In this beautifully illustrated book of tales, ikebana master Koka Fukushima introduces the reader, season by season, to the personalities of the flower materials she has interacted with in her half-century of flower arranging in Japan and around the world. One by one, she delves into their idiosyncrasies, mannerisms and mysteries, and the role many play in Japanese culture and folklore.

Readers will experience the unexpected: forsythia in Abu Dhabi, carnations in Mexico, myrtle in Italy, marigolds in India, and flowering cherry in Saudi Arabia. In other tales, witch hazel flowers run merrily up and down branches; mistletoe lives in trees; peach blossoms debut on Girls' Day; bush clover can be willful, baby's breath deceivingly gentle; plumed cockscomb is proud; withered sunflower does not droop; and heavenly bamboo wards off evil.

In ikebana, the practitioner chooses elements of plants-flowers, leaves, branches-and places them in a carefully selected container which complements their form, cutting and bending them to achieve the desired effect. This book offers an insider's appreciation of the plant world, of the ordinary as well as the extraordinary, of the known and the not so well known, as the artist has experienced them.