How is Ikebana Sustainable? | Part 1

“How is it not?”… but you more than likely may not know that, and perhaps that’s why you’re here.

It’s hard to know where to start, because for me, my floral design and practice was always going to be as sustainable as possible. If you know anything about me, you know I am huge on conservation and preserving the natural beauty we’ve been gifted. Sure—I “messed up” when I first started my flower journey. That should be a given since I began my flower journey by “teaching myself” through any workshop, class, and online content I could get my hands on. Most of the content I originally consumed was heavily influenced by western floral techniques, which I have to assume is one of the biggest consumers of plastic. Most florists and educational content I found seemingly relied on foam (DON’T get me started) and single-use plastic (UGH). I immediately disliked how I felt: polluting something I was passionate about—flowers—with plastic, something I loathe and have been trying to cut out of my life for years now.

One day during Japanese tutoring, I brought up that I was doing floral pop-ups and my sensei (“teacher” in Japanese) mentioned that she had just begun taking ikebana classes.

Ikebana: The traditional japanese art of floral arranging

About a week passes, and I happen to attend Denver’s Cherry Blossom Festival. There, in a dark, unassuming parking garage I experienced love at first site—a humble ikebana display. It was the first time I knowingly saw ikebana in real life. I was immediately hooked. The best part was that there was no foam and no plastic tape to be found. As a new floral designer, my mind began to race. How did these magnificent, delicately balanced floral arrangements stand so strong? So stable?

More later… follow me on Instagram for now for more random thoughts and ramblings!