Meadow in a bowl

18 March 2015
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Inspired by a classic and traditional Ikebana technique used in a Rikka design called Komiwara. Designers would usually bundle straw to keep the flowers in place.

Remove almost all the foliage from the Chrysanthemum flower stems.

Remove the lower foliage from the Chrysanthemum flower stems.

Chrysanthemums have a woody stem. The foliage helps the flowers to hydrate so do not remove all the foliage but just those that will fall under the water line in the container

Place the glass container or vase on it's side. Measure the stems to be just slightly taller than the rim of the container

Keep adding small bundles of flowers

For visual interest I also added a few of the thicker green stems into the stack

Keep the container on it's side so that it doesn't topple over

Start to stack the stems

Fill just over 3/4 of the vase with flowers

Keep the twigs in place with your hand and set the vase upright.

Let the twigs settle but not fall over

Look at the stems in the bowl to make sure none of the flowers fell over

Carefully fill the container with water without disturbing the design

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Tutorials

22 May 2012 Filling a vase with water without disturbing the design details

Break the water flow when you fill a vase with details in that can move with the stream of water

25 September 2013 Adding beads into a design

I wanted my beads to softly float above my snowball posy. If I glued the beads to some of the flowers it would just disappear in the mass of twigs and flowers.