Zen Zane Floral arranging

For the last several months I have been bringing the altar flowers to my sangha which meets every Monday evening.
When I first started bringing my small token floral arrangements they were somewhat traditional but usually had a little bit of horticultural punch .
Lately I’ve been putting a lot of effort into the floral arrangement and have really enjoyed myself in this new found art form.

I had always admired a well crafted flower arrangement but I was never really WOWED and knocked off my seat until I saw the work of Daniel Ost.
This guy has inspired me to think outside the vase.

Suddenly something inside of me has awakened and now I can’t wait to get up in the morning to scour the garden for flowers, branches, fruits, lichens, mosses, seed pods and even parasite oak tree galls , all to be used in sculpting a floral arrangement .

Tonight for the sangha altar I used a black ikebano metal plate vase, stuck in three Cotyledon flower spikes and then puffed up the base with Aeoniums leaf clusters.
It was very contemporary looking and several people commented on how much they liked it.
I don’t have a photo of it because I gave away all the aeoniums leaf cuttings to my friends but I do have a photo of the cotyledon :


Two weeks ago I brought in a floral arrangement that paired Alstromeria and Canna Pretoria leaves together




I have been enjoying using foliage submerged into a glass vase to hide the stems of the plants.
I’ve used phormium leaves, agave leaves and bromeliad leaves.





I only have two Scadoxus blooming in my back yard right now but I was awfully tempted to cut them for an arrangement with these purple irs ;






Foliage has played a big role in this new found love of the arts affair.
This Acacia cognata has such wonderful angular qualities and its clear blue foliage is a eye catcher. I even love its seed heads.


Next I have to figure out how to do something wild and wonderful with the giant taro leaves !


and these savory sexy succulents too !




I’m having such a fun time !