Hello all,

First of all, thank you to all of you who wrote to tell me about my mystery plant. It is called arum italica and the photograph, above, shows the very attractive leaves. The flower, if left on the plant, will develop into showy red berries. I wish I had known that before I cut the flower. Oh well, something to look forward to next year.

Last week's class theme for the senior students was, again, taken from the old book 4. It was lesson no 7 - 'Freestyle arrangement using student's hand-made container'.

For those of you who do not have it, here is the quote from that lesson - ' Making your own container enables you to develop your talents in Ikebana. When a container made by the one who arranges flowers is used success is guaranteed for he or she knows the container intimately. Any material may be used: clay, ceramic, tin cans, paper cartons, pumice stones. It is better to use your own ideas and be original than to copy a container seen previously. While making a container imagine how you are going to use it and how the materials will be arranged in it. This will lead to a more interesting and satisfying result.'

Over the years I've made many different types of container for this lesson. Below are the two I worked on this time.

Sheet of aluminium, with spuria iris and
nandina seed head

Ceramic container I made earlier this year at the Sogetsu kiln. With calla lily
and loquat stem

Helen Novic used pleated aluminium with
roses and wisteria vine

Robyn Unglik  also used aluminium with calla lilies

Vicky Kalokathis used 2 stainless steel pipes which
her clever husband welded to create this big and
impressive container. She used kiwi vine and roses.

Lucy Papas used cardboard, navy on one side and
white on the other, with umbrella grass and an
ornithogalum

Let me share this little story about my cat, Lexi. She refuses to accept the fact that she is an indoor cat and tries to sneak out whenever doors are open. Over the 13 years we've had her, we have become paranoid about leaving doors open. When she does manage to escape she runs straight to the lawn to eat grass. The problem is that as soon as she eats it she vomits and, although we have timber floor boards, all too often she vomits on our rug by the front door.

Her favourite of all grasses, however, is umbrella grass. When she sees me coming in with it, she gets so excited that it's the equivalent of a cat happy dance. Any arrangement with umbrella grass has to be placed out of her reach. Lucy's arrangement, above, had to be done twice because the first one was eaten.

Please forgive me this little indulgence!

Freestyle arrangement by Aurelia Dong. The strange looking
looking material are banksias before they are fully developed

Nicole MacDonald's freestyle arrangement using vines.

My arrangement using vine. I'm disappointed
that my prized mollis azalea in pale yellow
 does not show up in the photo

And a little announcement - on Saturday, 3rd December I will be conducting an ikebana workshop at the Park Orchards Community Centre.

Bye for now,
Emily