Banana bracts for flower display

Been watching the banana inflorescence recently. After a while once the fruits are relatively bigger, the bracts fall off. They curled up and I thought of its use as 'flower boat'. Below are my attempts.

Arrangement # 106

Here a slightly new bract becomes a set for the cut fowers.

A slightly older bract is placed onto the bigger one and is rolled in to so that a heliconia bract can be inserted into it.

Two rolled in bracts placed inside an open bract.

The title of today's composition....Put on the Banana Bracts

A Merry Hibiscus Flower Boat

This morning I had an early morning walk with my cats.  We climbed the Vegetation Island No.1 Hill and later they followed me to the east valley area of the farm where I planted beds of hibiscus plants.  The red hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia and Hawaii as well.  Next to the hibiscus collection was this flowering yellow palm tree ( Chrysalidocarpus lutescens), shown below.  From this plant I took a branch of its half-ripe green fruits which seeemed a likely candidate for today's display.

A few meters away from the yellow palm was this beautiful agave plant.  On closer examination, I discovered that the leavs are somewhat cupped and I thought they looked much like a boat.  Immediately the idea of a 'flower boat' composition filled the air. In the wink of an eye,my attention was re-directed to the hibiscus beds and in a blink, the concept that whirled in my mind was...hibiscus flower boat.

When I was thinking what are the other plants that can be loaded into the flower boat, a butterly flew past me and I followed it to its pit stop. Lucky me , the butterfly was sucking honey at a nearby pagoda flower plant ( Clerondendrum paniculatum) . Well, think no more. The huge panicles of small salmon pink flowers of the pagoda flower would resonate well with the red hibiscus flowers.

Thus within minutes ( I think about ten minutes , no more or else the cats will disappear from sight ) the morning's composition was determined.

Firstly, to provide content or load to the flower boat I placed the yellow palm fruits at the base of the agave leaf . The red hibiscus filled up the middle and top end of the leaf.,like so.

Ok, it looks good so far. I have placed the agave leaf on an upturned banana leaf to obtain the  effect of waves in motion.

 

Then I saw on my way back to the chalet a cluster of dwarf yellow allamanda flowers ( Allamanda cathartica).While the red hibiscus petals are single and funnel-shaped, the yellow allamanda flowers have awhorled-leaf arrangement.

Arrangement # 39

Finally, to add merry making and a  mood of festivity to the occassion, I placed the pagoda flowers in between the red hibiscus and yellow allamanda flowers.Satisfied with the composition.. I named it..a Merry Hibiscus Flower boat.

White Flower Boat

Arrangement # 28

Today, I feel like stripping off all the extravaganzas, preliminaries, excesses and extras. Just remain simple and basic. Something modern people these days call being minimalistic. This
idea zipped through my head this morning while I was pruning some banana leaves . When I approached a banana tree that was fruiting , I saw at the very tip of the bunch of fruits was a beautiful flower spike. I started to peel off the deep purple bracts one by one , it struck me that they can be used as a container, albeit shaped like a tiny boat. On the way back home I passed a clump of gardenias. Looking pure , untarnished , an unspoilt beauty. How would one express it with the help of bananas? So I took the biggest banana leaf to be used as background, placed the gardenias into the two large bracts and thus my composition of the day.....White Flower Boat. ( And makes me go Bananas!!!!)