Happy New Year - Two Arrangements

Traditional materials for Japanese New Year arrangements are pine, bamboo and plum. Any red berry (nandina,Winter berry), bleached white branches and mizuhiki (Japanese paper strings, for good luck) are other suggested materials along with flowers such as chrysanthemum, camellia, lily, freesia and rose.
 Here are the Traditional Style and Free Style.

Winter berry, mum, nandina, carnation and pine.
Ceramic tall vase. (12/15/2014 Hata Sensei class)

Same materials, but changed carnation to lily.

December Orchids Bloom

For December's meeting, the Bucks County Orchid Society (BCOS) member Andy Baum was our speaker. He presented many pictures about the orchid plants he grew and why. He is very interested in species plants and explores the habitats of orchids, and how they interact with nature.
Orchids are usually blooming in the Winter months more than any other time. Mine do too.

Brassia. Spider orchid. Turned yellow to orange color as time goes by.

Cattleya. Strong fragrant in the morning

dendrobium.  Less flowers and leaves than before, need fertilizer

Pot. Little Toshie "H & R"

Cymbidium

Holiday Arrangements - Merry Christmas

Here are two holiday arrangements. Using a traditional Christmas color and materials, it is "Western Holiday Arrangement" but Ikebana style. Since it's a Western holiday I placed Oasis in the big Champagne glass with the idea that it would be easier to stick the Holy tree branches to arrange this horizontal style (see # 2 photo). But Hata Sensei said it is a NO NO, that you are not allowed to use Oasis in Ikebana. You can use a loosely twisted wire in the container instead.
I did another arrangement using connected ceramic vase.  

Miniature Arramgement

A few small variant  containers filled each one with a different materials, arranged on a tray as a whole. It created an unbalanced balance and harmony. (12/16/2014 Ms.Lin class)

View from Above - Using Christmas Materials

The red, green and white are main colors for Christmas Season's decoration. The assignment for this time is for the table arrangement, so, it should be viewed from above and all around. ( Ms.Lin's class)

Holy, Carnation and baby breath with a X' mas ball in a low square ceramic container.

Winter Theme

Dead Hinoki branches and tiny berries sprayed with white color paint. I added red Calla lily as a red cardinal bird in the snow covered branches. (12/2/2014 Ms.Lin's class)

The First Snow

This season's first snow was falling on the day before Thanksgiving, that made my grandchildren so happy! The snow on the deck was enough for them to make a small snowman.  (11/27/2014)