Aquatic flowers

Author: Zhao Jiarong (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-03-01
Features:
Fresh Cut Flowers: They are the main body of floral arrangements and the primary source of color, often used as focal points in composition. Examples include lotus, water lilies, irises, and eulalia.
Cut Leaves: In floral arrangements, cut leaves primarily serve as fillers, accents, or concealers. Like theater, cut leaves set the stage, arrange the scenery, and place props, with cut flowers as the protagonists to perform, together creating beautiful floral arrangements. Examples include Monstera deliciosa, umbrella grass, and calamus.
Cut Stems: In floral design, cut stems enhance the main subject and are sometimes used as primary materials for shaping. Examples include verbena and arundinaria.
(2) Application of Aquatic Cut Flowers
Aquatic cut flowers are mainly used in floral arrangements. Floral art belongs to the realm of art, where, according to the needs of environmental design, the author meticulously constructs, selects suitable cut flowers, and arranges them in designated containers to form elegant shapes, thus completing an artwork. Floral arrangements are short-term decorative items with a strong natural atmosphere, strong decorative qualities, and adaptability to various indoor environments, meeting people's decorative needs. As early as the Song Dynasty, Yang Wanli wrote in his poem: "Red and white lotuses in a jade vase, red lotuses charm, white lotuses clear; though the empty studio lacks summer heat, the fragrance dispels it." This scene is refreshing and evokes a sense of coolness.
(3) Art of Aquatic Floral Arrangement Design
The arrangement of aquatic flowers must adhere to the basic principles of formal beauty to create a harmonious, balanced, subject-focused, colorful, proportionate, and naturally elegant environment, making people feel as if they are in the embrace of nature.
Unity in Diversity: The environments we arrange and the materials we use (potted plants and cut flowers) each have their own characteristics. For example, the types, sizes, colors, and shapes of potted plants and cut flowers are diverse, rich in contrast, vivid, and full of vitality. Diversity is the source of excellent artistic effects in environmental design, but diversity must be unified, allowing each component to "find its place, fulfill its role, and complement each other," forming a rich, coordinated, and harmonious organic whole. Otherwise, the scene will be fragmented and disorganized, failing to convey beauty.
Harmony and Contrast: Harmony and contrast are complementary artistic composition principles. The key factor influencing them is the sense of difference. When the various parts of the environment and artwork have strong contrasts, they stimulate the senses intensely, creating exciting, dynamic, and eye-catching artistic effects. Excessive difference can lose harmony, while a lack of difference makes the environment and artwork dull and monotonous, failing to evoke beauty. However, in color use, the primary and secondary must be clear, creating comfort, elegance, and endless charm. In floral arrangement design and the creation of floral artworks, artistic principles must guide us to achieve ideal artistic effects. Therefore, mastering these principles alone is insufficient; we must also learn to apply them flexibly according to the time, location, theme, and environmental requirements. The key is to balance the dual aspects of diversity and unity, primary and secondary, dynamic and equilibrium, contrast and harmony, variation and rhythm, and scale and proportion in artistic principles to enhance the artistic impact.
(II) Application of Aquatic Plants in Landscape Gardening
Our motherland is renowned as the "Mother of World Gardens," with the greatest characteristic of Chinese gardens being their inspiration from Chinese landscape paintings. By refining and artistically processing the finest of these paintings, they create landscapes rich in poetic charm. Water, rocks, mountains, trees, flowers, pavilions, bridges, terraces, and towers are the main elements of Chinese gardens, with water being their soul. Water is dynamic, a lively element, and aquatic plants in water bodies are essential materials for complementing garden water scenes. In Chinese gardens, measures such as digging lakes, ponds, and pools, as well as shaping mountains, piling rocks, building pavilions and bridges, and repairing towers are often employed to create water landscapes with water and sky blending, distinct seasons, and a dynamic yet serene atmosphere. From the perspective of viewing and planting, the following aspects should be noted.
First, highlight the focal points in water scenes and include structures specifically designed for lotuses, water lilies, and other scenic views, forming themed micro-zones (points) for various aquatic plants. Examples include "Wind and Lotus in Curved Courtyard" in Hangzhou West Lake, "Lotus Bridge" in Yangzhou Slender West Lake, and scenic buildings like "Orchid Pavilion" and "Lotus and Water Chestnut Fragrance" in the Grand View Garden of Dream of the Red Chamber. In famous historical sites, lotuses are also used to highlight the sentiments of historical figures, such as the "Three Su Ancestral Hall" in Mianyang County, Sichuan, a garden built to commemorate the Song Dynasty literary figures Su Xun and Su Zhe. The "Blessed Lotus Pavilion" within the garden is an excellent example of a harmonious integration of sound, color, and fragrance, with water, lotuses, and architecture forming a unified whole.
