365 Days of Ikebana-Day 17

Finally we get some much needed rain in Washington,DC. Our garden is happy today and so am I. The heat and dry conditions have make blooming material scarce in the garden and August still has many days left. One thing I wanted to experiment with was leaf manipulation with the equisetum(horsetail reed) growing here. It loves water so I had to look carefully to find some nice stems that would work. The equisetum was a good choice as it was plentiful, and one of the few blooming cosmos caught my eye. I brought the materials inside and started inserting floral wire into the equisetum and then carefully manipulating them into shapes. A few blooms of cosmos were added and my simple ikebana was done.