Basket and Peony Arrangement

My husband's Japanese teacher gave me this basket (she made it by herself) and a beautiful wood base (see second picture) as gifts before she moved to Hawaii for retirement. I am so happy that I can use them for Ikebana.

Material: Iris, Coral Bell leaf and Peony.

Twigs (I painted and used them many times), Hosta, peony.

MWGC May Little Show "Reflective Design"

"Twilight's Last Gleaming"- I made a Ikebana style arrangement  for garden club's little show, using three silver painted Bamboo, Shimmery ribbon, Hosta and Peony to suit this requirement "Reflective Design" I got 1st place.(5/23/2012)

Free Style- Using flowers

Now, my garden is so colorful and has a lot of Ikebana materials that I can choose from. It's a pity if I don't do any flower arrangements at home to continue practicing. Even though I don't have any classes for the entire month of May. So I have done some Ikebana recently, here is one, using Coral bell, Rose and Anemone in a very unique container.

Iris and Free Style Arrangememt

Materials: Peony with Scotch Bloom ( I trimmed some flowers off )

Materials: Iris, Butterfly maple and Spider wort.

May Orchids Bloom

Iwanegara Apple Blossom .Sturdy, compact plant. Great fragrance.

Cat. Irene Finney. Flowers are large and fragrance

Cym. Little Black Shampoo " Black Magic" AM/AOS
Below picture  is close up   

Peony in Ikebana

I have four kinds of tree peony (different colors), they bloom earlier than a regular Peony. One of the flowers is so big that it is up to 9 inches in diameter. All are so strikingly beautiful! But it's a pity that they do not last long. I want to catch their beauty, so here are my three arrangements.

With painted twig, Philodendron, metal structure.

Peony with fig branch.

Peony with vine and Clematis.

M W G C- April Little Show- Parallel Design

  

Materials: azalea, blue bell, columbine, daffodil leaves, and salvia.

"One by Land, Two by Sea"- a Parallel Design to commemorate Paul Reverie's ride. Three or more groupings of plant material that must arrange as single unit in one container.

April Orchids Bloom

I brought these three orchids to the BCOS meeting tonight (4/19). There were not many blooming orchids at this time on the show table as last month.

Max. Tenuifolia. The flower only 1.5 inches in size.
Our society member Andy gave me this plant after he divided the original plant couple years ago. I treat all my orchids equally, some faithfully bloom every year and some you just have to wait...wait for many years. Sooner or later it will bloom surprisingly. It happened to me in many cases (above picture is one of them). That is the joy of  growing orchids.

L. Purpurata var. carnea x BI. Richard Mueller
This one blooms every year faithfully.

Onc. Mtdm. "Isaku Nagata"
Its fragrance fills the room in the morning pleasantly.

Free Style- Branch in full bloom

Fully utilized the Azalea branch. I tried to arrange two styles: Moribana( suipan) and Nageire (Tall vase). See which one is prettier? ( I trimmed off more flowers).
I forced the Azalea branch that I cut from my daughter's garden 7 weeks ago, I used it for class assignment "Young and Old" last week. Now in full bloom.

Free Style " Young and Old"

Materials: Young azalea, old driftwood and old Japanese box.
In today's class, my teacher wanted us to arrange something to signify young and old materials harmoniously together. Especially there are so many new leaves and budding branches right now. I chose azalea, combined with old driftwood and old Japanese box to make this composition.
I trimmed a lot of azalea leaves (before trimming, see right picture below) and rearranged the composition (above picture done in the class and below left rearranged at home). 4/4/2012