WISTERIA, HOPS, CYCLAMEN
The first arrangement of the year - light and tentative with fine branches and vines and ice-white cyclamen
JANUARY
INGREDIENTS
Humulus lupulus (hops)
Wisteria floribunda (Japanese wisteria)
Metasequoia glyptostroboides (dawn redwood)
Cyclamen persicum 'Leopardo' (Persian cyclamen)
Cyclamen coum (eastern sowbread)
Hedera helix variegata (ivy)
TOOLS
Secateurs
Small kenzan
NOTES
In the inky days of January there is a moving away from the over-saturation of the festive period - the rich colours and glitter and noise - to a simpler state of being. There is a craving for a more pared-back existence somehow that seems to echo the natural world around us - the cleanliness of ice and bare branches, the clarity of the light. There is a ritualistic feeling to the shedding of the previous year, to slowly packing it up and putting it away. This can be accompanied by moments of melancholy - for many this is the most austere and the hardest time of the year. But embracing this space can allow us much-needed room to breathe, to declutter both physically and mentally to make room for new movement and ideas.
The hops vine is trimmed and edited of dross foliage and straight stems leaving beautifully long, curving stems which are fixed directly onto the kenzan to provide a scribbly outline shape. I choose one single redwood branch with a forked stem and add the wisteria branches short to allow their exquisite seedpods to hang down ovbe rthe front and sides of the bowl. Cyclamen and wispy stems of variegated ivy are gently layered into the water between the branches for a naturalistic ‘ground cover’ effect.
