Nothing But Flowers!

When I was in my early 30’s trying to figure out what to become in my life, I had a brief flirtation with the idea of opening a store called Nothing But Flowers.  Even before David Byrne wrote the song.  In my 40’s, still a bit adrift, I traveled to Surrey, England to take a month long course designing flowers at the Constance Spry School of Flowers deep in the lush and lovely English countryside.  Following that, I worked for a time in a few flower shops but realized  that it wasn’t an ideal fit.  However, my love of flowers is always simmering on a front burner.

Imagine my pleasure when I unexpectedly walked into a blockbuster ikebana flower show at a department store just a few blocks from my hotel in Tokyo.  It was mobbed with hundreds of very excited, chattering  women, but I had a decided height advantage for a change, so I was able to take it all in, with just the slightest bit of pushing.

The Sogetsu School of ikebana is pretty wild, using natural and artificial materials, wild colors and a seemingly take no prisoners attitude.  Some astonishing arrangements can be large enough to fill a hotel lobby. They can be loud and theatrical, and unrestrained, but also fabulous.  This show  of what seemed like over a hundred arrangements, pushed me to think of using different materials when I try this at home.  Most likely on a more modest scale, unless someone wants to help me gather branches and palm tree debris.

I’m posting just a “small” number of the photos I took .  Hard to believe all this material was gathered, transported and made its way to the 8th floor of a central Tokyo department store and  assembled on site!  This was the 90th Anniversary show, so I guess they went all out.  I found it only by chance.  How lucky!

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