ROADSIDE IKEBANA

A week and a half ago we suddenly had a warm day after some cooler, wet weather. Laurie and I were walking along the board-walk beside Spring Creek at Torquay when my attention was caught by movement in the grass.

It was an echidna searching for ants in the dry sand beside the creek.

Because we kept very still and quiet, the creature was not disturbed and continued to fossick for food.

Echidnas have very poor eyesight and are more disturbed by noise or vibrations felt through the ground. Their response to such disturbance is to curl into a tight ball with only their sharp spines visible. This one was certainly very active.

In the same week I attended the monthly meeting of Ikebana International, Melbourne Chapter. The guest speaker was a maker of wagashi, hand-made Japanese sweets that are usually served with matcha, the Japanese tea made with finely-powdered green tea leaves. The sweets are beautiful to look at, as well as eat, and often made in the shape of flowers or leaves.

Flower arrangements accompanying the traditional tea ceremony are called Chabana, tea flowers. These arrangements have no formal rules and should be very simple, using seasonal materials and made very quickly without kenzans or other fixing devices. The vessel should also evoke simplicity and naturalness.

I made this arrangement of a camellia flower and two leaves on a previous occasion in a simple Bizen ceramic beaker made by Ishida Kazuya from Okayama. The unglazed clay has developed subtle colouration from the kiln firing.

For the meeting I used another unglazed Bizen vessel that has faceted sides. It has beautiful orange-red markings from being wrapped in rice straw during the firing process. I have added a single stem of white azalea that only needed to be placed in the vase and allowing it to cascade to one side.

There are more photos from the meeting that you can see by following this link to Ikebana International Melbourne meeting.

Greetings from Christopher

20th October 2019

On Saturday last week I attended a Sogetsu workshop led by Emily Karanikolopoulos, a senior teacher in the Melbourne Branch of the Sogetsu School. Emily had chosen for her topic the Sogetsu curriculum, Book Five exercise, of fixing techniques when using tsubo (round) vases. In these vases it is not correct practise to use a kenzan...

...and I distinctly remember being politely admonished for doing so in this arrangement I made at the Sogetsu Head Quarters in 2011.

At a subsequent class I made the arrangement above, under close instruction. In that case I was taught to fix the principal branch to a 'cross bar' by way of a complex knot.

A few days before the workshop I noticed a mass of acacia seed pods that were just beginning to develop. They were quite shiny and were developing a lovely brick-red in contrast to the fresh green of the leaves.

As they made an interesting, if untidy, mass I thought they would be suitable for the workshop. Additionally in their favour was the fact that the stems were reasonably thick. I knew this would be an advantage no matter which fixing technique I finally used.

Emily demonstrated nailing, intersecting two branches and fixing onto a crossbar. I chose to use the intersecting technique as it would allow me to arrange my principal branch in a near vertical position.

I have removed all of the green leaves that were among the mass of seed pods on the left to enhance their colour. The main branch on the right is from the same bush. I have added some yellowish-green callistemon flowers from our garden as a contrast. These flowers pickup the colour of the natural ash glaze in the vessel by Ian Jones.

Here is a link to the workshop posting on the Victorian Sogetsu website.

Greetings from Christopher
26th October 2019

Two weeks ago, on Sunday the 20th of October, Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter was invited back to the Ripponlea Estate to exhibit ikebana to support the one-day Botanica Festival. When I visited the mansion on that day, my attention was caught by the 'stained glass' windows lighting the main staircase.

They had beautifully painted botanical motifs...

...as can be seen in this detail of the lower section of the central window. I thought it was particularly lovely to see ikebana in the context of a (rather grand) domestic setting; which is quite different from a gallery or other public space.

The ikebana works had quite a different feel as they related to the various spaces. Photos of the ikebana works, taken by Helen Marriott, can be seen on this link.

Meanwhile, back in Torquay, we are having bouts of summery weather with much cooler, sometimes rainy, days in between. The rain, when it comes, is welcome as the plants in the garden are in their main growing phase.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a single very tall Bird of Paradise Strelitzia Reginae, which I thought I should cut before it was damaged by the coming rain. It was the first to open in the garden this season and, at the time, the only one. What to do with a single flower? Then I thought, it needs leaves and they can be the 'subject' of my ikebana. The flower will simply be a focal point or foil. Only then did I really notice the unused bunch of small monstera deliciosa leaves left over from the I.I. exhibition four weeks earlier. One of them had just started to yellow, creating interesting colour variation, less flat than the rich green on the other leaves.

This is my subject, four monstera leaves that I have 'squared off'. I remembered seeing this technique invented by Keith Stanley when, in 2011, he set himself the task of making a fresh ikebana arrangement every day for one year and posting them on his blog. Keith is a Sogetsu practitioner and floral designer in Washington DC.

My first Sogetsu teacher, Carlyne Patterson, would have called this changing the 'face' or 'appearance' of the material. This reveals one of the perspectives or attitudes of the Sogetsu School, in which botanical materials are treated as abstract three dimensional forms with certain textural and colour qualities that are used by the ikebana artist to achieve their design intentions.

Here is the profile view of the arrangement.

Here is the finished work with the focal flower added, which gives contrasting colour and a dynamic line. The grey suiban is from Seto City, just east of Nagoya where we spent four months in 1992 and where I took my first ikebana lessons. Seto is one of the famous 'Six ancient kilns'. It was such an important centre of ceramic production in the past that the generic term for ceramics is setomono, or 'things from Seto'.

Greetings from Christopher
2nd November 2019

At class last week I set some of my students the exercise of making an ikebana arrangement in which the vessel is the principal subject. This comes from the principles developed by Sofu Teshigahara, founder of the Sogetsu School. He wrote, "...if the container is the main focus, then the flowers should be secondary to it...'.

