Flower fact brain dump

Consider Backgrounds

Flower arrangements are always seen against a background. It may be the sitting room wallpaper or the grey stone of a church wall. When choosing wallpaper, we always look to see if it will go with the carpet, for we know by experience that it might look perfect in the shop, but dreadful when we get home. In the same way, the eye registers the difference, or contrast, between an arrangement and its background, so the former must be brighter than the latter, to enable it to show up.


The background to an arrangement is already in situ, so we need to create a design of flowers Mackay that will be seen against it. This is quite easy in large buildings, such as churches, where the walls are of grey stone or white paint. It becomes difficult if the walls are brightly coloured or painted. In this case, try to find an alternative site for the arrangement. If this is not possible, use a colour that will contrast with the background.

Recession

This is the placement of flowers, foliage and perhaps ribbon bows on lower levels within design. To achieve recession, set back short-stemmed flowers, foliage or ribbons by placing them behind other materials. A design that lacks recession will appear hat and two-dimensional, whereas materials placed on lower levels attract and lead the eye into the design, creating visual balance. Short-stemmed materials also have the advantage of hiding the mechanics, giving he design an attractive finish while strengthening the profile. Check your next flower delivery Waitara meets these criteria before sending to the recipient.


Achieving recession

• Use open flowers (avoid buds) and bold foliage, which will fill in the design quickly.


• Use darker colours — their recessive quality will give greater visual depth.


• Remember to leave space around the materials, otherwise the design will appear packed and visually bottom-heavy.

Fake doesn't have to be second best

Some of the more traditional amongst you may scoff at the idea of using fake flowers, but it is a real and viable alternative in today’s world. Not everyone can afford to spend thousands of dollars on fresh flowers, or employ a florist to create unique arrangements. Fake flowers can look just as beautiful, and these days you can even spray them with a fragrance to complete the floral deception. I would wager that the majority of guests at the wedding would not even notice that the flowers were not fresh. Artificial flowers might even put your local Huntington Park florist out of business one day!

Wild roses

Try to pick them with a lot of buds as they will all open in water and last so much longer like this. They can be arranged in a basket and they also look well in a glass vase. Much wild material makes a splendid background for garden flowers so I often look for spikes of red dock, teasles, and bulirushes, while in the USA bittersweet and milkweed pods are invaluable allies. Old Man’s Beard, the wild clematis, is enormously effective in arrangements and can be preserved easily. You should treat it in the same way as beech leaves by placing the ends of the stems in a solution of one part glycerine to two parts of water. Leave them for several days until they change colour and go brown. While this all seems like hard work, and it is compared to having a flower delivery Paddington, the effort is certainly worthwhile when you see the results.

Bulbs at Work Underground

While all plants manufacture and store food to some degree, true bulbs, corms, rhizomes, tubers and tuberous roots accumulate enough nutrients to give them a head start on next season’s growth. Many true bulbs and corms, in fact, contain not only complete plants but enough food to nourish their blossoms and leaves through the blooming periods. That is why some bulbs, such as the autumn crocus, will flower on a shelf if you have neglected to plant them in time, and why some hyacinths and paper-white narcissuses will bloom if simply set in a bowl of moist pebbles. That is why anybody can get these bulbs to bloom once, with little or no effort. The flower is already there and so is the food for it. But bulbous plants will not flower again unless their leaves, which, as in all green plants, manufacture sugars and starches through the process of photosynthesis, have time to replenish the depleted food supply for the coming year. After the blooms have faded, the leaves must have a normal growing and ripening period in order to build up strength in the bulb for next year’s flowers. For this reason the foliage must never be cut until it has yellowed, a mistake all too many beginning Victoria Park florists make in an effort to keep things neat. Even after the foliage has completely withered, the bulbs are at work belowground, and whether they are dug up and stored or left to winter in the cold, they continue to undergo internal chemical change essential to growth and flowering.

Where to Plant Bulbs


The ease of concealing unkempt bulbs as they mature is one consideration in choosing sites for them. But to my mind it is more important to place the flowers Dudley where they can most readily be enjoyed. Spring bulbs will bloom while the temperatures still range in the 30’s and 40’s; at a time when I, for one, am not yet ready to stroll in the yard. So I put mine where I can see the flowers easily from the windows of the house. Plants bearing relatively large flowers (tulips and daffodils) may be planted some distance away and still be enjoyed. So may the little snowdrops, snowflakes, striped and Siberian squills, grape hyacinths and white crocuses, if they are planted in sufficiently large quantities and massed dramatically against a contrasting dark background such as a group of evergreens. But these little plants, as well as such colorful jewels as dwarf irises, spring meadow saffron and winter aconites, are equally appropriate in beds or borders near the front door where you and arriving guests can enjoy them at close range.

The Versatile Iris

Like the tiny crocus, the much larger and statelier iris was long prized for merits other than its beauty. As in many flowers Grangetown, the iris can be used for many different purposes. The Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III (1501-1447 B.C.) was intrigued by irises he saw dur­ing his conquest of Syria, and brought plants home with him, turning them over to his magicians and doctors to determine wheth­er they had any potential as a medicine or aphrodisiac. Precisely what Thutmose' experts found out we do not know, but for cen­turies Europeans consumed vast quantities of irisroot, not only as a cure-all but for masking bad breath and for keeping bed sheets smelling fresh. Infants teethed on chunks of it and grownups wore bits of it on strings around their necks, presumably to ward off ills. This latter custom became so popular that the two main centers of production, Paris and Livorno, together shipped 20 million iris root "beads" for necklaces every year. "Orrisroot"(another name for irisroot, most commonly the violet-scented root of Iris florentina) is still used today in toiletries and dentifrices.

Plastic and Metal containers

People are often fooled by plastic containers, picking up what they imagine to be a heavy ceramic pot, only to find they are holding a light-weight plastic, for these days the latter can have all the advantages of plastic with the good looks of china. Plastic containers of this type are not inexpensive, but they are likely to last much longer than their more breakable counterparts, and they come in a rainbow range of colours, and in many shapes, sizes and designs. Any good florist Gateacre will stock an array of these containers.

Metals

Copper cache-pots and brass containers from goblets to coal buckets, make lovely containers for flowers. The differing textures of the flowers and the shiny containers contrast and act as a foil for each other. Most pedestal stands designed for use .n churches, hotels or marquees are made from wrought iron, and containers of this type are both adaptable and functional.

Whatever your needs, there is a wealth of containers to enhance the beauty of flower and foliage materials.

Single and Double Sprays


This informal tribute uses materials on natural stems, which can be wired for support and control when necessary. The materials are arranged in a variety of bases, including moss foundations and, even more frequently, plastic spray trays. Foliage such as Tsuga pine or Abies grandis is used to create a good outline, and almost any combination of flowers might be used. Suggest this type of design to the customer who wishes to send a tribute as a token of sympathy, perhaps for a neighbour or a distant relative. These are perhaps my favourite of all the funeral tributes because it gives the florist a chance to use flowers Caldwell that are just beautiful.