Disneyland Roses, Ikebana, A Flower Frog and a Vintage McCoy Cereal Bowl - June 2026

The past few seasons, I've been making cut flower arrangements in jars and vases for the countertop in our kitchen and to give them out to family and friends.  But, over the past few years, I've been reading a little bit about the concept of Ikebana - which is Japanese flower arranging.  This page on KonMari has an overview of Ikebana that includes this top-line description:

Ikebana is the centuries-old Japanese art of arranging flowers. The practice, which roughly translates to “making flowers come alive,” uses carefully selected blossoms, greenery and other flora to convey a specific feeling or emotion to an observer – just as a painting or sculpture might.

KonMari is Marie Kondo.  The decluttering person.  

Architectural Digest has this "Ikebana 101" post that lays out some of the history and practice.  In it, they highlight one particular school's approach to Ikebana that uses three types of stems:  subject, object and secondary.  In low bowls.  With a Kenzan.  See this passage below for explanation:

In the Ohara School of ikebana, arrangements are composed of three principal types of stems, subject (shushi), object (kyuaku shi), and secondary (chu kanshi), which are fitted in low basins with a kenzan. Asae suggests using a pasta or salad bowl; a ramen bowl wouldn’t work due to its tall sides.

The subject is the tallest stem—roughly double the size of the container (the diameter and height of the bowl). Asae nicknames it the king, since it controls and organizes the entire arrangement. “It’s almost like a conductor in orchestration.”

The object then, is the queen, which is one-third of the subject’s size and is placed in the front center. “Once you have the subject and object placed, 90% of your work is done,” says Asae. The secondary stems are fillers, rounding out the arrangement. They should be somewhere in between the subject and object, or roughly two-thirds of the length of the shushi.

Emphasis, mine.

A low bowl with a kenzan. 

I (now) know what a kenzan is, but a few years back, I first came across them on the Niwaki website when I was shopping for secateurs (pruners).  They're commonly called "Flower Frogs".  And, they're these weird, heavy, spiked metal base pad that you place at the bottom of a vase or bowl that serves as the anchor for all the stems. 

For my birthday this year, the kids gave me my first kenzan.  Haven't used it.  Until now.

I went out and cut a couple of small-size stems of Disneyland Roses from the sideyard:

I've had this McCoy 1413 brown striped cereal bowl on hand for more than a decade.  It came out of my father's collection (see the hand-written #802 tag) that I grabbed as part of their estate sale.  I haven't used it for much of anything since I've possessed it.  It doesn't have a hole, so I couldn't use it as a planter.  So, it just sat.  Waiting for a purpose.  

Now, it has one.  Ikebana.  

Below is a look at my kenzan (flower frog) stuck in the bottom of this McCoy cereal bowl (a low basin):

There's only one element in this arrangement:  Disneyland Roses.  Not three.  Just two stems stuck in the frog's pins.  Based on the description, these are NOT likely the subject (they're NOT double the size of the bowl), so they're likely the "object".  I'm good with that:

For the next arrangement, I'll try to get all three elements