Valentine ~ Original 6 foot tall bouquet by Yukiko sets theme for buffet at Smith Ranch Homes

Tall quince bouquet shown above is installed for Valentine’s  in Smith Ranch’s high ceiling dining room, on a buffet counter top — soon to be surrounded with trays of food and beverages.

In homes with regular ceilings, 5′ or 6′ bouquets are often positioned on  large coffee tables.

Either way, Yukiko’s tall designs establish the theme and tone for gatherings of friends and parties.

This five foot arrangement by Yukiko is traditional for the buffet at Smith Ranch Homes.   Flowers, leaves, branches and fruits of the season: including anthuriums, roses, harakeke, berries, baby apples and lemons.

For a special birthday in Marin, her parents called us from their home in beautiful Brittany.  A series  of telephone calls and e-mails set the guiding tone as soft yellow, spring, peach.   For this, Yukiko designed the bouquet below:   peach roses with a subtle accent of “wax” flowers, magnolia leaves, nandina leaves and Hawthorne foliage.

The tone is a reflection, a reminder of the daughter’s favorite flowers and colors as she was growing up.

BTW,  you probably knew this already, but I’ll write it here anyway: “wax” flowers are not wax;  they are real flowers with a waxy coating deep inside.

Yukiko has created many more ikebana designs than there is space to show them on her website.  This week we had to take down one strikingly beautiful ikebana to make space for the newest design.  Here they are:

We Took Down This Picture…

Ikebana with Bamboo and Dogwood – seasonal supply of dogwood is presently difficult.

To Make Page Space Available for This Picture

Ikebana of Orchids in October – designed with green cymbidium with phalaenopsis accent.

To have a place for every unique ikebana design by Yukiko, we are expanding our Ikebana Gallery to include online resources from Flickr. 

As we develop this approach we will keep you informed through this blog.