Using a long narrow open-weave basket, I arranged the principal stem reaching to the right. A smaller mass of flowers reaching to the left were set at the base of the main line. Because of the delicacy of the flowers I did not add any other material that would compete with the Apple blossom. When I photographed the ikebana, I placed a black backdrop behind the work as the wall behind the shelf is white-painted brick and the flowers were very hard to see.

Greetings from Christopher

18th October 2026

 

 

RED CALLISTEMON in TWO VESSELS

Over recent weeks the change of season to Spring has become very evident. Lots of annual flowering plants are more noticeable in the gardens around the area where we live. 

I tend to look at other people's gardens as we walk past.

When I saw this garden, one with a one and a half storey high Gymea flower Doryanthes excelsa, I was really surprised.  It is on one of the routes we often take walking up to the town centre. I think I must have been looking to the other side of the road in recent months.

In our garden, by the path, is a lovely Slender velvet bush Lasiopetalum baueri which, as you can see, has soft pink flowers and very narrow straight leaves. The plant is endemic to central and western Victoria and is found in nearby bushland where we enjoy walking.

Other northern hemisphere plants in our garden that have flowered recently include:

The climbing Lorraine Lee rose,

Some very colourful Nasturtiums,

and Wisteria. Unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to use it for ikebana as we were away during its peak flowering.

To ikebana..

In my Melbourne class, Chen made a Variation No 6 in which the three principal lines radiate at low angles. This positioning makes it suitable to be placed on a table where it can be seen from all around. The principal material is Mint bush, Prostanthera ovalifolia. In the middle and leaning to the right and back is a red flowering Grevillea.

Marcia made an ikebana incorporating paper which was the exercise that I had set. She folded squares of blue paper into triangles that repeated the shape of the vessel and the design she had made with Umbrella grass Cyperus alternifolius stems.  

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Also in our garden at the moment the "African daisy" is in full bloom. In this case I think it is Dimorphotheca fruticosa. Above the mass of the daisy in the photo, is a red flowering bottlebrush, now classified as Melaleuca citrina. 

This next photo, of a neighbour's garden, shows flowers growing on arching branches creating a cascade of red flowers. We have two of these bushes in the garden and I decided to use some branches in a single material ikebana. 

I have arranged the stems in two "L" shaped metal vessels. They can be arranged in either of the two positions as shown above. Both branches were set leaning toward each other. I placed the longer branches in the taller vessel on the right so that they would reach over, but not touch, the stems on the left side. The small "S-shaped" space between the ends of the branches has become emphasised. 

The metal vessels were given to me by Dr Harry Unglik in memory of his wife Robyn, who was a former student of mine.

Greetings from Christopher

11th October 2026
 

VIBURNUM and DRIFTWOOD

Toward the end of August in my Geelong class...

...Anne's curriculum exercise was to make a "Kabuwake" (two groups) ikebana. This is an arrangement made in a suiban and requires the use of two kenzans. The space between the groups becomes an important element in the ikebana. Anne chose to use the same materials, Photonia and pink Tulips, in each of the kenzans and, as she has clearly shown, one of the groups must be stronger than the other. The stronger group functions as the Shin or principal line and contributes to the necessary asymmetry of the ikebana.

The senior students were given the task of making an ikebana incorporating paper. In this case, the paper needs to be an essential element of the arrangement.

Jo used honeycomb packing paper. In a suiban she made a climbing mass with the paper which was supported by a number of fine metal rods which also became part of the work. No water could be put in the vessel because it would weaken the paper. Therefore, for her botanical materials, she used two Billy buttons Craspedia, which do not require water.

Maree created a hanging vase using cardboard and some paper tubes she made from magazine pages. Her botanical materials were a small stem of pink Cymbidium Orchids which harmonised with the colours in the paper tubes. A single leaf from the same Cymbidium plant was added for the freshness that green leaves provide.

Ellie chose to use Christmas wrapping paper with a design of musical notation and gold stars. She cut the paper to the shape of two of her three Aspidistra leaves and applied it to the underside of each leaf. Her floral material is a small mass of Alstroemeria 

Christine used corrugated cardboard which she cut to different widths. She then placed them so that they stood with the corrugations arranged vertically, this created strong irregular "tubes". Arum lilies Zantedeschia were then arranged in some of the supporting "tubes".

My ikebana this week was made using a particularly convoluted piece of driftwood, and a stem of Viburnum plicatum as the fresh material. The branch of the Viburnum on which the particular stem grew was hanging down, making the flowers curve upward. I had thought this would make it easier to arrange in this vessel. That proved not to be the case. After some working on the stem I have got it into a more horizontal position. 

I do like the contrast between the textures of the unglazed vessel and the wood, compared with that of the fresh material. The vessel was a gift and I do not know its maker.

Greetings from Christopher

4th October 2026