Second, adapt planting to the terrain and water conditions, planting aquatic plants along mountainsides and lakes. When arranging aquatic plants on water surfaces, consider the size and depth of the water, select suitable species, and pay attention to planting ratios to coordinate the surrounding environment. For large lakes or ponds, it is advisable to plant in shallow areas along the shores or near pavilions, terraces, bridges, or towers, but it is neither necessary nor possible to plant across the entire lake. Planting methods vary, including sparse and dense arrangements, clusters of multiple plants, or solitary single plants, with natural forms. The recommended planting area should cover 30%–50% of the water surface, avoiding over-planting, which would disrupt the garden landscape. For ease of management, diversify species and construct variously shaped, sized, and spaced planting pools underwater to prevent interference among different plants. Planting aquatic plants in the gaps of rocks in streams or waterfalls, or alongside lake rock landscapes, enhances the grandeur of mountains and rocks while adding charm, creating a picturesque scene.
Planting aquatic flowers along lake shores with willows creates a traditional Chinese garden planting technique, such as the famous line: "Four sides of lotuses, three sides of willows, one side of mountain color, half a city of lake." Daming Lake in Jinan is an excellent example. Aquatic plants not only shine in vast lakes but also enhance small ponds in Chinese gardens. In private courtyards, even with limited blooms, reasonable planting can create a landscape of "dotting red on green, veiling the courtyard in rosy hues." Some are edible and suitable for appreciation, adding infinite beauty to people's material and spiritual lives.
Aquatic plants not only beautify the environment and provide decoration but also enhance water purification, protect water resources, increase the stability of agricultural ecosystems, and ensure sustainable agricultural development. They are also indispensable landscape plants for developing sightseeing agriculture and ecological tourism. Aquatic plants are also forest resources in water bodies (both above and below water). The principles for arranging aquatic plants are based on the perspective and requirements of water surface greening and landscaping, selecting high ornamental value and economically valuable aquatic plants to first arrange the water surface. Below are introductions to different ecological types of aquatic plants.
1. Emergent (including wetland and marshland) Ornamental Plants
These are plants with stems and leaves emerging above water. They are diverse in species, generally tall, with distinct stems and leaves. The lower part or stem is submerged in water, with roots and stems in the mud. Some species have thick rhizomes or air channels in their root systems. These ornamental plants are often arranged in shallow waters and wetlands of water garden shores.
2. Floating (including floating leaves and floating) Ornamental Plants
(1) Floating Leaf Plants: These are aquatic plants with leaves floating on the water surface or partially above water. They have diverse ecological habits, no obvious above-ground stems, thick and well-developed rhizomes, large and colorful flowers. They typically store large amounts of gas in their bodies, keeping leaves and flowers steady on the water. Examples include lotus, water lilies, Chinese lotus, and water chestnut. They can be planted in deeper water bodies, but various geometrically shaped planting pools can be constructed underwater, creating beautiful water landscape paintings on the surface. Considering the blooming season, different ornamental plants flower from May to November, forming a unique aquatic landscape of "four seasons of fragrant flowers and colorful splendor."
(2) Floating Plants: These are plants that float on the water surface for growth and development, drifting with water currents and waves. In the absence of large water bodies, they can also grow in wetlands. There are fewer species, mostly with leaves as the primary feature and flowers as a secondary one.
3. Submerged Ornamental Plants: These are aquatic plants whose entire bodies are mostly submerged in water for growth and development, with flowers and leaves either above or below water. They are mainly planted in deeper water bodies and arranged in gaps between floating leaf plants or between floating and emergent plants to add layers to the aquatic plant landscape. There are many species, with smaller flowers and shorter blooming periods, primarily valued for their leaves. They also serve as important and effective water purifiers, and some can thrive in fast-flowing water or indoor aquariums alongside aquatic animals, delighting viewers.
The role of aquatic plants in greening garden water bodies is highly significant. Water scenes are the soul of gardens (or courtyards). No matter how beautiful a garden is, without water, it is at best a blind beauty. Water bodies are divided into static and dynamic types. Static water bodies include various natural and regular lakes, ponds, and pools, while dynamic ones include rivers, streams, fountains, and waterfalls. In practice, they often combine movement with stillness and vice versa. Regardless of the type of water body, without aquatic plants for decoration, it would be like a horse without a saddle or a person without clothes, failing to showcase the water body's charm. Decorating water bodies with aquatic plants should consider the coverage ratio, generally not exceeding 1 or 2, or leaving more space for visitors to watch fish or admire the above and below water scenery (reflections).