RESCUED FROM THE UNDERGROWTH

The late spring weather continues to be quite variable, swinging from cool and wet to warm but humid, as a result of the welcome rain. Today's temperature is predicted to be thirty two degrees celsius. Consequently, the garden is looking lush at the moment. More of that later.

First, some ikebana photos sent from my students. 

This very strong-looking ikebana is by Jacqueline. The exercise she was working on from the Sogetsu curriculum was a "Composition of mass and line". It is important in this exercise that one of the elements is dominant to preserve the sense of asymmetry. Jacqueline's strong line made with an inverted branch is contrasted with a small mass of white chrysanthemum. The black vase visually stabilises the line.

By way of an unplanned contrast, Ellie's visually light ikebana is an exercise I set that was to include "dried and fresh materials in the same arrangement". The two elements of roses and fine dried grass heads, are set in seperate vases but are unified by the use of colour-matched vases and being placed on a lacquer-ware tray. In addition the moon-like perspex disk seems to embrace the whole. 

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Getting back to the strong, spring growth in the garden...

...among the plants in flower is a bush of 'Scotch' Broom, Cytisus scoparius. It came from my parents' garden and I have always liked the bright flowers and its perfume that carries across the garden on a warm day. The perfume of this particular Broom seems less cloying than some; even so, it can be somewhat overwhelming in a small room. Apart from its fragrance, from an ikebana point of view I rather like the gently curving lines of the flower stems. Perhaps these are more pronounced because of the prevailing winds on the coast.

A couple of days ago I suddenly thought of these three blue glass vases as being a good contrast, as well as suiting the curves of the Broom stems. I have set the vases asymmetrically and arranged the flower stems so that the tips of the two outer groups are curving in toward the largest mass of flowers in the centre of the ikebana.

 

This is another example of the spring growth in the garden. Some years ago it was necessary to transplant a climbing Albertine rose onto the side fence. I had also planted a Pandorea pandorana vine which has now all but swamped the rose. Next winter I will plant a rose cutting elsewhere in the garden. The Albertine is visible from our bathroom and in recent mornings I have thought I should cut some of the beautiful short lived blossoms. Below is an ikebana arrangement using roses rescued from the undergrowth (or overgrowth!).

I decided to contrast the delicate roses with some small bleached branchlets of Coast Tea Tree, Leptospermum laevigatum. The branches also have a small amount of green lichen which complements the green of the Celadon vase by Colin Browne.

Greetings from Christopher

15th November 2020

BLUE IRISES

 

Several weeks ago Laurie and I noticed a nesting pair of Masked Lapwings, in a vacant block of land in Torquay that has been fenced. We were really pleased with the sight, as these birds nest on the ground and often do so on the wide grass verges in the streets, known locally as 'nature strips'. In such situations the birds and their chicks are vulnerable to predation by cats and dogs, as well as other predatory birds. I was very anxious a few weeks a go when I saw a man mowing the grass on the vacant block, but then relieved to see that he was carefully leaving an undisturbed space around the nesting birds.

The good outcome was that the eggs hatched, and yesterday we saw two chicks, outside the fenced block, roaming the 'nature strip' in search for insects...

...under the watchful eye of their parents. Both of the photos are somewhat grainy as they were taken on my camera's 'zoom' function and then further 'zoomed' when cropped.

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Today Melbourne city is expecting to come out of 112 days of lockdown. It has been a great effort. The state has now had eight days straight with no new Corona virus infections recorded. During this time, face to face classes have not been permitted and so some of my students have continued to practise their ikebana at home and email me photographs that I have critiqued. It is not the same as being together in the class-room; however, it has kept us engaged.

In recent weeks I set the exercise of 'changing the appearance of leaves', by curling, folding or cutting them. Ellie created this two-vessel ikebana in which she gave a new and lively appearance to these red edged Cordyline leaves, to which were added two Chrysanthemum flowers as focal points. 

Jacqueline's task was the Sogetsu curriculum exercise of making an ikebana arrangement in which a surface is created by the massing of lines. She has used the strong stems of Agapanthus with two lines to each side of the main mass to create some space within the work.