I think the challenge in this exercise is to make an interesting and attractive, but modest, ikebana that accentuates the vessel being used.

Julie used a small gourd-shaped vessel with a particularly interesting under-glaze design. The design is an ancient map of the islands of Japan, with the domains marked out. Her materials were a single bare line of tortuous willow and part of a pale pink hydrangea flower-head.

Marcia chose a very unusual glass vessel with a curving form. Its shape was emphasised by a black line that ran from the large opening at the top to the finer opening at the other end. The material she used is a single leaf of New Zealand Flax. This has been split into several lines for half its length. As the leaf was inserted into the vessel it was twisted, resulting in multiple curving lines accentuating the form.

At a class with my teacher Elizabeth the exercise was: 'An arrangement using a variety of materials'. An additional criteria was added that the materials should be spring flowers. I noticed that there were a number of yellow Australian native flowers blooming at that moment...

...including this small Everlasting Daisy, Chrysocephalum apiculatum that is growing well in our garden.

This tight little bunch of flowers are all on the one stem.

I thought that using a variety of small yellow flowers would work well in a brightly coloured lustre-glazed bowl by Greg Daly.

Then I realised that a little zing of red would give the ikebana a lift. The red flowers are Freesia laxa which like moist conditions, and therefore don't grow in our garden.

This 3/4 side view gives a sense of the forward reach of the longest of the Billy Button, Craspedia, stems.

Today I also want to mention the exciting success of my colleague Emily Karanikolopoulos. In a collaborative working relationship, with the Victorian sculptor John Meade, they were successful in being awarded the Southern Way McClelland Commission in 2018. This is a commission for a public sculpture that is set along a section of the Southern Way freeway south-east of Melbourne. The sculpture was unveiled on 24th October and details are posted on Emily's blog. I was delighted to be able to visit it on the following weekend. If you are in the vicinity some time in the next couple of years it is highly recommended. Congratulations to Emily and John.

Greetings from Christopher,
10th November 2019

A couple of weeks ago I was rather surprised to come across this cricket match in progress on a nearby oval.

It immediately took me back to the sight, some years ago, of cricket being played on a village common in Guilford, Surrey UK.

The match, on our local oval, was being watched by family groups and left me with a comforting sense of the small, supportive community in which we live.

Subsequently, Laurie and I walked in Iron Bark Basin again and enjoyed the Spring wild-flowers that were quite abundant after some recent rain. The small Blue Pincushion flower is Brunonia australis, and was particularly abundant...

...as was this Button EverlastingCoronidium scorpioides.

Another favourite of mine is this Grass Trigger Plant Stylidium graminifolium, which has a curious trigger mechanism (click on the link then scroll down to the video) that assists in the pollination process.

And so, on to ikebana and the work of my Geelong class.

Maree created a Variation No 4 slanting, nageire arrangement, using eucalyptus branches and some South African protea, pincushion flowers. These flowers are in the same family, Proteaceae, as Australian native Grevillea, Banksia and Hakea plants.

I set my senior students the task of making an ikebana arrangement that 'Incorporates the area around the vessel'.

Helen used a long stem of Smoke bushCotinus coggygria that had many leaves removed to show the line of the branch.

Ellie used two graceful stems of honeysuckle that stretched across the open space of her stemmed bowl and then well beyond.

Maureen used stems of grape vine with a strong focal point of two Waratah Telopea speciosissima, flowers.

I noticed that all these images show the principal branch extending to the right. This is not a requirement of the exercise.

Above is an example I made at a workshop with Mr Kawana some years ago. However, the exercise on that occasion was quite different. It was to make a simplified arrangement. Mr Kawana pushed us to refine and refine the work until it was reduced to the minimum number of elements. I have used the dried leaf of a Dracaena, the tip is in the vase and the other end is where it attaches to the branch.

Mr Kawana thought it could be simplified further so that there is only one element showing: that is the point of attachment to the branch, which was quite interesting and attractive. Of course, this is a classroom exercise directed at extending the student's thinking processes, as distinct from making a beautiful ikebana arrangement.
The ash-glazed vase is by the Australian potter Ian Jones.

Greetings from Christopher
17th November 2019

A couple of weeks ago I set my Melbourne students the exercise of making an ikebana arrangement in which the vessel is the principal subject. When I was a student this exercise was called "Emphasising the container". It arises from one of the 50 principles of ikebana developed by Sofu Teshigahara. In such a situation the flowers and branches play a secondary role to the vessel. To my surprise last week I discovered that I had not included the work of two of the students.

Eugenia used an irregular donut-shaped vessel with fold lines that create a sense of movement. She has used curving dried acacia stems to complement the form and a small floral focus of Grevillea.

Margaret used a large flattened bowl-shaped ikebana vessel from Japan. The vessel is quite narrow from the front to back and a challenge to use. She deliberately placed her materials so as to keep the front surface of the vessel uninterrupted. The branch of driftwood and the pincushion proteas provided a textural contrast.

Last week I attended the Sogetsu Branch workshop that was given by my teacher Elizabeth Angell. She chose as her theme: Two Vessels, One Arrangement, and encouraged members to use non-matching vessels.

When I attended her class later in the week she had made the arrangement above using five green glass bottles. Of course this is a variation on the principle of her workshop theme. She has supported a dried magnolia branch across the bottles and created three small floral foci. It is important to point out that the bottles are set out in irregular triangles and that two of them do not have any materials in them.

From my bathroom window I can see this Bushy Yate, Eucalyptus lehmannii, that has recently started to flower. In the photo above the flower is the greenish-yellow mop of stamens. To the lower right is the developing seed pod of a finished flower. On the above link is also a photo of the flowers in 'bud' before the flower caps have fallen off.

This is one of my (many) favourite plants in our garden. Its buds, flowers and seed pods are all unusual and have great sculptural qualities. I thought this material would make an interesting subject for the Sogetsu Branch workshop.

