The Art Of Japanese Flower Arranging: AKA Ikebana

Amongst a group of good friends and new friends, Ben practiced the art of flower arranging in the style of Ikebana.

What is Ikebana?

Ikebana is the ancient Japanese art of flower arranging. The name comes from the Japanese ike, meaning ‘alive’ or ‘arrange’ and bana meaning ‘flower.’ The practice of using flowers as offerings in temples originated in the seventh century when Buddhism was first introduced to Japan from China and Korea, but the formalized version of Ikebana didn’t begin until the Muromachi period around the 15th or 16th century. These arrangements have since become more secular, displayed as art forms in people’s homes. However, Ikebana is seen as more than just decorative, it can be a way to develop a closeness with nature and bring the indoors and outdoors together.

Principles of Japanese Flower Arranging:

Ikebana has become an art form that is associated with a meditative quality. Creating an arrangement is supposed to be done in silence (light laughter and enjoyment is permitted) to allow the designer to calm themselves and meditate on the beauty of nature and gain inner peace. Seasoned designers realize not only the importance of silence, but also the importance of space, which is not meant to be filled, but created and preserved through the arrangements. This ties into other principles of Ikebana including minimalism, shape and line, form, humanity, aesthetics, and balance.

Flowers To Use:

The flowers and branches used in Moribana arrangements are chosen not only for their beauty, but also for how they interact with one another and with the style of Moribana as a whole. Upright arrangements often use stiff, straight branches for shin, while the slanting style is softer and projects a sense of movement by utilizing grasses and branches that grow slanting down. When choosing flowers and branches for your arrangement, it is important to keep in mind that there are endless possibilities to choose from. The most important thing isn’t a specific flower, it’s how all the pieces work together to create one expressive, meaningful piece that plays with the idea of space.

The best thing about them is how easy they are to make – and once you know how, you create miniature gardens inside your home, which require little care and can still add the beauty cut flowers, yet instead of lasting 7 days, live several months.

Terrariums came of age with the Victorians and are enjoying a newfound resurgence, fueled in part by their affordability and the continued interest in all things gardening. Keep in mind, A lot of terrariums can be done with succulents and cacti, however may not be the easiest to tend to. Below I have also included my Top-8 Terrarium Plant Must-Have List.

This Monday I had the opportunity to teach a terrarium workshop at Ben's Garden, which I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. Not only was it a great way to spend a beautiful afternoon, I also learned a lot about these sweet little plants and how to keep them healthy. And of course, I documented the whole thing, so I could share the tutorial here for you.

Your Shopping List:

1. Your terrarium of choice. A completely enclosed terrarium requires little or no watering. If it is an open terrarium, you may have to water once a week or on a monthly basis. Enclosed terrariums are best for plants that require a moist environment – they keep the water in, and you’ll typically see condensation on the inside of the glass. I used a round glass vase that has a large opening, because I made a terrarium that is drier and doesn’t need much water.

2. Your plants of choice. There is a whole section of terrarium plants that you can pick and choose from – but you must stick with using either succulents or moisture-loving plants – you should not mix the two, because they require different environments (succulents can live in a dry environment).

(Left) A favorite of indoor gardeners, our assortment of ferns brings a world of natural color and texture to your terrariums and dish gardens. Among the easiest flora to plant, these ferns flourish in the humid climates most terrariums provide.

(Right) A favorite of indoor gardeners, our assortment of tiny tropical brings a world of natural color and texture to your terrariums and dish gardens. Among the easiest flora to plant, this foliage flourishes in the humid climates most terrariums provide. 

3. Planting materials: Simply rocks, charcoal and soil.

Now Let's Get Started...

STEP 1: Add your base layer – this can be rocks, gravel, pebbles or course sand. This layer is for drainage, and depending on the size of your container, you will want to spread at least 1” of drainage material evenly across the entire bottom of your terrarium. On top of the drainage layer, add a thin layer of activated charcoal (aquarium filter charcoal). This layer will help clean the air of the fumes caused when the organic materials begin to decompose.

STEP 2: Add soil – all-purpose houseplant potting soil is fine. You can play around with this layer to add depth and contour to your landscape with different levels of soil. Make sure you have enough soil that when you put in your plants their roots are fully surrounded by soil and not extending to the charcoal/gravel layer.

STEP 3: Now you can add your plants! Think about how you want to arrange them first, and then dig little holes in the soil to place them. Pack in the soil tightly around them.

A larger terrarium like the one's above allow for more room to play around with plants! 

Ben's Top-8 Must-Have Terrarium Plants

1. Name: Pilea involucrata 'Moon Valley.' Grows to 12 inches tall and wide. The fast-grower tolerates low light and at its maximum reaches 12 inches tall and wide; it may surprise with delicate pink flowers, too. This plant is a perfect size to enclose in virtually any glass container that's fit for a terrarium, such as cloches or jars.

2. Name: Arachnoides simplicior 'Variegata.' Grows to 16 inches tall and wide. Variegated spider fern seems to glow in a terrarium, thanks to the shine of its glossy leaves. A broad yellow center band on each leaf supplies visual interest for the easy-growing fern, which tolerates low light and enjoys the moist potting mix and high humidity found inside a terrarium. 

