It’s the day after Labor Day and that generally means fall has arrived, and this year was no exception. Only 65 degrees for a high here in DC today and lots of rain. The rain will be lasting the rest of the week and it does make it a little harder to use flowers and branches from the garden. Not impossible though, so I did go get a leaf from my Japanese butterbur plant(also called fuki or sweet coltsfoot) to use. It’s one of those invasive plants and they spread quickly so I have to grow it in a pot. The leaves can get as big as 16″to 32″ and I can confirm they are large leaves, but so very beautiful. I’ve been growning them all summer and today I cut the first one to use in this arrangement. Since it’s such a beautiful leaf I thought it should be the main focus, and wanted to emphasize it. At the back of the butterbur leaf I added some white confetti staice from yesterday’s design. There is no kenzan, the leaf stem holds it in place and helps with the confetti statice also. The pop of white of the statice added just enough constrast to the leaf without taking anything away from it’s beauty. I love the Japanese butterbur leaves and will be working on some more ikebana featuring them!