In Tochigi, every year one of my tea friends would bring over dozens and dozens of poppies from her garden. I never visited her house, but I always imagined she must live on acres of land –how else could she grow so many flowers? We would use every last vase, bowl and most of our lasses and cups to put the flowers in turning our small apartment into a wonderland. Our tea teacher, who also had a large garden full of flowers, was an ikebana teacher, known for her chabana 茶花 displays. Tea flowers should be arranged naturally, as if seen in the fields.
In haiku, wild flowers, (野の花 no no hana), are an autumn term–like autumn grasses. But it seems like they should be sung in spring.
Here in California, we had a superbloom in California. After seeing the California poppies in Antelope Valley last week, we headed up to the CARRIZO PLAIN NATIONAL MONUMENT, near San Luis Obispo, which is the largest enclosed grassland in the state. "The Serengetti Plain of California," the brochures say.
It was surreal. Brooks says that she saw some a photo that "looks like an artist's palette with different colors in different areas of a hillside."
That was exactly what it looked like~~ the fields were vibrating with the melodious sound of the Western Meadow Larks and the Horned Larks.
Pictures below.
And here are some flower book recommendations.
I also loved Joan Stamm's Heaven and Earth Are Flowers: Reflections on Ikebana and Buddhism
Dewdrop World 
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