In a Vase, On Monday – Ikebana – maybe?

We’ve had this small Raku flower holder for many years now. It’s mainly been collecting dust or sitting prettily on a glass shelf behind a glass door in a curio cabinet. I’ve been thinking it’s high time I brought it out and put it to use. Because it’s small and shallow, with a small frog at the bottom, I thought I’d try my hand at an untrained, uninformed version of Japanese Ikebana – which, I believe, is a somewhat minimalist form of flower arranging.

There are four elements – five if you count the beach pebbles holding the frog in place, and five is certainly better than four, design wise – I tried to find things that worked well together in texture, shape and colour, and that had some movement.

The variegated green leaves are from Nasturtiums – I cut a few flowers as well but they didn’t work. The pink is a tip of a Tamarix ramosissima branch; the deep blue is an unknown Delphinium – I scattered one of those free wildflower seeds packets a few years ago and these keep coming up. And, to add more movement in a contrary direction, there are three small garlic scapes from the kitchen garden. I’ll be chopping them up into a stir fry when the Delphinium star to shed their petals!

In a nod to Cathy, who hosts this weekly meme on her site Rambling In The Garden, I’ve placed this candlestick next to it. It’s one of a pair we purchased at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair many, many years ago – by coincidence this year’s edition just wrapped up yesterday. I think the amethyst glass matches the colour of the Tamarix.