The Seasons of My Mother by Marcia Gay Harden

Author:Marcia Gay Harden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books

Waddle waddle bend Tuesday. Waddle waddle bend Wednesday and showing off playing volleyball at sunset. Waddle waddle bend Thursday and a trip to Ralph’s grocery store to check out the flower supply. It was clear Eulala was going to be late, and so we would be able to have our neighborhood ikebana class over the weekend. We had noted some bright pink azaleas in the neighborhood that we could cut for our class and the green reedy bullrush planted along several beach paths that we could use for line material. Mom loved to cut from the available supply of outdoor plants and flowers. She was always teaching that you could create an ikebana arrangement from your own backyard materials, and unlike Western arrangements of twenty tulips plunked in a vase, or a perfectly rounded sea of roses, you didn’t need a lot of flowers to make an ikebana arrangement. You simply needed line material for the shin and soe, and a third point—the hikae—was usually a flower. Simplicity and balance were the key, creating a scene in a vase as if it had been plucked from nature.

So we had made special note of what seemed to be “public property” flowers, public property trees and variegated leaves and flowing grasses. Mom carried her cutting scissors in her purse, and she brought an extra pair of scissors as a present to me; those now lived in the glove compartment of my Grand Wagoneer. As we drove through neighborhoods, we would stop while Mom gently cut a purple iris or red caladium, snipping off shapely willow branches or sharp green leaves of pampas grass. As she gathered the flora she would share little secrets of the trade: “April to August is a good time to peel willow and wisteria. Try soaking it in baking soda and hot water first.” Or: “Crush the bottom of long-stemmed mums to help make an angle, and to help water flow up inside the stem.” Or: “Place pampas grass in vinegar and then cold water to preserve it.”

She wanted to have a variety of flowers for the class; we were expecting at least ten people from the neighborhood, so we were looking to supplement with flowers like roses and lilies from Ralph’s. Pointing to the fragrant Stargazers, some opened and perfuming the air, some flowers still closed (“Not yet dilated!” I thought), she said, “The buds should be highest in an arrangement. In nature they open last.” She then pointed to the lovely anthurium with its white fireworks design, and showed how a simple two leaves of vibrant anthurium could combine beautifully with a single red caladium and a sprig of soft blue hydrangea to create a lively arrangement, perfect for the Fourth of July. We rummaged among the flowers. “Preserve hydrangea in liquor,” she taught. “Split the stems of the calla lily and place them in cold water.” “Run wire up the inside of stems of birds-of-paradise to help them bend.” “Cut the tips of the palm stem and leaves for a different effect.

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