For my two non-matching vessels I chose a matt-black vessel with a gold and silver leaf decoration and a lustre-glazed bowl. Although different in form and surface treatment they were both made by Greg Daly. I have separated the flowers on their stems from a massed group of seed pods and reversed their colours with respect to the vessels. The black vessel has the lighter coloured flower and the predominately yellow bowl has the dark brown seed pods. At this time of the year when the seed pods are just developing they have a beautiful almost lacquered appearance.

There are more photos from the workshop via this link.

Greetings from Christopher

23rd November 2019.

In the warm weather on Friday afternoon we had a visitor to the garden. Our irregularly seen visiting Echidna was searching for ants that have nests under the brick paving on the terrace.

Man and Echidna, Laurie capturing the visit on his phone camera through the living room window.

Because of the very poor eyesight of Echidnas you can easily observe them at close quarters if you keep still and do not cause vibrations through the ground.

It certainly must take a lot of ants to provide sufficient sustenance to keep this little creature alive. Since the drought in the early 2000s we have not had a lawn in our garden. Instead, we have large areas of mulch interspersed with ground cover plants. The result is an environment that is favourable to ants.

On Saturday 30th November the Japanese Association of Geelong held its second Summer Festival, in which I and my senior students from the Geelong class were pleased to participate. There were a large range of activities and displays including: music, taiko drumming, martial arts, cosplay, handcrafts, traditional foods to eat, calligraphy classes and of course our ikebana and much more.

Because such an event brings many visitors who are unfamiliar with ikebana, I set up this basic slanting arrangement using Plum branches and Snapdragon, Antirrhinum flowers. It is important that visitors see work that they can imagine creating in their own homes.

Ellie created this ikebana, using 'dried materials only', that worked as a freestanding sculpture and which did not need a vessel. The stripped wood has three Billy ButtonCraspedia flowers creating a geometric focal point.

In a tall stainless steel metal vase, Maureen created a line and mass ikebana using fine dried branches and focal point of red Alstroemeria flowers.

Christine made an ikebana on the theme of 'using fruiting branch' material. She has used a single lichen-encrusted branch from her lemon tree. The ceramic vessel is by Graeme Wilkie.

Ellie's second work is of 'dried and fresh' material using a bare branch with lichen and three Chrysanthemum flowers in a white ceramic vessel.

Helen Q. re-worked a mass and line ikebana that I had shown a couple of weeks ago. The materials are Smoke Bush Cotinus and Hydrangea. The almost black Japanese ceramic vase has an 'oil spot glaze'.

My second ikebana is a New Year arrangement of pine and white Chrysanthemum in a Shigarakitea storage jar. I have added some red and white mizuhiki, the paper strings that are traditionally used on celebratory occasions.

Here is a link to a short video by Mr Ian Mac of the: Geelong Japanese Summer Festival, which Laurie says I should tell you includes a 2 second view of my back.

Greetings from Christopher
1st December 2019

For readers who receive this blog by email I need to correct the spelling in last weeks post heading, from 'Geeling' to 'Geelong'. It was picked up by my ever reliable editor and corrected a few hours later.

Over the past couple of weeks I have celebrated the end of the teaching year with the students from my classes. In each case we have met at a student's house, where the students have created ikebana in situ - adjusting their work to the challenges of the specific location.

The locations were not chosen by the student but allocated either by drawing lots or of my choosing. After making their ikebana we shared food and stories in the more informal atmosphere of the host's home. This week I will show photos from my Torquay and Geelong classes.

The first event took place in Val's house in Torquay.

Marion's location was in a narrow space beside a short staircase. She had brought long cascading branches of red Bottle-brush, Melaleuca viminalis, from her garden. Given the tight location and the long branches, Marion was encouraged to feed a couple of the branches through the uprights on the bannister. Marta generously lent some Melaleuca linarifoliafor a white, textural contrast that provided a central mass.

Val's ikebana was located against a floor-to-ceiling window in the living room. I have drawn the blind down to be able to take this photograph. She used Red Hot Pokers Kniphofia for their strong upright lines and a bright red geranium as a contrast.

Judy made this two-vessel arrangement using New Zealand Flax flowers and leaves, contrasted with yellow everlasting flowers and red pincushion proteas.

Helen T's location was a rather tight floor position at a the corner of a corridor. She made a slanting arrangement using two Norfolk Island Pine fronds with red and white geranium flowers as a Christmas-themed contrast.

Marta's ikebana was located in a wide but low space on the bathroom vanity. She created a two-vessel ikebana arrangement, using pine, melaleuca linarifolia and Celosiain the black vessel and a branch of Eucalyptus Lehmannii with dried seed pods in the white vessel.

Annie's location was on a purple desk top against a window. In a white ovoid vessel she arranged a single Clivia leaf, a stem of agapanthus with an unopened flower bud, some purple Tall Veberna, Verbena bonariensis, and a few Camellia leaves.

Ròża location was a low side-table with a mirror situated above. She had the challenge of arranging two short stemmed (because prostrate growing) banksias with some curving maroon Flax leaves. She created colour harmony by using a copper-coloured metal suiban.

Kim had a difficult location on a small table against a window; difficult because his principal material was a very large dried branch of MoonahMelaleuca lanceolata. Beneath the curve of the branch Kim placed a small suiban in which he arranged white oriental lilies and arum lily leaves as though bursting from underneath.

The second class that day was for my Geelong students and was held at Maree's house. As this class included senior students, most of them also used unfamiliar vessels provided by Maree. Unfortunately, I was not quick enough to photograph all the ikebana works. However, below are examples of the students' work.

