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The one in green pot, full Bloom on 8/29/2022 |
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| “ Roman Holiday” 8/21/2022 |
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| Oncidium 7/21/2022 |
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| 7/14/2022 |
The English ivy has gone wild in my backyard fence, and so has the rose of Sharon. I put them together freely hanging in the long bamboo basket.
“Looking out of the window” is my theme. When I made this arrangement, might I be longing for something? I'll leave it for you to imagine through the twigs framing the window!
Materials: Twigs frame, crape myrtle, hydrangea, green (Hawthorn plant) and bamboo vase.
Heat wave #4 has broken through, finally! We have fresh cooler air for a change today (8/13/2022). It’s been so hot and humid, and over 90 degrees F for almost two weeks. My lawn and garden look really dry; we need soaking rain so badly! So, I used my house plant Philodendron instead of tree branches for my arrangement this time, combining hydrangea and snapdragon in hand. I added wisteria vine for a nice touch. A tall bamboo container was my choice.
This would be my last arrangement using the bucket flowers. I cut my golden maple branches to combine with sunflowers and others, because I wanted to experiment how long this particular maple would last without wilting. When I came back home from the beach, it still looked as fresh as newly cut. So, now I know if I would like to use it for an exhibition, it would stay fresh up to five days. But not the hydrangea and zinnia.
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| Arranged on 8/2/2022 |
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| This maple will turn golden color in the fall |
Since I had a bucket full of fresh picked flowers, I have been arranging Ikebana each day! While the flowers were still fresh, I made six arrangements using all the flowers, before we left home to go to our daughter’s beach house. Every member of our family would meet again in Lewes Beach, Delaware. So we would all enjoy the beautiful bay beach and the cooler sea breezes! This might be the last summer fun together for all of us, especially our grandchildren!
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| Hosta, sunflower, snapdragon, zinnia and globe amaranth |
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| Arranged on 8/1/2022 |
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| Playing hosta in different direction |
I also picked some snapdragons in the field, though they were not long lasting flowers! I came out of this arrangement using sword fern.
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| 7/31/2022 |
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| I should trim the sword fern into a better shape |
The first arrangement: one sunflower with two Aspidistra leaves (house plant), one is fresh and the other is dried. The second arrangement: Hosta and two sunflowers.
The family reunion vacation has ended, and so has July! We came home with a bucket of flowers.
My brain has been racing with ikebana ideas, because I don’t want the flowers to wilt without doing anything. I started with a simple arrangement using a small, tilted ceramic container. The small, rounded flowers have many shades of colors: purple, red, orange, white, pink and lilac. Their flower heads are long lasting and they dry well too. Their Chinese name is called “千日紅 or 千日草” (thousand days plant).
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| Globe amaranths and zinnia |
