Champetre Bouquet

In addition to tours and cooking classes, I frequently see different flower arranging classes offered through the Tokyo American Club.  I decide to sign up for one.  It's not ikebana (the Japanese style of flower arranging), where the focus is on the shape, line and form of the arrangement versus the blossoms present in the bouquet.  Ikebana is a very minimalist aesthetic...and I prefer the abundance of flowers.  So even though one of the main schools of ikebana, Sogetsu, is located right down the street from my apartment, I haven't taken any classes on it.  (Side note: One time I happened to walk past the building as many women were leaving with their creations.  It was fun to see them all!)

Chikako illustrating what our finished bouquets will look like.

The class I take follows the French style of floral arrangement.  As usual, I'm on top of current trends (ha, ha), because one month after my class Vogue has an article titled, "The Traditional French Way to Make a Flower Arrangement."  It turns out our instructor, Chikako, must be correct - this is the current "rage" in Paris.  Vogue's instructions exactly match what we did in class.  

Our materials, all laid out and ready for us!

First, use no more than three varieties of flowers.  We have lisianthus, baikutsugi and Queen Anne's lace.  You're not supposed to forget the greenery, and we have raspberry leaves and bibanamus (I'm not sure if Chikako gives us the correct name for bibanamus.  I try to google it, but nothing comes up.  It may be a Japanese to English translation issue.)


Next we trim off some of the leaves on the stems.  You don't want it to look like weeds!  Then, we style the plants.  I learn the trick in class.  You start with 3-4 plants in your hand, then twist!  Each time you add a new stem, you keep the angle the same and rotate the bouquet slightly, so they wrap around.  The pictures below sort of illustrate the circular pattern.

Just starting to add to the arrangement.

the two handed twist

Chikako demonstrating how to place the lace.

After finishing with the twisting process, you sprinkle in some flowers or greenery to add more interest.  We use the Queen Anne's lace, and keep the blooms a couple of inches above the rest of the bouquet.  It helps to have big hands at this point - you have to hold a lot of stems!

Look, no hands!

Once Chikako models the procedure for us, we're able to create our own arrangements (with some help).  Since my hands are full of plants, I can't take pictures during the process!  When it's safely placed in a vase, I'm finally able to take a photo of my "masterpiece."    

tying on the ribbon

We can't forget to hand-tie the bouquet!  Chikako shows us the best way to tie the ribbon.  Start by folding the ribbon in half, wrap the ribbon around the stems, then bring the ends through the loop at the center of the ribbon.  Then you can take the two ends and wrap the ribbon around the base some more, or immediately tie a bow.  This holds the stems more securely.  I'm going to do this with other things, too!

I made it (mostly) myself!

We have our picture taken with our flowers, and it feels like holding a large wedding bouquet!  I happen to look up the definition of champetre [FYI - the first e is supposed to have an upside v above it (a circumflex?), but I can't get my computer to type it.] - it means rural, which I think is appropriate for my flower display.

Since I'm riding my bike home, Chikako wraps up my arrangement so it's secure, and I place it in my front basket for the trip home.  I feel very Parisian bicycling through the city with my flowers!

Keeping the flowers safe and sound!

Once home, I place them on our dining table, easily visible throughout most of the apartment.  It matches the class description: This engaging green and white bouquet encourages reminiscence of sunny, verdant days and warm moonlit nights fragrant with the scent of white blossoms.

Maybe a better picture of the night sky than the flowers!