Christine's location was on a vanity unit beside a glass shower screen. In a black suiban she arranged some onion flower heads that she had lightly sprayed with silver paint. These were teamed with a small sprig of pine and some vibrant red cactus flowers. The suiban projected slightly over the edge of the vanity surface. Although this is rather unorthodox I felt it looked quite alright in the context of the confined space.

Jo arranged her ikebana on the top of a chest of drawers. She chose a pale green glazed tsubo vase in which she arranged some stems of watsonia with new seed pods forming. Her floral focus was pink oriental lily flower buds. The arrangement was anchored by the final addition of a philodendron leaf.

Helen Q arranged the New Zealand Corokia cotoneasteras a foil to two heads of pink hydrangea. The work was on a carved chest in the entrance hall and seen from the right hand side as well as this view.

Ellie's location was on the top of a vintage treadle sewing machine. In an unusual iron vessel she arranged a branch of cypress, the flower cones of a leucadendron and a single chrysanthemum flower.

When I returned home after last week's Geelong Japanese Summer Festival, I re-worked my New Year's ikebana. This time, with the branch shortened, it is a variation number 4 in a ceramic cylinder made by Graeme Wilkie.

Greetings from Christopher

7th December 2019

Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed some wildlife visitors to the garden. The beginning of summer has seen seeds forming on various plants that are particularly attractive to parrots.

This sulphur-crested cockatoo came to feast on the acacia baileyana seeds. Following my drastic pruning in the late autumn the tree has bounced back with dense leaf growth this spring as well as plenty of seed pods following the blossoming in winter. (The camera was on the wrong setting when I took the photograph, so it is not very sharp.)

Spike, the echidna, has been back in the garden a couple of times seeking out a meal of ants.

On this occasion I happened to surprise the echidna, which was fossicking in the mulch by the New Zealand flax. It responded rapidly, and characteristically, by partially burying itself in the soft ground. This manoeuvre makes the echidna unable to be attacked by would be predators as only its sharp spines are exposed.

The last end-of-year ikebana class for my Melbourne students was held at Julie's house. Again, each student made a celebratory ikebana arrangement in situ in the house or on the terrace.

On a glass side table Eugenia arranged some long-needle pine and a dried branch in an oval, Iwata glass, suiban. She added a spray of red baubles placed behind the pine needles as a bright focal point.

Margaret's ikebana had an elevated position, above eye level, on top of a set of shelves. Being seen from below significantly changed the placement of the materials which were, a dried branch, red grevillea, red anthurium and a stem of green hakea (I think) leaves.

Helen N created a simple ikebana in an iron vessel using an orange Day LilyHemerocallis, and massed Nandina berries. The location of her ikebana was on a very low ledge about 20 cms above the floor.

Marisha made a massed ikebana arrangement with a slanting line of red-tipped Melaleuca and bright pink Sweet William, Dianthus barbatus flowers. She used a contemporary translucent plastic side table against the wall below a staircase.

Jacqueline set her ikebana on a glass side table. She arranged three strelitzia leaves and a single stem of pink oriental lily in a white nageire vessel. Jacqueline carefully placed the flower stem so that the flower bud was partially enclosed by the concave leaf.

The next two photos are of ikebana placed on tables on the terrace. Because of the very bright sunlight and busy backgrounds the work was photographed against the surface of the table making the angle quite elevated.

Julie used a heavy bronze vessel in the shape of a bamboo basked. She arranged Smoke bush, Cotinus, leaves and flower heads with massed prunus cerasus fruit.

Marcia arranged pine, dried wood and a single yellow Asiatic lily Lilium auratum, in a matte black ceramic vessel.

As you can see, after making ikebana we shared a celebratory meal. Thanks to Julie for hosting the event and Eugenia for taking the photograph.

Greetings from Christopher
15th December 2019

Wednesday of last week was rather warm, in the mid 30's at Torquay.

As we walked along the Front Beach I was really surprised to see a long band of rich pink in the water. It was an algal bloom being carried onto the beach by an easterly wind.

I have read about 'red tides', however this was the first time that I had seen one.

As the algae washed onto the beach the waves became pink and streaked with the colour. A newspaper report the following day advised avoiding contact with the algae because of the risk of skin irritation.

Two days later we had a single hot day right across the state and the maximum temperature in Torquay was 45.1 Celsius. This was the highest daily temperature ever recorded here. My thoughts go out to people in the other states where conditions have been much worse for a long time, and where bushfires are raging.

One day later, with a strong southerly wind, the temperature is now below 20C. The windsurfers were out in force at Point Danger making the most of the conditions.

In anticipation of the extreme heat on Friday I soaked the more vulnerable plants in the garden and picked five of the nine Acanthus mollis flower spikes that have grown this year. I usually miss the opportunity of creating ikebana with these flower spikes and was determined not to this year. I correctly judged that the remaining flowers would be crisped by Friday's expected heat.

I arranged the long spikes with two dried artichoke flower heads. Because of the slant of the irregular box-shaped vessel I decided to continue the sense of movement by aligning the stems with its sloping sides. I used internal fixing techniques to support the stems at a slant without having them rest on the sides of the vessel.

The ikebana vessel is by Yutaka Nakamura from Echizen in Japan.

This year's Christmas tree was created with dried leaves from Ficus lyrata and F. elastica, that grow in the conservatory. I have painted the back of a couple of the leaves red and added some red and gold baubles.

Wishing you good health and all the best for the holiday season.

Greetings from Christopher

21st December 2019

Recently, when I visited my brother's house, I was amazed to see a large number of welcome swallows flying about the house in the early evening. It had been a rather warm day and there were a lot of insects flying around.

The sight took me back to my childhood as our house was named "Illabunda" ("the place of swallows"). This is a word from the Toongagi clan of the Dharuk people in the Sydney area of New South Wales. Indeed, there were many swallows to be seen around our house in the summer because there was a wetland across the road. These days the wetland has gone, replaced by a park.

