Shore Garden Club Learns Japanese Flower Arrangements

By Barbara Larkin
Entertaining! Educational! Delightful! These are just a few of the words I would use to describe the latest meeting of the Shore Garden Club of Neponsit and Belle Harbor, hosted by Marge McCarthy at her lovely home. Elaine Shein graciously introduced the guest speaker, Lynn Pezold, who is a past Director of the Long Island District of New York State’s Garden Clubs. Lynn’s expertise is quite extraordinary! After a discussion about the importance of planting milkweed and other nectar-rich flowers that bloom where and when monarchs need them, Lynn chose to share her immense experience in Ikebana, which is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. The term “ikebana” comes from the combination of the Japanese ikeru (to arrange), and hana (flower). Possible translations include “giving life to flowers” and “arranging flowers.”
Marge’s living room was silent as our guest speaker spoke while creating various arrangements, one of which was an example of Seika, also pronounced and known as Shoka, a form of Ikebana illustrating principal lines used in seika which are “heaven,” “human,” and “earth.” The set-up is basically triangular, with three main lines. Together these three elements represent the human universe. The number of branches should always be an uneven number, and the length of each branch is also prescribed.
Lynn Pezold was a delightful guest who shared her tremendous knowledge with great enthusiasm! At the conclusion of the meeting, three lucky members were able to bring home one of her gorgeous creations! Several others committed to share their own versions of Ikebana at our next meeting scheduled for November 18. Anyone interested in learning more about joining the Shore Garden Club of Neponsit and Belle Harbor should contact Elaine at 718-945-4909.