The Ikebana Flower Show at Como Conservatory (Nov 6-12) is a great way grasp onto the good weather for a little longer and plow a path to Como you’ll be glad to have all winterlong.
Ikebana is a Japanese art of flower arranging. It’s been around for 700 years, the local chapter of IKEBANA International is more than 50 years old and apparently takes 3-5 years to master. There are three elements to Ikebana: line, color and mass. The results are arrangements that feel like a snapshot of time in nature that include flowers, plants, bark, wood and other items that are in nature but not found in a lot of arrangements.
The beauty is as much in the negative space as what’s actually there. It’s amazing how the sparsity can conger so much imagination. We saw vessels made from glass, birch bark and a portion of a tree that fell in the artist’s neighbor’s yard. Clearly the artists think about their arrangements deeply and spend a lot of time preparing and constructing them. We got there early on the opening day to see how they worked. Florists will be there through the show to talk to patrons.
The other reason to go to Como is to remember the best place to go to get warm, get nature, get moisture and if you’re hearty, check out the animals at the zoo all year long. Sparky the Seal Lion performs all year (11:30 and 2:30), although the show moves indoors in the very cold. We were there at lunchtime, which is a great time. The animals get fed and are too distracted to be annoyed or avoiding of visitors.
The Conservatory is very peaceful; many people bring in books and stay in the glow of the glass windows and smell of the flowers for hours. A person could do worse for a secondary office.
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