YELLOW and PURPLE

Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed the Clematis microphylla, coming into bloom along the paths among the sand dunes and cliff tops. It is a fairly vigorous climber and covers smaller bushes, making a creamy yellow canopy. In recent years it seems to be much more abundant. In my childhood it was not present. However where we now live, about 300 metres from my childhood home, is a suburb that was created in what had been grazing farmland. It was bare of all but grass. Prior to the development of farms, this part of Victoria had been open forest and grassland.

The Clematis is obviously a robust plant growing, as you can see on the cliff tops, where it is exposed to salty winds. 

This close-up was taken among part of the mass in the first photo. I have often wondered whether the current presence of this plant is a result of garden escapees or just a natural return of a plant that had disappeared when the land was cleared in the 19th century. We planted C microphylla on our fence some years ago and now it is self-seeding elsewhere in the garden.

The charming little flowers make an interesting subject for a cascading ikebana.

I have arranged two stems of the Clematis, having first removed almost all of the leaves. For textural contrast I added an Aspidistra leaf and a white 'Incurve' Chrysanthemum, as a focal point. The tall glass vase works especially well for such fine material as the Clematis.

This winter, when the Cootamundra wattle Acacia baileyana was at its peak, I missed the opportunity to use it in my ikebana. We were away for a week and then a period of persistent rain damaged much of the blossom.

However, the prostrate form, which we also have in the garden, is growing in the shelter of a large Angophora costata and some of the flowers were still good condition today. I decide to use it as the main material in a second ikebana as I had bought some purple Statice, Limonium sinatum a couple of days before. 

I have used the Acacia branches for the main lines of the ikebana and the Statice as a contrasting mass. This conforms to one of the Sogetsu curriculum exercises, being an ikebana using materials of contrasting colours; yellow and purple being on the opposite sides of the colour wheel. The intensification of the colours can occur with only a small amount of the contrast. The straight-sided ceramic ikebana vase is a deep blue.

Greetings from Christopher

8th August 2021

 

WINTER IN THE GARDEN

A few weeks ago I had an early morning walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens Victoria, Melbourne garden and was delighted to see that the various members of the narcissus family had begun to flower. 

This mass planting has been set around some of the playfully sculptured  branches, that I showed last Christmas, of the fallen White Oak, Quercus Alba. 

 

It is a great spot to see daffodils that have been planted under the trees on the Oak Lawn. I caught this Narcissus, King Alfred, beautifully illuminated by a shaft of sunlight. Its bright yellow was a joy to see on a cold winter's morning.

In our garden it is the Cootamundra Wattle, Acacia Baileyana, that provides a mass of cheery gold in the middle of winter. This particular one is A. baileyana, prostrate form, which eventually develops a domed appearance when its branches start to grow taller, then arch over.

This photo shows a very flat, spreading patch of stems that have grown away from the main plant, passing underneath other bushes to find some brighter sunlight.

The red Flowering Quince on the side fence seems to have produced more flowers this year than last.

Usually the flowers are scattered along the stems and hard to photograph. This cluster has a much higher visual impact.

Last Thursday I was able to commence classes in Geelong for Term Three as the Covid density restrictions in the community facility class rooms permitted us to meet. It was a pleasure to get together after the six-week break since the end of Term Two.

At the class, Ellie's exercise was to make an ikebana in a tsubo vase (spherical shape with a large opening). She has used a horizontal crossbar which is one of the three fixing techniques for this type of vessel. Her branch material was beautifully fragrant cedar. (Some of you may know its name, possibly Calcedrus decurrens). Her flowers are yellow Chrysanthemum and a yellow form of Wax flower, Chamelaucium. 

 

Tess's exercise was to make an ikebana in response to a work of art, in which there should be a communication or dialogue between the ikebana and the art object. Tess has used bare branches and three Red Hot Poker, Kniphofia, flowers in a black ceramic vase. Her art works are two small bronze sculptures from China.

My ikebana this week uses the red Flowering Quince from the garden and some white Narcissus, from a friend's garden. After making the ikebana shown last week, which emphasised some curving lines, I had a spare straight branch. This branch had grown vertically with some short side branches radiating sideways and a very nice cluster of flowers that I did not want to waste. 

I suddenly had the inspiration to place it in an especially narrow trough-like vessel by Hiroe Swen. I have only used this vessel a couple of times, because it is far too narrow for any kenzan and requires ingenuity to fix any tall stems so that they don’t fall over. I laid the branch at a shallow angle using one of the side branches for additional support within the vessel. I then placed the narcissus parallel to the principal stem in two small masses with a space between them.

Here is the same ikebana from the right hand side, with the main line coming forward. As I placed it in the niche that I walk past into the kitchen it is necessary for both views to be satisfactory.

Greetings from Christopher

1st August 2021

PLENTY OF PINK

The winter flowering plants are a delight to the eye during our current spate of cold and wet days. Unfortunately, the rain has spoilt most of the flowers on the Cootamundra wattle, Acacia baileyana. 

