THE LAST DAY OF WINTER

In the winter sunshine the red flowering Swan River Pea (Gastrolobium bracteolosum, previously called Brachysema Lanceolatum ) is positively luminous in our winter garden. Here it is growing beside the path.


It is a very useful spreading plant for the garden as a single plant can cover an area three times wider than its height of about one metre.



I have never previously used it as an ikebana subject and wanted to show my students that ikebana can be made with a small amount of materials. I used it with some leaves of New Zealand Flax, also from our garden, to demonstrate a 'basic upright' arrangement. 


This weeks ikebana uses two leaves and a single flower head of agapanthus in a vase by Pippin Drysdale, a ceramic artist from Western Australia.




Greetings from Christopher
31st August 2013

2 comments:

  1. Lovely agapanthus arrangement. So simple and elegant. Love the bluish purple in the flower repeated in the vase. Best to you and Laurie, Michael

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    1. Dear Michael,
      thank you for your comment. I have been surprised at just how purple the vase looks. It is decorated with very fine incised red and blue lines. The red inner surface is very intense and contrasts well with the green leaf.

      Regards,
      Christopher

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