3. Name: Cryptanthus bivittatus, grows to 6 inches tall and wide. Called the starfish plant, this is a member of the bromeliad family. The leaf colors of starfish plant change with the intensity of light, and its slow-growing nature -- it reaches only about 6 inches at maturity -- makes it well-suited for a terrarium.

4. Name: Tillandsia stricta. Grows to 8 inches tall and wide. Stunning, funnellike blue, purple, or pink flowers top its slender, pale green leaves, making the plant a natural terrarium choice for both color and texture. 

5. Name: Selaginella kraussiana 'Aurea." Grows to 6 inches tall and 2 feet wide. Even though golden clubmoss, stays compact in height- just up to 6 inches- it likes to spread, so keep it neatly trimmed.

6. Name: Saxifraga stolonifera, grows to 8 inches tall and 6 inches wide. It's lovely burgundy-red vertical stalks and flowers lend Saxifraga stoloniferathe nickname strawberry begonia. While the plant rapidly matures, it only reaches a height of 8 inches. Even when the wispy flowers aren't in bloom, the heart-shape foliage offers a two-tone pattern of green and deep red.

7. Name: Asplenium bulbiferum, grows to 2 feet tall and 4 feet wide. The diffused light inside a terrarium is perfect for this plant, also known as mother fern, as well as shade lovers including Fittonia, creeping fig, dwarf coleus, and dwarf orchids.

8. Name: Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens," grows to 15 inches tall and 12 inches wide. Black mondo grass, familiar to Northern gardeners, sends up shoots of strappy leaves that turn from green to black, with delicate flowers appearing in spring. At maturity it reaches 15 inches tall so it works best for larger terrarium containers.

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Ben's Garden Opens In Soho. Welcome to Ben’s Garden SoHo.

In a City 🍎🏆🚕🚕 like no other, a store like no other- make yourself a home, give the best gifts and discover your next passion! And don’t worry, there are more locations opening soon near you as well! Ben's Garden SoHo: 42 Grand Street, New York, on Grand at the intersection with West Broadway, You can't miss it.

Living on The High Line is always changing, just like the City it lives in. Here is a bit of history I found interesting about the history of The High Line, spanning from the Meatpacking District to West Chelsea (now Hudson Yards) in New York City.

The last train runs on the High Line in 1980. Nineteen years later, "Friends of the High Line" is founded by residents of the High Line neighborhood, to advocate for the High Line's preservation and reuse as public open space.

In 2005 Mayor Bloomberg and the City accepts ownership of The High Line which is donated by CSX Transportation, Inc. in November 2005; Groundbreaking is celebrated in April 2006. 

In 2009, the first section, Section 1 (Gansevoort Street to West 20th Street) opens to the public surprising and delighting visitors from across the globe.

How it was planted: The High Line's planting design is inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew on the out-of-use elevated rail tracks during the 25 years after trains stopped running. The species of perennials, grasses, shrubs and trees were chosen for their hardiness, sustainability, and textural and color variation, with a focus on native species. Many of the species that originally grew on the High Line's rail bed are incorporated into the park's landscape.

Converting each section of the High Line from an out-of-use railroad trestle to a public landscape entailed not only years of planning, community input, and work by some of the city's most inventive designers, but also more than two years of construction per section.

BEN'S GARDEN: AN OLD-FASHIONED OUTLOOK IN THE FAST-PACED WORLD OF RETAIL

Despite high demand and a long list of big clients, Ben's Garden founder Ben Busko still puts value in old-fashioned business ideals, like handmade products and thank you notes for customers.

As a child, Ben Busko could often be found painting watercolors in a corner of his family's Long Island home, with music playing from a record player spinning alongside. It was there that he planted the seed for Ben's Garden, a home decor company he founded at just eight years old.

Busko started out making and selling greeting cards to stores in New York and Connecticut, and as a teenager he began exhibiting at national trade shows, selling to large retail clients and even collaborating with retail buyers. Now 32, Busko manages 50 employees in two eponymous Long Island retail stores and a Brooklyn waterfront warehouse. In the 14,000-square-foot, light-filled space in Brooklyn's Industry City, a recently redeveloped hub for manufacturing and creative innovation, Busko and a staff of artisans execute his designs. At neatly organized workstations stocked with craft supplies, they assemble decoupage glass trays and paperweights, among other products. All Ben's Garden goods are manufactured in the United States, many by hand.

The company belief that “everyone has at least one green thumb" drives the company's aesthetic, influencing the design of pressed flower magnets and botanic-themed decoupage glass trays. Its whimsical product line also includes photo frames, coasters, home furnishings, framed antique maps, crystal paperweights, stationery and other garden-inspired gifts.

"We only started maintaining inventory when we began doing high-volume wholesale business with department stores about four years ago," says Busko. "That was a huge shift. Before that, we produced on-demand." In recent years, big retailers like Nordstrom might request 500 Ben's Garden pieces in a week while moving subsequent orders ahead of schedule.