As you can see this small colony of swallows have made quite a number of their mud and grass nests. These particular nests are somewhat bottle-shaped, which I have never seen before. The mud must have come from different sources resulting in the colour banding you can see.

While on the fauna theme, I thought I would show you these photos of an echidna we saw in the Iron Bark Basin nature reserve last week.

The photo were taken on 'zoom' from a distance as I did not want to disturb this otherwise content creature.

The echidna finally crossed a boundary into private property, where it fossicked for ants in the rotting root of a dead tree.

The next series of photos are from the second last class back in late November of my Torquay students. I had set the exercise of contrasting a single line with a mass which they had to create. The point being that it is not acceptable to use a natural mass, such as a single large hydrangea flowerhead.

Helen T used a stem of Kangaroo Paw Angiozanthos and a mass of Jade PlantCrassula ovata.

Judy used a single stem of New Zealand Flax and some unidentified circular leaves that she massed on the flax.

Kim used a stem of agapanthus and made a mass by knotting bulrush leaves * .

Marion brought some large branches of Rosemary from which she made the mass and then trimmed a strong branch to make the single line.

Marta created a mass with some pink hollyhock flowers and then used an unidentified stem for her line.

Val used a strong line of Kangaroo Paw and some stems of Geraldton wax flower Chamelaucium unicatum for her mass.

My own ikebana this week is a result of a belated picking of the one and only Iris flower that bloomed this year. I ought to have repotted it last winter and my failure has meant that the plant is undernourished and too crowded.

I decided to quickly arrange the single flower with some stems of lavender that I had pruned where it was encroaching on the path and some scabiosa atropurpurea. The ceramic vase is by Sallee Warner, a potter working in southern Tasmania.

Greetings from Christopher, and wishing you all the best for the new year 2020.

28th December 2019.

* Bulrush is known as Cattail in US and Japan.

Early summer in Victoria is the time for spectacular flowering on three trees in particular that I always enjoy seeing.

This Jacaranda mimosifolia, from subtropical South America, is growing in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne in front of the original Director's residence within the gardens. Always a beautiful sight.

Among the native Australian flowering trees, the Brachychiton acerifolius would have to be one of the most spectacular. The intense red of the flowers is exaggerated because the flower stems are also the same colour and the same slightly fleshy quality.

As you can see in this photo, if it loses all its leaves at flowering, the sight is extraordinary. I have been nursing along one of these beauties in our garden. However, away from its natural home on the mid-eastern coast of Australia, it struggles from our poor soil quality and low summer rainfall. This one is growing in the well-watered parkland that surrounds the Melbourne Botanic Gardens.

The third flowering tree in this group is the Grevillea robusta, this one also in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens.

In this case my attention was drawn to the tall tree because of the yellow-gold stamens littering the footpath.

For a close up I photographed this lower growing branch near the lakeside restaurant...

...and in our own garden the somewhat smaller tree has more flowers than ever this year.

To ikebana. The following are the last photos I have from 2019 classes .

In Geelong, Maree used Amaranthus caudatus for her principal line in this cascading ikebana.

Maureen teamed lichen encrusted Boxthorn with the orangey-red flower of the New South Wales Christmas BushCeratopetalum gummiferum. Her exercise was to make an ikebana arrangement 'that incorporated the area around the vessel'.

Ellie's exercise was to make an arrangement/installation 'for a particular place in the classroom'. She chose to work in front of a panel heater with vertical indentations. To emphasise the lines, Ellie arranged straight stemmed Strelitzia flowers. On the upper surface of the heater she arranged two New Zealand Flax leaves and a single Strelitzia flower peeping from behind the leaves.

In my class with Elizabeth, the exercise was to make ikebana in a vessel that was not intended to be used for ikebana.

Pearl used an assemblage of river stones to set some bark, Smoke bush and a pink Grevillea.

Swan used a ceramic teapot in which she arranged two roses and some Smoke bush leaves.

My ikebana was created in a unique hand-crafted wooden box that was given to Laurie and me as a wedding present. I set the close fitting lid of the box at an angle, dividing the box into two triangular compartments, into which I arranged five Dietes grandiflora leaves and three stems of Freesia laxaflowers. The ikebana had a playful, open feel with a sense of swirling movement.

Greetings from Christopher

4th January 2020

As I write this on Saturday afternoon in Torquay on the Surfcoast on the west side of Victoria, the cool change has brought down our temperature to 17 Celsius. In Mallacoota and the south coast of New South Wales the bushfires have worsened after the lull that allowed some evacuations by sea to take place yesterday afternoon.

Earlier in the year Laurie and I were walking in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne when we saw this Black Swan with three cygnets feeding on one of the weed covered lakes. Laurie took the photo, which he subsequently described as his 'ikebana photo' because of the framing of the image by the horizontal branch.

In late December, a cold front with particularly strong winds and gusts exceeding 100 kilometres per hour came through Melbourne. Unfortunately, one of the large oaks was shattered in the storm. This particular tree was over 130 years old. I have been told that these northern hemisphere trees grow much faster in Victoria's relatively warmer climate and that such trees age more quickly.

The White Oak,Quercus alba, is native to eastern and central North America and was the only example in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens.

The Gardens must have a good monitoring system because a protective fence had been erected around it some weeks before the tree was shattered. I think potential splitting of large branches from the main trunk had been observed.

This photo is a sad scene of destruction and 130 years is a long time to wait for recovery, if such a thing is possible.

On a lighter note, back at Torquay so far this summer season w have been spared damaging winds. We have had only two isolated days with desiccating winds and the temperature in the mid 40s Celsius.

Surprisingly, these naturalised Sweet Scabious, Scabiosa atropurpurea, seem to be very tolerant of our hot dry weather.

