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