Few Tips to keep your Flowers Happy

Ikebana Flower Care Tips

Taking care of flowers is essential to a long life. Correct steps are necessary to ensure beautiful and long lasting Ikebana designs.


Most ikebana arrangements last 4-7 days or longer, depending on the flowers used and the care they receive. Here are few tips for longer-lasting, more vibrant flowers:

For floral arrangements Keep the vase filled (or floral foam soaked) with water  If the water becomes cloudy, replace it entirely with fresh water. If possible, re-cut stems by removing one to two inches with a sharp knife. Be sure to use a sharp knife or clippers that will not crush the stems. Immediately place the stems into solution. Keep flowers in a cool spot (65 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit), away from direct sunlight, heating or cooling vents, directly under ceiling fans, or on top of televisions or radiators. (Appliances like televisions give off heat, which causes flowers to dehydrate.) Most flowers will last longer under cool conditions. Keep your air-conditioning system ON

The next few days after receiving the Ikebana flower arrangement, there are few things to be responsible for in keeping the Ikebana fresh, happy, and long-lasting.


Watering your arrangement is the key

• The flowers need water and more specifically on hot days… Keep the oasis soaked, so the stems can easily drink up fresh water all day long

Choosing the right place to enjoy an Ikebana and for as long as you can

• Flowers don't like wind, fan, or anything like that
• The Ikebana should stay at the same place-- no need to displace it… this is high risk to ruin lines balance

Gallery

Black Anthuriums and Green Hydrangeas

Large Red Anthuriums, Greentrick,  

Asian Lilies,  large Anthuriums

Voodoo Roses, green Hydrangeas, Tiki Fern

Horsetail, rose Bouvardia, small pastel/green Anthurium, rose Veronica

Green Hortensia and large Anthuriums

Rose Bouvardia, green Hydrangeas,

pastel/red Anthurium, Horsetail

Ikebana Display at TheOffice

Are you a writer in a search for a silent and inspirational place, free from distractions from your home or office? Then, theOffice is the solution... 


Behind the shutters, a hub of professionals is letting its creativity goes wild in a Zen and homy environment. 

in Brentwood

Shuuuuuuuuush… they're writing.

Tiger Lilies, Greentrick

Voodoo Roses, green Hydrangeas, Calcinia

Rose Bouvardia, green Hydrangeas,
pastel/red Anthurium, Horsetail

In Gratitude with Flowers

Dear flower lovers,

When I shop for flowers, I generally go to the Downtown Flower District; it is a huge place where hundreds of flowers can easily submerge my senses... Yesterday I arrived there and it took me a little while to settle down, not get distracted by the variety, and find out what will be outstanding from 'common' flowers we are so used to shop for our homes or offices. Well, this week and for Goda Yoga in Culver City, I was driven to find flowers and greens that could grow in wild gardens; bringing the flavor of natural simplicity, yet original. Did i find what i wanted? Yes. Was it a success? … Goda yoga's arrangement is now in place for it to be seen, experienced, and perhaps appreciated…. it is not mine anymore -- It is like letting it go.

Each Ikebana is like a white page where moods, focus-intention, and prayers draw lines, ensemble, equilibrium, and colors that shape it all until the completion feeling is ticking in my gut-- It is about getting use to reach a point of egolessness while creating it.

Living material: 

Orange Monbretia Crocosmia: graceful arching flower stalks with beautiful shades of bright orange trumpet shaped flowers

Green Horsetail

Pelargonium* VC or Chocolat Mint Scented Geranium: tantalizing plant has a handsome chocolate-colored vein that runs down the rib of the leaf and fans out into its finger

Golden Craspedia or Drumstick or Billy Buttons: the so cute golden mini-ball shaped flower means "good health"

Have a beautiful week!

virginie

*As a healer-aromatherapist, i use Pelargonium or Geranium Bourbon to re-create balance and promote inner peace.

Ikebana at Goda Yoga in Culver City

Goda Yoga In Culver City

Bringing the power of flowers to a beautiful and conscious boutique-shop in Culver City. 

Have a  'Chic Flower Bouquet' at your store, restaurant, workspace, or in your  business entrance. 

Perfect for a special meeting, film set,  your home, or for a unique gift. 