My own ikebana was inspired by seeing a large mass of dark blue Irises in the garden of one of my students who lives in Torquay. Val was generous enough to allow me to pick some, which I did with care. I chose not to use any of the iris leaves as to do so would deprive the bulb of nourishment for the rest of the growing season.

I arranged the iris in a naturalistic manner with two buds at the highest point. To complement the deep colour of the flowers I have set them with three Acanthus leaves, which have a glossy dark green surface. The Shino-glazed suiban by the New Zealand ceramic artist, Elena Renka, was chosen to contrast with the materials.

Greetings from Christopher

8th November 2020

RED FLOWERS

Guess who's coming to dinner? Or lunch? Laurie and I were having our lunch when my eye was caught by the movement of Spike just about to wander under the house.

A little later on the other side...

... Spike continued the quest for ants. As our garden has ground-cover planting and mulch but no lawn, there is plenty of opportunity to find ants. It had been another warm morning that seemed to have brought the Echidna into the garden...

...and somewhat later in the day we were surprised, and relieved, to find that Spike had safely crossed the road to forage in gardens on the other side. Being small creatures, Echidnas move quite slowly and the road is worryingly wide. Motorists take care!

On a different note, I was very pleased to discover recently that a new shop being opened in Torquay was to be a florist. There has not been a local florist shop since sometime around the middle of last year. It transpired that the new florist had worked in the previous business. I was pleased as this meant that the florist was already familiar with our local community. In seasonal terms, the timing of the opening meant that I was able to buy one of Australia's most spectacular and beautiful flowers, the Waratah, Telopea speciosissima, the floral emblem of New South Wales. 

It has a large brightly-coloured inflorescence, being made up of many smaller flowers. The stems are very strong and, when grown commercially, quite straight. These features create constraints for the ikebanist. My first thought was what other material could I use that would not look too weak when combined with the two bold flowers that I bought.

 

I decided to re-use one of the dried banana palm leaf-bases, which also provided a structure with some sense of movement that was not present in such strong straight stems as the flowers had. The banana palm leaf-base was curled in a corkscrew fashion which allowed me to insert the tallest Waratah through it and then secure both within the cylindrical vase. I placed the second flower facing forward and to the right reinforcing the sense of movement.

In our garden a similar intense red has also appeared. It is the largest of our four Bottle-brush bushes, Melaleuca viminalis, now about thirty-five years old and four metres tall. As you can see, the flowering is quite dense this year; undoubtedly brought on by the extra, and welcome, spring rains this year. I had been thinking about it as an ikebana subject for a little while. On Friday morning I lay in bed wondering what vase would suit it and suddenly I realised that the warm orange of the blossom vase by John Dermer would work well.

The blossom vase is made by the Terra Sigillata technique in which a slip coating of microfine particles is applied to the vessel. John Dermer has first impressed a rope pattern onto the vessel and, before firing, has wrapped it with Casuarina needles and salts which have burnt away during the firing. This has left an imprint on the surface in a manner similar to Bizen firing techniques.

After stripping almost all of the leaves I arranged a mass of the flowers cascading forward to the left. Extending to the right rear is a single bare line with two flowers. 

Greetings from Christopher

31st October 2020.

 

MELALEUCA PALLIDA: LEMON BOTTLE BRUSH

   

Yesterday, the morning was very pleasantly warm and as I was passing the glass door to the back garden I was surprised by the return of Spike, the echidna. He had not been seen for some time over the cooler months. In the previous few days I had noticed some disturbance in the mulch and assumed that Laurie had been pulling the occasional weed out. 

More likely it was Spike looking for ants, of which we seem to have plenty. This photo was taken through one of the conservatory windows.

Because I was inside it was easy for me to get this close range photo without disturbing Spike who was searching for ants between the brick paving under the clothes line.

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Last week I showed this photo of the pale yellow "Lemon Bottle Brush", melaleuca pallida, bush in the garden. I have learnt that these plants, previously known as Callistemons, have been transferred into the genus of Melaleuca. This bush has flowered especially prolifically this year. 

The flowers on the bush are quite dense compared to the pale pink one growing near by.