Though they do prefer moisture being retained in the soil from our extensive mulching.

I love the natural variety of colours in this particular species. There is one small plant in the garden which has white flowers. Because these plants used to grow wild in the nature-strips of Torquay when I was in primary school here, I thought they were a native species, not introduced, as they have been, from the Mediterranean region.

Also flowering at this time of year is the indigenous Bursaria spinosa. There are several of these small trees in the garden and the mass of their small white flowers make a good ikebana subject.

Here are the two plants from different hemispheres making an informal summer ikebana in a quirky ceramic vessel that I bought in Mashiko in Tochigi Prefecture.

Greetings from Christopher
12th January 2020

A couple of weeks ago, as I was doing some garden watering in the evening, my attention was caught by the remarkably beautiful colours in the bark of the Angophora costata.

The colours of rose-pink and blue-grey looked luminous in the early evening light. This is like the colour change of autumn leaves. The bark is a more rusty red for most of the year.

However, as it is summer, the bark has started to peel away showing a much lighter colour underneath.

When Europeans first came to this country they thought it strange that the trees kept their leaves throughout the year, but that the outer bark was shed from trees.

Another particularly unusual characteristic of A. costata is the twisting habit of the branches. The branch, above, hangs quite low and then bends sideways and back again on itself. I think it is crying out for a large ikebana installation opportunity. In the meantime, and perhaps for ever, it adorns our garden.

Above are the flowers that have opened on our tree in the last few weeks. They are sweetly fragrant, attractive to bees and other insects, and look very like many eucalyptus flowers. However, my reading has taught me that Angophora is a genus of six species and differentiated, by its flowers, from Eucalyptus.

A fact that I had never noticed before is that these flowers do not have a 'cap', the modified petal (and or sepals) that form the covering of the unopened flower in the Eucalyptus and Corymbia genera.

This close-up shows a cap, or operculum, just about to fall from the small Corymbia flower-bud on the right.

We have had some quite strong winds lately and some large pieces of the Angophora bark have been blown about the garden.

I was rather surprised to see one piece of the bark, where it had split, was caught on the rather pointy stems of the Strelitzia juncea.

No human intervention was needed for this floating garden sculpture. However, it proved an inspiration for my ikebana. As I had pruned the spent Strelitzia flowers and some stems overhanging the path just the day before I had the perfect materials for my experiment.

I placed the stems into two kenzans and zigzagged them so that they intersected where I could pin them. I have deliberately reversed one piece of bark showing its lighter underside and placed it behind the darker coloured piece. One of the very long stems had a soft 'S' curve so I used it as it was, as a contrasting line.

The shino-glazed bowl is by the New Zealand ceramic artist Elena Renka.

Greetings from Christopher
19th January 2020

This morning was bright, sunny and windless. As I was preparing breakfast, I became aware of a very noisy chattering of a small flock of birds and went to investigate.

Sure enough some Rainbow Lorikeets were having a lovely time feeding on the nectar in the flowers of the Angophora costata that I mentioned in last week's posting. Most of the blossom is in a large mass on the crown of the tree and is not noticeable from ground level in the garden. Below are a couple of photos I took of some small clusters of blossom.

This second one was conveniently caught in the early morning sun. As I took the second photo...

...I noticed this Australian magpie sitting silently while basking in the sunlight.

In the week before Christmas we had one day of 41.5 Celsius which somewhat ravaged this pale pink Hydrangea. I am thinking of removing the damaged flowers in the hope that it will promote some new flowers.

The two pots of richer pink and the pale blue/mauve Hydrangeas did not suffer so badly in the heat as their flowers were not so developed.

I am looking forward to an opportunity to use them in some ikebana before too long, because in February and March we usually have more consistently hot weather which could damage them.

In the meantime, I raided our neighbour's garden (with permission) for some South African Agapanthuswhich now are at their peak. One of the flowers had a beautiful natural curve and a smaller secondary flower on the curve of the stem.

Using an unusual contemporary-style Japanese ikebana vase, I set two stems of the Agapanthus at a slight angle to emphasise the graceful curve. The lowest flower is actually a second stem with a small flower that had just shed its calyx and placed in-line with the larger flower. I have added a contrasting mass of Bursaria, from our garden, behind the main stem.

The Bursaria was a little past its prime and soon started to drop tiny white petals all over the shelf.

So five days later I slightly re-worked the ikebana after removing the Bursaria. This time I have increased the lean to the left, further emphasising the curve in the stem, and separated the two stems. I was really pleased by the narrow space created by the two parallel stems and find this version more satisfying than the first.

Greetings from Christopher

25th January 2020

On Monday, last week, Laurie and I had a morning walk in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. The day was bright, sunny and not too hot.

The herbaceous border was looking splendid, surely at its peak. The view above is from the north-west end of the curving path...

...and this view is from the opposite end. I really like the dense massed planting of this huge bed (and am glad it is not my responsibility). Creating such a garden must take an enormous amount of time and talent.

We also walked by the Ornamental Lake to see how the Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, flowers were doing this year. The water level had been getting quite low because of the lack of rain. Fortunately, following heavy rains two weeks earlier, the level of the lake had increased significantly and the Lotus were looking glorious in the morning sunshine. The following sequence is of four seperate flowers, but would make a great slide-show.

Finally, this photo shows half of the 'bed' of the Lotus flowers. The bed continues for an equivalent distance to the right of this line that stretches away from the camera.

Back in Torquay I was most anxious about the survival of the potted hydrangeas, as we were predicted to have two days of 40-43 Celsius. The problem is not simply that such days are hot, but that they are caused by strong hot dry winds from the interior of the continent. These winds have a desiccating effect on plants with soft foliage from cooler and more moist climates. It does raise the question of how much effort I should expend on trying to grow plants from a totally different climate and environment.