However, the Japanese Flowering Quince, Chaenomeles japonica looks lovely. This beautiful white one was given to me by my ikebana friend Joan. It is quite slow growing in our garden, so I am reluctant to pick any yet.

 

The red variety that I planted at least thirty years ago has spread along the side fence line in a most satisfactory way giving me a supply of flowering branches for winter ikebana.

This fern has also been growing for many years under a large Eucalyptus, which had to be pruned quite hard a couple of years ago. It became burnt over the summer as a result of losing its leafy protective cover. As you can see it has recovered well this year.

I have used the fern and the red Flowering Quince in this ikebana, emphasising the flowing lines and the asymmetry of the design. The irregularly-shaped, celadon-glazed vase is by Graeme Wilkie.

*          *          *          *          *

Photograph copyright: @soul_tradr                                       

On Saturday of last weekend the Melbourne Chapter of Ikebana International was to have a workshop, with Ema Shin as the guest speaker. Unfortunately, because of a sudden Covid lockdown, the workshop had to be cancelled. Ema is a Japanese born and trained artist who works across a variety of media including wood block printing, weaving, embroidery, tapestry and paper making. 

As members of the I.I. Chapter we were encouraged to view Ema's work on-line in preparation for making ikebana in response to her art practice. When I looked at her work I became particularly conscious of the shades of reds, pinks and oranges, as well as the textures of the fabrics she uses. With these characteristics in mind... 

...I suddenly noticed the intensity of the pink in this variegated Bougainvillea in the conservatory.

Here is a close up of a small flower surrounded by vivid pink bracts. Some of the flower heads I used were quite pale, having faded and become papery.

I also needed some bright red and maroon, for the lines I wanted to emphasise. I began the process by crocheting red wool onto a small side stem of a dried branch that I had used previously. This turned out to be very difficult and slow so I changed my method to simply (!) winding the wool around the branch. One and a half hours later I was pleased that I had begun this part of my preparation before the workshop. When the workshop was cancelled I decided to finish my plan rather than waste all that effort.

Here is my finished piece. I had decided that the finished work should still maintain the feel of ikebana. To that end I had determined I should keep most of the dry branch exposed and only emphasise one line with the red wool. The soft fading pinks of the Bougainvillea made a good contrast to the branch and the black ceramic vase.

Others of my colleagues also finished their ikebana and the photos have been posted on the I.I. Melbourne Chapter Instagram account.

Greetings from Christopher

25th July 2021.

MORE GUM NUTS

Last week I posted some photos from the first part of our week travelling around regional Victoria. On the fifth day we went to Echuca on the Murray River, Victoria's border with New South Wales. This town is particularly well known for the paddle steamers that became the major form of freight and passenger movement on the river from the mid-1800s. Paddle steamers were ideal on the river because of their shallow draft and the plentiful supply of wood along the river.

River banks and flood plains are the habitat of the River Red Gum, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, and it is seen widely across the continent. This 'log buggy' on display at the port of Echuca is extraordinary, being made of Red Gum except for the axles.

 

The huge section of tree trunk has a circumference of approximately 5.4m (diameter approx. 1.88m).

We were delighted that we were in time to catch the late afternoon cruise on the PS Adelaide. It has the claim to fame of being the world's oldest wooden-hulled paddle steamer still in service, which began in 1866. I did not get an opportunity to photograph the PS Adelaide. The steamer in the photo is the PS Emmy Lou. It was built as a tourist vessel and began service in 1908.

I took this photo at the turning point of our cruise and thought it looked like a classic view of the Murray River.

*          *          *          *          *

In the garden back at Torquay I decided to do some winter pruning.

This is a two metre high, red flowering Corymbia ficifolia that was planted two years ago in our garden. It had flowered well last summer. However, because it is still developing I decided to remove most of the seed pods so that it would put its energy into growth not seed production. These are the same gum nuts that I combined with the autumnal red hydrangea two weeks ago. Having a rather large quantity of such beautifully coloured material I decided to use it in this week's ikebana.

This is the first version of the massed ikebana that I made as soon as I brought the gum nuts inside. The little clusters had very short stems, so I chose this slab built vessel by Janet Keefe from Ontario, Canada. The vessel has two slit-like openings on opposite sides. The leaves are from the same tree. I had made this quickly but was not happy with the form of the mass. I felt its form was too large and regular, and covered the vessel rather than related to it.

A week later the materials were still looking fresh and I had time to make this re-working. The mass is narrower and related better to the form of the vessel. I have also re-positioned the leaves to make the ikebana 'tighter' and also angled the vessel so that the split at the back is visible.

Greetings from Christopher

18th July 2021

 

SOME PERSONAL HISTORY, NATURAL HISTORY AND ART

This week Laurie and I have taken a short holiday travelling around the central Victorian goldfields area. This is the area where several early discoveries of small amounts of alluvial gold were found in 1850 -51, leading to the Victorian Gold Rush. 