As I indicated last week, I planned to cut some branches to make an ikebana arrangement as I had not used this material last year. I cut four smallish branches, but discovered that I had rather more than I needed. I ended up making three ikebana arrangements rather than throwing the surplus material into the compost bin. 

This was the final ikebana I made. It was unplanned and came about when I walked around the garden looking for some additional material to use with the Melaleuca. I was looking for something that would pick up the pale yellow and noticed these two New Zealand Flax, Phorium, leaves. Each leaf had a yellow margin on opposing sides and dried patches because of ageing or insect damage. They are an excellent example of the wabi-sabi concept of beauty to be found in imperfection. If you double click on the photo you will be able to get a larger image which you can 'zoom in'. The vessel, which comes from Seto City, is made from black unglazed clay with cream splashes that pick up the colour of the flowers.

This second, unplanned ikebana resulted from trimming the longer branches to reveal their lines. I had ended up with a couple of dense masses of flowers that I thought would work well in this modern ceramic vase. 

After completing it I made some additional adjustments when I realised that it would conform to the Sogetsu School curriculum of... 

   

... "An arrangement that is to be viewed from all around"...

... This is the final view of what was initially intended to be the back of the ikebana !  It is slightly disappointing that I cannot turn this into a slide-show.

Here, finally, is what I set out to do. I have arranged three trimmed branches leaning in opposite directions. This has created a sense of movement made by the lines of the stems and the angles of the flowers. The space between them heightens this movement. 

The suiban is silver-coloured lacquer-ware from Kyoto that I bought in Melbourne.

Greetings from Christopher

24th October 2020

SPRING VIGOUR

It is a dull and overcast day as I write this, one where it was a little hard not to feel dispirited in the early(ish) grey morning. As I lay in bed I wondered what new ikebana arrangement I could share with you. Then I remembered that the "Red Valerian", Centranthus ruber, which I had planted a few years ago was now looking rather lush and full of spring vigour.

As you can see from this photo, our Red Valerian is actually pink. However, there is some of the red variety growing wild in the round-about at the end of the street. Very handy should I need any.

Close by is this lovely, pale yellow Calistemon that seemed to suddenly come into flower all at once. I hope to be sufficiently organised to set it in an ikebana arrangement during this coming week.

As I wandered around the garden again this morning, I noticed a branch with an interesting line and three flowers at its end on this soft pink Calistemon bush. I thought I had missed my opportunity to use this one because it had started flowering earlier and not so prolifically as the pale yellow one. However this was just what I needed. Another shade of pink to go with the Valerian. 

At this time of year, with so many plants coming into flower, it is such a temptation to arrange masses of flowers. An explosion of joy. I really like going into the florist shop to be surrounded by the variety, abundance and the fragrance of flowers. It sets me thinking about images of the French Court at Versailles and climbing roses grown in swags. Within the Western style of flower arranging I think abundance and mass can work well. In ikebana it can be difficult. 

At the beginning of this term I had already set my Torquay U3A students the topic of making "An arrangement expressing the abundance of Spring, while still adhering to ikebana principal elements of line, mass and space". Unless one is making a large installation, I think the difficulty for ikebanists is to not lose sight of the individual materials that we use, and swamp them in such an arrangement. 

             

This is my ikebana, made today, from the prolifically flowering Valerian and a similarly coloured Calistemon in the garden. I grouped the flowers separately. Although it is not apparent from the angle of the photograph, the  long line of the calistemon comes forward to the left and I have kept it above the rim of the vessel to avoid a congested appearance. The wood-fired vessel is by Owen Rye. 

Greetings from Christopher

18th October 2020

BANKSIA, VINE AND WATTLE

This week I am focusing on some indigenous Australian plants. The flowers of these plants often have forms that are quite different from those seen in traditional ikebana arrangements. Usually, they have a quite strong structural appearance which works well in ikebana. My thinking is that this is because ikebana really starts with the element of line, and it is line that enables the ikebanist to create space. This is then extended by the other principal elements of mass and colour. 

The first of the indigenous plants that I want to focus on is the Banksia. Recently my friend Heather, an excellent gardener, gave me some flowers from her Banksia 'Giant Candles', which is a hybrid of B. ericifolia and B. spinulosa. The inflorescences of that hybrid are really huge, up to 40 cms tall.

