Lunar New Year Arrangement

Ikebana class is canceled at the last minute due to the snow storm. Since I have prepared all the materials for the class and have an idea for this subject, I arranged it at home.

The Lunar New Year in Taiwan (this year will be 1/31/2014), we use mostly gold and red color for festival decoration. For this Ikebana arrangement I chose a red fan and yellow mums

Faded Beauty - Using Dried Materials

 Once, using dried materials from fields and gardens was a necessity in Ikebana (especially in winter time). Today, in our Sogetsu textbook, dried, bleached or colored materials can be arranged with fresh plants.

A winter storm will hit us again, accumulated snow will be from 6" to 12" until tomorrow morning. Our Ikebana class is canceled again. Ikebana International will hold a meeting this Thursday (1/23/2014). A workshop program is "Faded Beauty - Using Dried Materials". The I.I. meeting might be canceled too. It's extremely cold, single digit degree F.
Here is my arrangement using all dried materials:

The wood branch itself  is a beauty, like a piece of sculpture.
The colored seed pods , few dried leaves and a dried dahlia all arranged into
the ceramic vase. It is a "Faded Beauty". 

Winter Theme Arrangement

From my window, I see evergreen spruce, pine and bare branched trees, it's a winter landscape. I see Ikebana all around me, and the white flowers I added are the snow.

Material: Colorado Spruce, painted white branch, mum
 and snapdragon
The ceramic container is a gift from my daughter, she made it
especially for my birthday. Thanks, Vivian!

Three intertwining willow branches, snapdragon and mum
 in the ceramic container.

January Orchids Bloom

The members of BCOS brought a lot of orchids to the meeting last night. The long tables were filled with beautiful orchids for competition. The speaker talked about the importance of water to the orchid's growth and how to get rid of minerals which may harm the orchids. In short, the purity of water for the orchids can make a big difference in their overall vitality.
Below are my orchids I brought to the meeting.

Cymbidium " Moonstone"  It has 6 stems.
Easy to grow and flowering.

Cat. Compact plant, small flower (only 2" in size)

Dendrobium
 No name ( I lost it)

Brassia. Winter Wonderland
"White Fairy"

Cat. Bllra. Tohoma Glacier "Ithan" AM/AOS  Fragrant
Big plant, the flowers are about 6" in size

Cat. It has been blooming for
three weeks

 part of members' orchids at
 the show table

Orchid in Ikebana Arrangement

It has been brutally cold, the coldest days in two decades. More than half of the nation were frozen. The temperature was 0 degrees (F) last night. I feel so lucky that I can stay home, warm and cozy, making Ikebana arrangements. I have all the materials I need: a left over pine branch, a cut Catttleya flower and a silver spread allium, all arranged in a ceramic vase.

Best Wishes for 2014 - Purple Cattleyas

These two identical Cattleyas are the same plant I divided last Summer. Big plant, medium size flowers. Fragrant, with three to four blooms per stem. ( 1/2/2014)