Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival)

The Brooklyn Botanical Garden (NYC) held the 32nd annual Sakura Matsuri on Saturday April 27. The perfect weather drew a lot of people. My husband, daughter, and I were strolling in the garden and enjoying the spring sunshine, beautiful Sakura, Japanese garden and scenic surroundings. After we explored enough, we stopped to see the Ikebana arrangements display last. At the end of the day, we felt it was natural to have dinner at the one of the best Japanese restaurants in Brooklyn named "Taro." It was delicious! This was our wonderful day trip to NYC to spend some time with my daughter and her husband.

Ikebana International (I.I.)- Philadelphia Chapter(# 71) April Program

I have been I.I. member for a year now. I attended the April meeting (4/25/2013) at Westminster Presbyterian Church, West Chester, PA.
Prof. Bruce Wilson is a teacher of Asian Studies at St. Mary's College, Maryland and holds the rank of Seikyoju (full professor) at the Saga Goryu School in Kyoto, Japan. He gave "Saga Goryu" an introduction and demonstration. It was a wonderful program and new for me. I enjoyed it very much and learned something.

MWGC Little Show - A Mono-Botanic Design

"Only God Can Make a Tree" - A Mono-Botanic Design using part of a specific species of tree. I chose flowering crab apple branches for this title. (4/24/2013)

Basic slanting style and only one kind of material.
Container: ceramic suiban

Horizontal Arrangement Free Style

Once our teacher asked us to arrange this: "Use two kinds of branches to compose a low horizontal free style Moribana" (Book 1 page 49). I used all seasonal materials, it gives you a very spring feeling.

Materials: Forsythia, Azalea, Daffodil and driftwood.
Container: ceramic suiban (4/15/2013)

Same materials, I just flip over  to make a different look (4/18/2013)

Southeast Pennsylvania Orchid Show (SEPOS)

This is the information from our society's newsletter:
"The BCOS was awarded an overall Second Place at the SEPOS international orchid show held at the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University (4/12-4/14/2013). Our society entered 37 plants and received 18 awards. This is our best year yet. PA Congratulations to the hardworking Show Committee which put together an outstanding display." It's a pity I was not able to go to see the orchid show.

Below are my orchid plants blooming in April, three of them are displayed in the show.

C. Apple Blossom.
 Sturdy, compact plants. Great fragrance.

Lctna. Mighty Titan 'Parkside' AM/AOS
Small flowers (2.5") on small plants.

Cymbidium

Oncidium

Cherry Blossom Ikebana

All of a sudden, my weeping cherry "Snow Fountain" is in full bloom! Because of the unstable weather, the temperature is up to 80 some degree F (record high), 20 degrees higher than the normal spring time. Most of the Forsythia and Daffodils are blooming over night. Unfortunately the cherry blossoms do not last long. I want to keep their short lived beauty longer, so I arranged this cherry blossom Ikebana arrangement.
This arrangement can be viewed in different angles.

This arrangement was made one day prior to the above
picture. Surprisingly, the next day some buds burst open.
 It's almost in full bloom. See the picture that tells it all.

Shape of The Container ( Book 3-11 )

The line of the palm and the color of daffodils bring out the shape of the vase. The materials I used here can be an Easter arrangement. These Daffodils just started to bloom in my front yard, that shows Spring is really in the air. (4/3/2013)

Arrangement Using Bamboo

Using Bamboo as containers. I cut a piece of long bamboo from my back yard. Then I sawed a few pieces of it and arranged them with five different sizes of bamboo together. To preserve the leaves to stay fresh you need to take special tools to pierce the joint through from the top of the stem down to the joint where the leaves are growing or cut a window above the joint (see pictures below) then fill the chamber with water, this way the leaves can last much longer (2-3 weeks), otherwise the leaves will curl up within an hour.

Bamboo, Alstroemerias and Gerbera
Base: nails used to stabilize the bamboo, see picture below