Busko is able to meet this demand because his products are made in the U.S., in his Brooklyn and Long Island studios. Sometimes clients expect deliveries to arrive more than three months after they place a purchase order, assuming the products are shipped from China in containers. They're shocked when they hear the good news: "Next week."

"That turnaround has been able to keep us on trend, ahead of the market," says Busko. "Our products are always fresh and invigorated, and our collection evolves from client feedback."

Walking through aisles of his stacked, labeled and barcoded products, Busko showcases a decoupage tray with the words, "You are so much sunshine in every square inch," attributed to 19^th-century poet Walt Whitman. In Busko's numbered system, that's quote number 1 of more than 8,000. Many are sourced from literature, with Busko's legal team handling issues related to copyright and trademark.

Increasingly, phrases featured on Ben's Garden designs are self-generated. "For the past few years, we've been developing our own storybook of intellectual property that we own and protect," Busko says, describing his goal of eventually licensing that content. "In today's competitive marketplace, that enables us to control the content we create and continue to be perceived as unique. Developing a proprietary library of anything is always valuable."

Busko's appreciation of all things botanic and historic finds balance in his embrace of the technology that powers his company's growth. After investing hundreds of hours into customizing software to support the business, he can now forecast sales six or more months in advance.The cloud-based system integrates tools on multiple levels, from micro to macro. All-in-one, it's an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system for accounting, payables, and receivables; an MRP (manufacturing resource, or material requirements, planning) system, which Busko likens to a recipe or ingredient list for each product; and a CRM (customer relationship management) system—because, in Busko's words, "You have no business without happy customers."

In the cloud, Busko and his team track all communication with clients. Via tablet from any location, he and his customer service representatives can see every detail of customer cases and resolve issues while sharing a common knowledge base. "Maintaining my values was essential as we developed this digital system," he says. "We had to stay loyal to that foundation—those principles of engagement and personal interaction that have always been at our core."

As Ben's Garden scaled, Busko had to deliver more products faster while maintaining a quality customer experience, and that crunch led him to make a significant investment in technology. While wholesale distribution to "majors" (department stores) and independent boutiques keeps Busko on his toes, he finds online order fulfillment to be the most challenging aspect of running a retail business in 2016.

"When a customer orders from our site, we're expected to meet Amazon's delivery schedule," he says. "In the past five years or so, standards have changed dramatically and continue to rise."

It's difficult for any entrepreneur to compete with the efficiency and productivity of a large company, but there are also plenty of benefits to operating a small business. Through correspondence and face-to-face interaction in his stores, Busko seizes many opportunities for human connection. He often handwrites thank you notes to accompany orders and sees a positive shift in employees who take pen to paper to express gratitude to customers. Through stacks of outgoing mail, they can measure success. "I found writing thank you notes is a sincere way to convey our gratitude but also an effective way for an employee to measure success," he says. "I've had employees laughing because they have so many notes they struggled carrying them to the post office."

Roughly a quarter of Ben's Garden online retail revenue is driven by custom orders. Made-to-order decoupage glass trays are personalized by incorporating customers' wedding invitations, baby announcements, family photographs, sheet music and recipe cards, among other keepsakes. The company also curates assortments with city themes by transforming antique maps and other local ephemera into art.

"My heart's always been in this," Busko says. "Everything we do communicates that emotional connection to the client, and the quality of our product matches that sentiment."

Nearly 25 years after Busko first started the company as a child, Ben's Garden employs 50 people.

Whether he's at work on the floor of a Ben's Garden boutique, or in a warehouse corner making art, this way of framing the world ripples out from Busko's orbit. One sentiment at a time, he maintains the sincerity of childhood. "I wasn't particularly interested in accumulating wealth at eight, so I indulged my sweet tooth," Busko says of making the connection between hard work and income. "When you're three or four feet tall, you live in a world perspective." From that vantage point, he knew that a dollar could buy a lot of gumballs.

Photos: Christopher Lane

Hello Atlanta. Come say hello and see what makes our Spring/ Summer 2018 Collection even better this Market Atlanta Market at the Americasmart Trade Show. Don't miss Ben's Papers, our new stationery line! The greeting cards are a not-to-miss.

Check out Ben Busko and our newest and brightest in Atlanta in the juried High Design floor, booth #129-#134, you can’t miss us!

A quick note. Everything we create begins with intention. Every move is rooted in purpose. Each day, dozens of hands working together to bring a more thoughtful world to light.

Full of passion, I set out to create products to share the stories you tell which matter most. A world to be forever treasured. So, between the flurries of snow, and laughter of friends gathered to celebrate a new year, let me thank you. There is no more special place than being brought into someone’s home. Piece by piece, gift by gift, let’s make the new year unforgettable. Your friend Ben.

Ben's Garden Gift-Wrapping For You...

Ben Busko in the giant Ben's Garden exhibition during the Atlanta Americasmart Market July 2017.

"Love in our in our family

flows strong and deep, leaving us memories to treasure and keep," A Ben Busko new quote tray about family. Turns out to be the #1 bestselling decoupage quote! Wow, we'll make more soon! Hurry!