This was lovely! Thank you for sharing. I took an ikebana lesson when I visited Japan and the teacher did something that I have found very useful - and would help with your thin stemmed Alchemilla mollis flowers. She snipped the end off a spongy leaf (like the hosta leaf) and pushed the thin stem of the flower head into this little cut off piece. It was then easily pushed onto a spike. I recently used the cut off end of a bird of paradise leaf, (made holes in the stem with a cocktail stick as it was rather tough) and then pushed sprigs of bougainvillea flowers into the holes and it worked really well!
Traditionally, we use what's called "Kenzan", but she used Oasis, which looks like a lump of hard green sponge. You can get it at a garden center, I think.
