Reflective Design "Hearts Delight"

The materials are spray painted Hosta, Nandina and pine corn, carnation, bittersweet.

I didn't have ikebana class last week due to the winter blizzard, but we had our M.W. garden club meeting yesterday. The little show's subject for this month is a reflective design"Hearts Delight". Reflective materials must be integral to the overall design. You may use shiny metal, plastic, paper, etc. For my design, the judge said my vase is overpowering. So I changed the smaller vase and rearranged it after I came home. Does it look better?

Indoor Orchid Garden

Right now, these are all my blooming orchids. I have more orchids blooming in winter than any other time. I gathered them all to make an indoor garden. As you can see I have many species here. Some are long lasting, some are going to fade soon. In my home I always have blooming orchids year round. Passing by the foyer you can smell a very pleasant perfume in the air.


Left is Oncidium Sherry baby (first place), it smells like chocolate, everybody loves it. Center is small sized Cattleya, its first time bloom, name unknown. Right is a Cymbidium, also no name. I am going to bring five plants to the B.C.O. S. meeting for show and competition tomorrow.

Cattleyas

Carefully look at these two pictures, do you see any difference? In fact they are two species. The first one is Bllra Tohoma Glacier "Ithan," the second is Lc. Hallo Wedding "Carmen"(it got first place). The difference is the white edge on the lip and the length of the sepals.
Blc. Hawaiian Lightning "Colorful"(2nd place)
Happiness is finding a new sheath. Bliss is finding a new bloom! Five months ago, I posted a picture of this orchid's sheath. Now it's in full bloom. Isn't it colorful? That's because this cattleya is very unique, the petals have two colors. Most are only one color. Five months is a long time to wait. All three cattleyas have a very pleasant perfume.

Cymbidiums

Name unknown. My friend gave me this orchid ten years ago. This Cym. has been divided many times and given away to many of my friends.(1st place at January's show table)

Cym. "Ivy Fan"

Cym." Lovely smile"(2nd place)
It's time to show my blooming Cymbidiums, most of them bloom in Winter time.They are long lasting orchids, about 2 months or more. Please check my blog (posted July 2009 Cymbidium orchids).

Winter Wonderland 2

The most historic winter blizzard since 1884 in the northeast region. 44 inches in one week!

Within one week the Philadelphia area was hit by two winter blizzards. This time is bigger than the last one. I have never seen this amount of snow in my 40 years of living in this country. The total accumulation is over two feet this time. It's breathtakingly beautiful! (2/10/10)

Winter Wonderland 1

Winter blizzard (2/6/10) in my back yard, over one foot snow. But my daughter's Baltimore home got more than two feet. The four pictures below were from my daughter's home surroundings (2/3/10) when they had two inches snow. Then, we just had a trace on the ground here.

"Showing lines at the base"(right picture) is mother nature's ikebana arrangement.

A beautiful cardinal is Mother Nature's ikebana composition "colors in contrast".

I was absent on February 2nd's ikebana class because my daughter had an important engagement, so I had to go to Baltimore to take care of my granddaughter for a few days. Since I didn't have any flower arrangements to post, why not catch some snapshots of this snow scene. It is so beautiful!

Three Different Kinds of White Orchids

Dendrobium "Spring Dream Kumiko"
In this January's B.C.O.S. meeting I brought five different kinks of orchids to our show table. I posted three here. In this group there were many other Dendrobiums better than mine. I didn't get any place.

Brassia "White fairy"
I have had this one for a long time, it started to bloom last year. I am thrilled that it bloomed again, better than ever before. I got 2nd place in this group (Oncidium Alliance).

Cymbidium "Moonstone"
First place! I divided this one last year right after it finished blooming (there were 12 stems and more than a hundred flowers). It was so crowded, so I divided it into three plants. I gave one to my daughter in-law. She told me that hers has 5 stems and has a lot of flowers too. The 3rd one I gave to my daughter, it didn't bloom. I think it might still be too young or unsuited for her N.Y.C. apartment environment.

Vase and Coral

I used all my leftover materials to arrange this tall design. This vase is a gift from my younger brother when I visited him and relatives in Taiwan a long time ago. The vase's Chinese writing means Fortune. I think this arrangement suits the coming Lunar New Year (the year of the tiger begins on February 14).


This rock is dead coral that I bought from the flea market. I can just put one flower right in (needs a tube first), as simple as that. This fading orchid I just couldn't bring myself to throw away, so I put it there for a few days more.

Large Cattleyas

Wintertime is when most of my orchids bloom. From now on, you can expect many posts about different types of orchids!


Above are the same parent plants as in my New Years post, it has been divided before. I have three of them. They are large, tall, and vigorous plants with white flowers and big deep purple lips, very fragrant in the morning.

Two years ago, a friend of mine gave me this huge Cattleya, which was nearly dead and so skinny from malnutrition. I carefully divided it into two plants because it was too crowded before. I placed them in bright light, added fertilizer (20-20-20), and left it outside in the shade during summertime. Under my care, they became stronger and healthier. Both of them bloomed beautifully last winter. I gave one back to her. This one is so big and heavy, has three flowers, and is better than last year.

Slanting Style Nageire Variation No.3

I made the cross bar inside the mouth of the tall container, so I could put branches at Shin 45 degrees, Soe 15 degrees and flowers Hikae 75 degrees, all three toward me. This was today's lesson. The picture on the right is a side view. (1/5/10)

This is an extra practice for me because there were some leaves left in the class. My teacher handed me a container and asked me to do a "composition of surfaces by using leaves", which I have done and passed already (check December's blog). In less than ten minutes, I completed the arrangement. I can't believe that I can do it in such a short time.(1/5/10)