This is how one of the plants looked on the morning of the first hot day.

Next to that pot this flower was showing the damage from an earlier 40 degree day. My solution to the threatened heat was to water the pots heavily the night before and again in the morning. Then I decided to harvest the majority of the flowers so that I could make one or two ikebana arrangements.

When I was carrying the flowers inside I noticed the deeply-coloured stems of these flowers and was enchanted by the beauty and wonder of nature. This plant has been grown from a cutting taken from the garden of Laurie's childhood.

In thinking about creating ikebana with these flowers it occurred to me that they would go well in the modern lacquered vase I had bought in Japan three years ago.

Here is step one. Three blue flowers with a very pale pink one at the back...

...now peeping on the right-hand side.

To change the feel of the ikebana, I added a cascade of Miscanthus sinensis zebrinus , creating a light screen that visually reduced the mass of the largest flower-head.

Here is the final photo of the ikebana against a plain backdrop.

Greetings from Christopher
1st February 2020

On the first of the two hot days I mentioned in last week's posting, a couple of the flowers on the new Corymbia ficifoliain our garden opened. The approximately 1.5 metre tree was a carefully chosen gift, being a dwarf variety and not likely to cause any major problems in the future.

I had not expected the flowers to open so soon.

A week later and two more 40+ degree days resulted in the whole corymb(compound flower head) opening and seeming to glow in the late evening light. What makes this tree so striking is that the flowers are borne on the ends of the branches. As a result much of the canopy can be densely covered in flowers.

At the first classes for 2020 I set my students the exercise of making an ikebana work representing their 'Memories of Summer Holidays'. This year was especially memorable for the dreadful, extensive bushfires in south-eastern Australia that have made news headlines around the world.

Eugenia took on the theme of fire and its aftermath in this table-top installation. The black rectangle is a ceramic trough standing on its end. A single charred branch stands against the black trough with dried pine needles at the base. A small tuft of pale green grass at the base offers hope for renewal.

Margaret said that over this summer she had noticed quite a number of pink flowering plants in her garden that she had enjoyed seeing; and that was a surprise to her as pink is not a favourite colour. This simple-looking arrangement of one flower (not from her garden) and a few leaves turned out to be an exercise in the adage of 'less is more'. A significant amount of pruning and exclusion of other materials had to occur to reach this strong statement.

Jacqueline has just commenced the advanced part of the Sogetsu curriculum. Her exercise was to make a 'Vertical arrangement' in a suiban, in which there is a strong sense of upward movement. She has achieved this with some bullrushes and agapanthus flowers, some of which had the flowers removed. The space between the two groups of stems adds to the strength of the design.

Marisha's exercise was to make a massed ikebana arrangement that is contrasted with a single line. The mass is of Queen Anne's Lace Daucus carota, with white through to burgundy flowers. The latter flowers picking up the colour of the vessel. The flowers are contrasted with a long stem of a Dietesleaf. Marisha was delighted to use the small ceramic vessel that her husband had brought back from Japan.

On Wednesday last, my colleague and fellow Sogetsu teacher Helen Quarrell and I gave a one-hour Sogetsu ikebana presentation and demonstration for the Friends of the Geelong Botanic Gardens. We had the good fortune of being able to gather some materials from the garden, albeit under close supervision.

I could not resist taking this photo of Helen by this contorted trunk of a large and ancient Coastal Tea Tree, Leptospermum laevigatum. The Geelong Botanic Gardens are a hidden treasure located in a shallow depression within the greater Eastern Park.

Unfortunately, we were not sufficiently organised to take photos of all our work. Above is an ikebana arrangement I made using a branch from a dry climate tree with very strange, triangular, opposed leaves (and vicious thorns) plus the berries of Cordyline petiolaris. The black vase has two side openings.

The main subject of this ikebana is the flower and stems of Brachychiton acerifolius, which I have shown in previous postings (see Final Classes). This tree is especially spectacular because the flower stems have the same intense red as the small bell-shaped flowers. As a textural contrast to the multiple curving lines of the flower stem I have created a broad-surfaced mass using two aspidistra leaves. The bizen-style vase is by the Australian potter Ian Jones.

Greetings from Christopher
9th February 2020

We have finally had fairly widespread and prolonged rain over much of Victoria in the last 24 hours, which has been a great relief after the bushfires over December and January.

When we came home to Torquay after spending most of the last week in Melbourne I was delighted to see, for the first time ever in our garden, a Kookaburra sheltering under the canopy of one of the trees. The poor bird was looking rather bedraggled after a day of rain.

The parting rain clouds...

...were beautifully illuminated by the setting sun.

Many readers of this blog will know that last year, on the 1st May, the new Reigning Emperor ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan, beginning the new era of Reiwa. Last Thursday, his birthday was celebrated at the residence of the Consul-General of Japan in Victoria. It was the turn of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School, on behalf of Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter, to provide flowers for the formal reception of guests who were invited to a garden party. As the Director of the Sogetsu Branch it was my privilege to create the large ikebana in the formal reception room and two smaller ikebana works, with the assistance of my colleague Margaret Wilson.

This was a fairly big undertaking and required extensive preparation.

This is the first practise of my small arrangement. The botanical materials include dried stems of a Marguerite daisy Argyranthemum frutescens painted gold, two blue hydrangeas and some gypsophila. In this photo you can see the smaller hydrangea at the back of the ikebana. The vessel is by Graeme Wilkie of Qdos gallery Lorne.

Here is the ikebana in situ. It was placed on a table in the entrance hall of the residence.

Close up view.

Margaret created a simple arrangement of two aspidistra leaves and a single Oriental lily flower and bud. The arrangement was carefully planned as it had to sit on a side table where the visitors' book was placed on the right hand side of the table. The elegant white vase with a white-on-white crystalline glaze was a gift from her sister and made by a Japanese ceramic artist.

