The Best is Yet to Come

Arrangement # 85

Two yellow bamboo culms. From yesterday's presentation is retained the caladium, sassy pink and heliconia psittacorum. I add the calathea lutea in the above display to give the feeling of equal achievement. Two man ( or woman)  standing tall.

As we look around us,do not feel proud of our achievements because others could be even better.  Be thankful that you can contribute to make the little difference in people's lives. And you can mutiply it by the billions of lives on earth. By promoting prosperity around us  we accept the fact that we are a child of the universe, in a big cycle of change and renewal.

If the call is made to us, rise to the occassion, play our role to the best of our capability

knowing that all's well that ends well. Thus feeling philosophical today, I

call the above composition...The Best is Yet to Come.

Bamboo Culm Compositions - 5

Arrangement # 84

The two yellow bamboo culms are cut staggered and so is the tiered arrangement of the caladium,sassy pink heliconia and finally the top of the deck heliconia psittacorum.

Now I am beginning to like the caladium hybrid pink foliage not merely for its magnificient coloured foliage but also its longevity as cut foliage.

Today is special. This morning I had a try at watercolour and decided to paint the caladium and the sassy pink . The result is on top of this post.

Being such a wonderful day( since I have not been painting for quite a while) , feeling relieved and released, I name this composition... Better Days to Come.

Bamboo Culm Compositions - 3

Arrangement # 82

This will be the last display using a single bamboo culm. In the next few displays I will try to use two culms in the arrangement. Here I have endeavoured to make the culm more interesting by pulling out fine strips of the bamboo skin thus revealing some vertical lines on the culm. Just one short stalk of heliconia sassy pink and a couple of strong red and cream yellow bracts of heliconia psittacorum will be fine .
The presentation is made interesting with the banana leaf as background. giving it a rich tropical touch .
I like then to call this composition...Tropicana.

Simple But Elegant

Sometime early last month when I was in Kuching, friends of mine gave me a few rooted cuttings of roses ( Rosa ) and a couple of canna rootstocks.I like canna especially the newly hybrid species which have more modern colours.  I have never been a diehard fan of  roses but to my surprise I saw one in full bloom this morning, the very few roses that I have just begun planting . It has a soft pink colour.  Lucky me, next to this tiny rose plant was a canna hybrid with one stalk in full flowers.  With these two flowers in hand the concept I had in mind was' simple yet elegant '.How would I express it with a rose an a canna?

In its simplest form I thought , the presentation above is very economical, minimalist, back to basics, simple and straight. The yellow bamboo culm is used to enhance the uniqueness and stately nature of the flower.

Arrangement # 54

Lastly to add interest to the composition , I threw in three leaves of the begonia plant . I will now leave you to admire the composition while I recite Shakespeare on roses:
Of all flowers ,
Methinks a rose is best
Why gentle madam?
It is the very embleme of a maide
For when the west wind courts her gently,
How modestly she blows, and paints the sun,
With her chaste blushes.

Now methinks, the above composition should be named......Simple But Elegant.

The tallest grass

With the help of Ati, I began to clear the undergrowth of Vegetation Island No.1, which I planned to incorporate into the Heliconia Valley project. This Heliconia project covers tw0 vegetation islands, which are original jungle conserved. The total area would be about half an acre.

From the area relatively cleared of its undergrowth and thickets above, I was able to harvest some heliconias and a yellow bamboo culm ( stem). Could this culm be used in a flower arrangement? I wondered......since bamboo is botanically the tallest in the grass family, how can you represent it in a table arrangement?

Upon further thinking, I thought why not cut the culm and insert it into a vase. This would provide height to the low, round and flattish flower vase. Well, here's how it turned out.... firstly.