The Art of Chabana: June.

Material: Filipendula rubra, Mischantus sinesis 'Gracillimus', ferns, spontaneous flowers: Knautia longifolia and Vicia villosa.

Container: basket.

June is heating up day after day, preparing us for the fierce summer sun. Rains, however, mitigate the heat, giving to meadows and woods a green and dewy look that becomes part of the chabana, the flower arrangement for the Japanese tea ceremony.

Tempting colorful flowers bloom in the garden, but they do not seem appropriate for Chabana. This is not a mere decoration, a rich and sumptuous flower composition to be admired, but an expression of the heart and soul, of wabi. Henry Mittwer, the author of The Art of Chabana: Flowers for the Tea Ceremony, defines it as 'a state of emptiness, quietude, poverty, and solitude'. It is not the denial of the joy of life but the awareness that we need very little to live and that in pursuing this simplicity we find a longer-lasting beauty. Inspired by the quiet refreshing beauty of nature, flowers for the tea ceremony take us back to the essential.

Oenothera odorata and Commelina communis are among the flowers suggested by Henry Mittwer for June. Fleeting flowers that last only few hours, so it's better to pick them up at night and use them in the morning. Even the white flowers of Spirea japonica are included in the list for June, but, actually, they are more interesting later in season, when just sporadic flowers evoke the frothy mass in full bloom now gone. 

For June, I was inspired by the soft inflorescences of the Filipendula arranged with spontaneous flowers and green leaves in a basket.

Photos:

TravelinaGarden, June 2016.

Further reading:

Henry Mittwer, The Art of Chabana: Flowers for the Tea Ceremony, Charles E. Tuttle Company Inc., Tokyo, 1974.

Link to the previous posts:

The Art of Chabana: April
The Art of Chabana: May

Tram n. 12 in Milan.

Works to renovate a section of tramway n. 12 in Milan are completed, and, near Cimitero Monumentale, tracks disappear under clover and abelias.

In the road ahead, the double row of 170 Siberian Elms, planted in 1967 along the tracks, is now surrounded by lawn and flowers. New trees have been planted to replace those considered too ill and dangerous. Citizens' protests against the complete felling of the elms, in fact, led to a revision of the initial project and to the preservation of most of the trees.

Photos:
Travelinagarden, Milan, June 2016.

The National Orchid Garden, Singapore.

Here, tropical orchids are not cosseted flowers in well decorated rooms or controlled glasshouses but vibrant splashes of colour in the open air.

Here is Singapore, the archipelago of islands at the extreme tip of the Malayan peninsula, a city-state with a highly urbanized environment and a strong commitment to preserve and enrich its native habitat.

Orchids are part of this tropical world and the National Orchid Garden is a perfect place to discover them. Three hectares of gentle hillside, located within the Singapore Botanical Gardens, are dedicated to this timeless flower that counts more than 25.000 species, of which nearly 200 are native to Singapore. 

The National Orchid Garden was opened in 1995 but already in the 1870s, Henry James Murton, the young botanist sent by Kew Gardens as director of the Botanical Gardens, created the first orchid house. In the subsequent years, the collection has been expanded and programs have been implemented to study, propagate and hybridise this flower not only for commercial purposes but also for its reintroduction in the wild. 

The Garden displays a wide range of terrestrials and epiphytes species and hybrids, distributed in four different areas according to seasons and colours. 

A pleasant walk among these fascinating creatures that Sandra kindly shares with us. And looking at her photos, at the extravagant shapes, waxy petals and brilliant colours here, for a moment, is an exotic city, hot and humid, wrapped in luxuriant vegetation, high skyscrapers, and a sparkling sea.

Thank you Sandra! 

'...Mrs.S.'s verandah was full of rare plants; orchids, caladiums and other exquisite things. On one, Ficus Benjamina, some scores of phaloenophsis in full flower like strings of white butterflies hovering in the air with every breath of wind...'
Recollections of a Happy Life being the Autography of Marianne North, Marianne North,  McMillan, London, 1894.

Photos:
Sandra, Singapore March 2016.

Further reading:
Singapore City of Gardens, William Warren, Periplus Edition Ltd, Singapore 2000.

Link:
National Orchid Garden - Singapore Botanic Garden
https://www.nparks.gov.sg