 

This photo is of B. ericifolia that I took in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, 25 kilometres north of Sydney, in June last year. The large inflorescences are a rich orange and, in this instance, were glowing in the late afternoon sun.

In this close up, which shows part of one of the flower spikes on the bush above, you can see the curiously hooked end of the styles (part of the pistol). For the ikebanist this can be either irritating, because things stick to its 'velcro' like surface, or ... 

... on the other hand that characteristic can be used. After I took my ikebana down I attached the second flower on the right hand side to demonstrate this property. 

Back in 2015 I used this velcro-like property to attach the smaller, yellow Banksia, B. integrifolia, at the front of the ikebana for its bright colour. The ikebana was made for a workshop in which we were asked to make a 'Vertical arrangement using flowers'. It failed for technical reasons that you can read about here in my earlier post: 'The Temptation of Banksias'.

The recent ikebana that I made with Heather's banksias are secured in a kenzan. The rich orange of the flower spikes complements the unique ceramic vessel, while the green of the leaves give a feeling of freshness. The vessel is by Janet Keefe, from Ontario Canada.

While I was in the more jungly part of the front garden last week I noticed that a self-sown Bluebell Creeper Billardiera fusiformis, a Western Australian native, was working its way up into one of the Tea-trees. It has been declared an environmental weed in many places in the eastern states. When I pulled it out I was surprised at the length of its twining branches and recognised potential ikebana material. The question of course is what will go with this vine...

...and the answer turned out to be some rather prolific wattle; in this case I think either Acacia saligna or possibly A. verniciflua.

This wattle has clusters of rich golden blossom and quite fine leaves. 

I began this ikebana by stripping the vine of its leaves and then set it at a slight angle across the top of the tall white porcelain vase. The vine is all in one piece, looped and placed so that the thicker section is on the right hand side. Its position is maintained by the use of a vertical fixture. Three stems of wattle have been massed coming forward to the left and all but three of the narrow leaves have been removed. 

Greetings from Christopher,

10th October 2020.

PINK AND YELLOW

  

Last week, when we had a walk in Iron Bark Basin. I checked to see how the Xanthorrhoea was developing.

I was pleased to see that the north facing side of the spike was almost completely covered with open flowers.

 As you can see from this photograph it has attracted a number of bees as well as some butterflies. 

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On Monday, my student Eugenia sent me this photo of  her recent ikebana. She reported that the inspiration came from the pruned remains of a Garrya elliptica, that died. She challenged herself to use her favourite piece of pottery, which is a beautiful but difficult vessel, being a cube shape with deep openings on each side and an open top. She chose banksia and a dried stem of the Garrya as their strength and colours complement the form and tones of the vessel. These were contrasted by the feathery appearance of the Nandina domestica. I particularly like the boldness of the design with the strength of the vessel.

Over recent weeks I have been watching the seasonal progress of a wild Tamarix tetranda, as its flowers form. When the buds are still tight they are a deep maroon, which suddenly becomes a pale pink on opening. I wanted to use some of this material for an ikebana in the brief period of its flowering.

This close up shows both the deep colour of the buds and the lighter pink of the open flowers.

The first time that I used this plant in an ikebana I deliberately picked the branches before the flowers had opened. I made this one-material ikebana some years ago because of the colour match with the then recently-acquired vessel by Graeme Wilkie. The vertical lines of the branch material complement the surface of the vessel which is ridged with strong horizontal lines.

This year I wanted to contrast the pale pink with the bright yellow of the Forsythia intermedia from our garden; a gift from my former work colleague, Shirley.

I have arranged the spreading branches of the Tamarix in an irregularly-shaped black ceramic vessel. The materials include Forsythia, Lady Banks rose, Rosa Banksiae, and an intense pink geranium placed at the back. The flattening effect of the photograph and evenness of the lighting obscure the fact that the Banksia rose at the mouth of the vessel actually extends well forward. Because the vessel is narrow front to back it is important to place materials extending forward and to the rear, otherwise the arrangement will be flat and fan-shaped. 

Greetings from Christopher

4th October 2020