This map shows the 'gold triangle', an area roughly between 

St Arnaud, Ararat, Ballarat and Bendigo. Some of the still visible results of the huge wealth generated by the gold finds are the grand public, and private, buildings that were built in that period. The town centre of Bendigo is a particular favourite of ours.

This week we also went to St Arnaud for the first time. I was really fascinated to see this huge, leafless Cotoneaster that was covered in clusters of berries. It was growing beside one of the many early banks that proliferated in the late 19th century.

Here is the grand Town Hall at Eaglehawk, which is 6 kms north west of Bendigo.

Of course there are many smaller modest buildings. The surprise in this one is... 

...the very elaborate ornamental lychgate for such a small cottage.

In 1852 at the age of 17 my great grandfather, Frederic Taylor James, arrived in Victoria from the UK and, after a period in Melbourne, walked the 153km to the gold diggings in Bendigo. Four years later he married Maria Smith and built a house on this site, above, where they brought up their 10 children. The current house dates from the late 1800s. 

You can gauge the age of some of the private gardens in Bendigo by the height of the trees. This Cabbage-tree Palm, Livistona australis, now soars above the house below. The European colonists were fascinated by the flora of Australia and many larger old gardens feature plants like this and the Bunya Bunya pine, Araucaria bidwillii.

However, they also loved the familiar flowers from 'home'. An example that caught my attention was this rose bush with a large number of beautifully coloured rose hips...

...and one fully opened flower. 

This is the Teddington Hut Camping area, the starting point for our walk in the Kara Kara National Park. The forest is dominated by a variety of medium sized eucalyptus trees with a sparse understory of acacias and other smaller shrubs and is described as one of the most intact remnant Box and Ironbark forests in Victoria. These eucalyptus trees have the characteristic of producing flowers throughout most of the year. As a result the forest supports abundant, nectar and pollen eating, bird and insect life as well as small mammals. We saw (and heard ! ) flocks of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos as well as two pairs of Kangaroos that we had obviously startled.

 

I saw this Rainbow Lorikeet in a private garden feasting in a Western Australian Eucalyptus Caesia... 

...and then, this Kookaburra in the later afternoon light. The abundance of bird life is the principal subject of the murals by Andrew Bourke and Jimmy DVate in the small town of Wedderburn.

I was quite amazed to see the whole façade of the Uniting Church painted with this colourful mural.

To the right side of the church is this mural on the rear wall of the next building.

The side wall of the adjacent supermarket has very large mural facing the main street.

This is a detail of the left hand side of the photo above.

Finally ikebana. 

I made this ikebana three months ago when the hydrangeas had started changing to their autumn colouring. A single flower and leaf is combined with a bare branch from the Coastal Tea Tree, leptospermum laevigatum, in our garden. The ceramic vase has two side openings. The autumn flower is contrasted with the wintery looking branch.

Greetings from Christopher

11th July 2021

Congratulations to Ash Barty !! 

 

SEED PODS and FLOWERS

This week as I was finally pruning the Hydrangeas I discovered three flowers partially hidden under some of the remaining leaves.

This one particularly surprised me because it had obviously developed very late and still had not fully opened because of the onset of wintery weather. It was completely hidden under other leaves and against a brick wall that may have been keeping it slightly warmer than the surrounding air. In this photo you can see that the tiny pink flowers have not opened but the usually pale pink sepals have already started to turn green before developing their autumn colouring.

When I brought this flower in I removed all but one of the leaves and quickly placed it in this simple, dark green ceramic vase. This ikebana is in the style of a chabana, tea ceremony arrangement. In chabana, the materials should be simple, reflecting the season, and placed very quickly in the vase without the use of usual ikebana techniques for fixing the materials ( Shozo Sato * ). 

The second of the three flowers was entirely green. However, the third one, above, had developed its autumn colour and surprisingly had not been damaged by rain. I have circled a section that shows a sepal has remained green where it has been sheltered by the sepal above - which in the photo is the one on the left.

When I brought this small flower inside...

...I realised that its colour was very close to that of the warm pink of seed pods on the Red Flowering Gum, Corymbia ficifolia, which was planted in our garden about two years ago.  

This is a Corymbia in flower. This tree is in an adjacent garden and the small group of open flowers are out-of-season, being really rather early.

In my second ikebana I have combined these materials making a mass using the two remaining Hydrangea flowerheads and a bunch of the Corymbia seed pods. The branch extending to the right, which I cut from our Corymbia, has kept its natural shape. However, I have removed about two thirds of the leaves.

The bottle-shaped ceramic vessel is by Sergio Sill.

Greetings from Christopher

3rd July 2021

* Sato, S. "Ikebana: The art of arranging flowers." Tuttle Publishing 2008