My garden (2)

I am so delighted about my back yard garden this time of year! Thanks to the April Showers! There are blooming flowers of Azalea, Peony, rose, regular Iris and Japanese Iris.

April Showers bring May Flowers (1)

April showers bring May flowers! Indeed. We have just enough rain for this Spring. The grass, the trees are so green and my flower garden are so luscious! They are all my possible Ikebana materials that I can use if I wish to... .

back yard garden

Japanese Iris

horse tail

allium

tree peony

tree peony

Clivia Lily (house plant)

Forget me not ?

Tulip from Holland Ridge Farm N J

My Orchids

Every time I think about my orchids, I feel so bad and sad. Ever since I moved to this house, my poor orchids have not been doing well at all! They don't look healthy. I've gradually lost my enthusiasm. Looking back at my orchids blog, the glory time of my orchids has gone（榮景不再). My heart aches. I've mentioned before the reasons why are: 1) the chemicals to soften our water is not good for the plants; 2) the sunlight comes into my sun room differently, and so is not bright enough; 3) I've gotten lazy and am busier with my ikebana, plus I'm getting older. They need so much of my physical attention during indoor windowsill time (watering); 4) the outdoor location is not as suitable as old house location.
I have not been post my orchids since last December. Even though I still have one blooming orchid for each month. Below are my three long lasting orchids.

Hata Sensei class in April - Japanese Narcissus (lesson1) and composition with Curved Line (lesson2)

Lesson 1): Japanese Narcissus ( book 5 )
How to do Hagumi: "Rub the Narcissus sheath to soften it and pull out the flower stem, the inner leaves and outer leaves to part them. Then rearrange these parts with due attention paid to getting the height difference between the flower stem and the leaves as well as the direction of the leaves".
So, Sensei brought Narcissus to everyone, $5 dollars a bunch. She taught us how to do Hagumi.
I also brought some daffodils from my garden. Miniature and regular kind, see below:

My arrangement

Hata Sensei's domo arrangement

midoli Sensei's arrangement

Lesson 2): Composition with Curved Line - Sensei show us how to bent the pussy willow

Hata Sensei's demo arrangement 

My curved line composition

 Sensei's comment: change brighter container will be perfect

Two or More containers- Lesson 3

Lesson 3): Two or More Containers
I thought it would be unique! A white, tall ceramic Japanese vase and a black, moon shaped metal  container combined together as a whole arrangement that was my first idea design.
The materials for both containers were Japanese quince and Japanese white pine. I cut them from my back garden. 

Free Style Using Japanese Quince

The container has a wide open mouth. I used a piece of tree root as a fixing structure in order to put other materials in place without difficulty.
Material: Japanese quince, daffodile, pine and black painted branch
Container: Red and black ceramic vase

Composition of Surfaces by Using Leaves

There are five Magnolia trees in my yard. Their leaves have two colors on both sides, front and back. They are evergreen, and their leaves are shiny all year long. Their big white flowers are very pretty and fragrant, but short lived. I use the leaves for my arrangement, "Composition of Surfaces by Using Leaves." and the flower is a daffodil.

Hata Sensei's Class in March

1) Jumonji-dome (Cross- bar fixture) : Azalea, Alstroemeria, mum and Japanese quince / ceramic vase (3/18/2019)

 2) Composition of Straight Line :Alstroemeria, Siberian dogwood and pine /ceramic Suiban

Burning bush and mum / ceramic vase

Sensei's Straight Line demo

3) Composition of Mass and Line (Straight or Curved)
 

Sensei's mass and curved line demo

My Mass and Straight Line ( wax flower and quince)

classmate's mass and straight line

classmate's mass and straight line

classmate's mass and curved line

My arrangement at the Philadelphia Flower Show

When I was given an assignment for the Philadelphia Flower Show, I was excited and a bit worried about what kind of arrangement it was going to be. My platform size was 4'x4'x1', the background wall was 9' tall. It was one of the largest locations. The theme behind my arrangement was about spring time and naturalistic scenic. As soon as I knew my platform size, I brought out my tree root from the garage which I collected a long time ago and a big Japanese vase, they matched so well together. Also I started forcing Azalea and Japanese quince to flower, it took 6 weeks to bud and flower. My husband helped me to cut a few tall Siberian dogwood and a friend from our garden club let me cut her Camellia branches. All of these materials were used for my base.
Thanks to my husband for helping me the whole way, from finding the materials (many I decided not to use), to transporting the materials to setting up.

This arrangement should be viewed by three sides.