After much preparatory work, this is the first 'mock up' of the large ikebana that had to stand in the principal reception room. I created a structure from three inverted branches of Silver Birch, doweled together, which stood beside the large amphora-shaped porcelain vessel. The hand-thrown vessel, by Alistair Whyte, has a pale blue Chun glaze over a deep red-brown iron glaze.

For the principal fresh material I chose branches of Acacia Baileyana, from our garden. In this first trial I had thought to use blue Hydrangeas and Sunflowers, but quickly decided the Sunflowers were not suitable because of the straightness of their stems and that their colour was too contrasting to the other materials.

On the day of the reception the Consul-General Mr Matsunaga and Mrs Matsunaga, co-patrons of I.I. Melbourne Chapter, stand in front of the gold screen to receive their guests who then to exit through the door on the left to the rear garden.

On the day prior to the reception, Margaret and I felt quite relieved to have got to this stage by the middle of the day.

Here is the completed work, which included the addition of white Oriental Lilies and Gypsophila, together with a large mass of gold mizuhiki.

Greetings from Christopher
15th February 2020

On the 12th of January I posted some photos of a 150 year old White Oak, Quercus Alba, that had started to split and then was blown apart by a severe wind storm around Christmas-time.

I was fascinated to see nature's tenacity at work on a number of the branches that were sprouting new growth. The connection of this branch with the main lower trunk is small, but obviously sufficient for nutrients to get through.

In another botanic garden, the Geelong Botanic Gardens this time, I passed these wonderful Queensland Bottle trees Brachychiton rupestristhat have been planted at the entrance to the 21st Century garden. That particular section of the garden is devoted to 'dry' garden species.

These three, which are nearby, have exaggerated bottle shapes.

I had come to the gardens especially to learn the correct name of this extraordinary bush that is native to southern South America. Because of its leaf shape, it is known as the Anchor Plant Colletia paradoxa. I had used a stem of it at the demonstration that Helen Quarrell and I gave to the Friends of the Geelong Botanic Gardens and reported two weeks ago.

Here you can see the leaves silhouetted against the sky. I re-used the stem at the February meeting of Ikebana International, Melbourne Chapter.

Our guest speaker was Philip Rhodes, a professional milliner who, in addition to his own salon, has extensive experience in making head-wear for theatre, ballet and opera productions in Melbourne and London. As is the usual practice, the members at the meeting made ikebana inspired by the theme of, in this case, millinery.

This is my ikebana, in which I reused the stem of Colletia Paradoxa stretching dramatically to one side and a single white chrysanthemum as a focal mass to balance the movement to the left. I have added two sheets of stainless steel mesh that partially cover the materials, and the spherical vase, in the manner of a fascinator.

The ceramic vase is one of the first vases that I bought, some time in the early 1970's, when I was working in Adelaide. It was made by the South Australian potter Don Jones, whose work I greatly admired for its attention to detail and high quality finish.

Follow this link to other photos from the I.I. meeting.

Greetings from Christopher
22nd February 2019

Two weeks ago the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana had its first meeting for 2020 in a new, larger venue for our Monday meetings.

The well-attended meeting workshop was led by Thea Sartori, a senior teacher of the Branch. The theme Thea chose for the workshop was 'a Summer arrangement' incorporating some 'found' material.

For my ikebana I used three blades of coast sword sedge lepidosperma gladiatum, and two very large sunflowers. The sunflowers are a new variety to me; their flowers looked like giant marigolds with no seeds visible in the centre. I used a contemporary-looking conical, stainless steel vase which suited the 'found' material. That was the metal mesh which I had also used in last week's ikebana.

The mesh was 'rescued' when the range hood in our kitchen had to be replaced. It was some time ago, but I recognised its potential as 'unconventional' (man-made) ikebana material. Fortunately it packs flat making it much less bulky than other materials that '...might come in use one day...'.

Click here for photos from the February Sogetsu Branch meeting.

Last week I pruned our bushy yateEucalyptus Lehmannii very hard as the possums were using it as a bridge to the roof and the pergola where they have been feasting on the new growth of the Lorraine Lee rose.

This example in a nearby park shows how a large healthy bushy yate can grow.

The green (kitchen mop-looking) flower shown above is from the same tree. All of the growth stages of the flowers of this tree have their own unique beauty and I had plenty that I could not allow to go to straight into the mulching machine.

This week's ikebana is an example of the Sogetsu curriculum subject: 'deconstruction and rearranging materials'. After removing all the leaves I have placed two flowers in the Don Jones spherical vase that I showed in last week's posting. On the right hand side are some unopened flower buds which have elongated caps (operculum) covering the stamens. I decided that two more should remain on the branch. The branch has been cut to stand when inverted and has four knobbly fruit that at this stage are glossy green and reddish brown. The old bark is peeling from the branch showing the creamy coloured new bark underneath.

Greetings from Christopher
1st March 2020.

CHABANA

TSUBO VASE WORKSHOP

CHANGING THE APPEARANCE OF MATERIALS

YELLOW SPRING FLOWERS

THE AREA AROUND THE VESSEL...

TWO VESSELS, ONE ARRANGEMENT

GEELONG JAPANESE SUMMER FESTIVAL

LAST CLASSES FOR 2019, # 1

LAST CLASSES FOR 2019, # 2

RESCUED FROM THE HEAT

FAUNA and FLORA

2019 FINAL CLASSES

SUMMER WIND STORMS and SUMMER FLOWERS

WIND BLOWN DETRITUS IN THE GARDEN

CURVES and SPACE

RESCUED FORM THE HEAT

FIRST CLASSES for 2020 and a DEMONSTRATION

THE EMPEROR'S BIRTHDAY

UNUSUAL TREES and FOLIAGE

BUSHY YATE