Call Today!

310.869.2826

My Ikebana Calling Card

Living Material: Green/Pastel Anthurium,
white Freesia, Million Star, Green Baby Poms

The art of Ikebana follows some very strict rules in which equilibrium between lines, flowers, and green leaves are essential and play their magic.

For Goda Yoga Boutique/Center, I designed a free style Ikebana arrangement, bringing into play the white Freesia flowers as my general lines, supported with baby bamboo 'Horsetails'. The exotic Anthurium flower is used as the main leaf while Million Star and green Poms bring a complementary, balanced touch.  

Meaning of Flowers

 

The white Freesia represent the essence of innocence.

The Anthurium is a long lasting exotic flower and got its origin from Hawaii and symbolizes hospitality. 

The bamboo combines strength with flexibility. 

Ikebana and Reiki Energy

A way to Purify and Harmonize your work and Living Spaces by Combining two Japanese Spiritual  arts: Reiki and Ikebana.

The energy of Reiki pervades its unconditional and universal power to transform negative emotional states or negative "clouds" into genuine states of joy, love, peace, and wisdom.

Once the space is purified and the energetic grid is viable again, you seal it with an Ikebena arrangement that you place at specific areas of your home, office, or room. It happens sometimes that fresh flowers stay alive for days and days and display their magical beauties to whom are open to receive or witness them.

Reiki - Clearing Living or Working Spaces

Energy as a result of our own thought forms and actions permeate matter, leaving traces behind. These traces are translated as feelings or unease such as: 

• negative feelings to stay in a room
• difficulty to concentrate in a work space
• trouble sleeping
• lots of arguments, tensions, etc.

Reiki & Ikebana

To potentiate the harmonization of your space, I use the spiritual power of Ikebana, a Japanese art of arranging fresh flowers to dispel negativities and empower entries, offices, public places, rooms, counters, or tables.

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." --   Antoine de Saint Exupery  

San Diego Ikebana Exhibition

Ikebana Exhibition, San Diego - June 2011

I was graciously invited by my beloved Ikebana teacher to help prepare her exhibition. I was honored to work on a beautiful and challenging rectangular black/pink vase. 




Living materials: Pastel Anthurium, hairy Asparagus Plumosus green and a complementary touch with Bouvardia and Hypericum Coffee. 

Ikebana Inquiry

Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words.  They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.  --Lydia M. Child

Contact
☏ 310.869.2826 

Thank you for your Inquiry. 

Services

• Special Events
• Unique Ikebana Arrangements
• Gift certificates

Program _ An Ikebana for your Business 

• 4.5" Square Clear Vase (ideal for dining table, office desk)
• Colored Oasis
• ie: Anthuriums, Orchids, Roses, or mini Calla Lilies
• Exotic Greens 
• And complementary material 
• On request  for specific size and shape

Ikebana Vases & Design

I'd like to throw in some designs that  inspires my creativity. These two are very attractive and pertinent in an all-white zen surrounding.

Vegetal and inhabitated vases - News - Domus

Benjamin Graindorge, designer explains: 
  "IkebanaMedulla is inhabited, like a spring of water 
– a trickle that seems to be immobile 
but which comes to life when we approach it. 
With its inwardness and strange beauty, 
this Medusa-like vase is between animal and machine, 
like a mechanical spider out of Matrix."

An Ikebana Principle - Arrange with Harmony

Arrange with Harmony is part of the five cornerstones of some Ikebana schools. Flowers, vase, and surroundings are considered in making a harmonious arrangement. To arrange with harmony with the surroundings includes the consideration of space, colors in the room, furniture, and art work present.

Art of Ikebana

Ikebana literally means "to arrange flowers".

 A flowerless room is a soulless room, to my way of thinking; but even a solitary little vase of a living flower may redeem it. --Vita Sackville-West

Pastel Rose Anthurium

More than simply putting flowers in a container, ikebana is a disciplined art form in which nature and humanity are brought together. 

Contrary to the idea of floral arrangement as a collection of multicolored arrangement of blooms, ikebana often emphasizes other areas of the flower, such as its stems and leaves, and draws your attention toward natural shape and the graceful lines of Sun, Moon, and Earth.