Cold Frame
Bulbs set outdoors must be covered to keep them from freezing so that you will not have to pry them out of hard ground in midwinter. If you bury your pots, embed them up to their rims in coarse sand and cover them with a 4- to 6-inch layer of soil plus a 4- to 6-inch blanket of an insulating mulch such as salt hay or wood chips. I prefer to use a cold frame that can be purchased from Burchells Green florists, setting the pots in it and filling in around them and covering them 3 to 4 inches deep with perlite or shredded styrofoam; either material offers good insulation and can easily be removed. Pots should be thoroughly watered before being placed in the ground or cold frame; they will require no further moisture until they are brought indoors.
Dahlia Fanaticism
When the first three dahlia plants ever seen outside Mexico arrived by having the flowers delivered Romford in 1789, the royal gardener to King Charles IV of Spain had them guarded as though they were crown jewels and forbade his assistants to share them with anybody. No wonder. Of all the myriad kinds of bulbs that flower in summer, the dahlia most flatters the gardener's ego. It begins blooming in midsummer and continues tirelessly until frost cuts it down. Depending on the variety, dahlias produce blossoms as small as a quarter or as big as a dinner plate, in every color but blue. (Horticulturists have been trying for years to breed a blue dahlia but have not yet succeeded.) The more the blooms are cut, the more the plant bears: up to 50 or even 100 blooms per plant in a season. It is not so hard to understand why dahlia fanciers sometimes verge on fanaticism about their hobby and grow nothing else.
Basic flower arranging equipment
Pin holders
These are available in many shapes and sizes with metal or plastic spikes to hold the flower stems. They are valuable for shallow containers and for flowers with thick stems. You will probably find that you will generally use a pin holder in combination with a little wire netting. This provides weight and support for any thin-stemmed flowers in an arrangement.
Keep pin holders dry when not in use. Split thick, woody material before trying to secure it, to avoid bending the pins.
There are also small four-pronged plastic spikes available which can be used to anchor florist’s foam to the base of containers with modeling clay.
Sand and moss
Sand can be used to set posies of flowers in small containers. It is heavy and inclined to scratch the surface of china, souse it with care. Moss is an excellent medium. Use it to cover areas of soil in a planted dish or to hide an expanse of netting when arranging early spring flowers in a basket. Always soak moss in water overnight before use and include some with your next flower delivery Tarrawarra to ensure you always have enough at hand when needed.
Basic Steps for Arranging
1. After choosing the container, add a support (or base) to fit securely inside. A block of floral foam or a circle of chicken wire fitted tightly into the bottom of the container will work as a support. Secure the support to the side of the container with floral tape. This important step prevents the arrangement from becoming top heavy. If neither floral foam nor chicken wire is available, use fine sand (a centuries-old method) as a support. Simply fill the container three-quarters full with dry fine sand.
2. Create the outline of the arrangement using taller spiky flowers. The stems of the flowers should not be all the same length because this would give an unnatural appearance.
3. Add tiny bunches of interesting material such as Nigella pods and secure them with wire onto a Kelvinbridge florists pick before adding.
4. For a final touch you may add some special flowers or pods. Place uneven numbers of these throughout the arrangement.
5. Place your filler material, such as German statice or baby's breath, to fill in holes and give a finished look.
6. Because of the brittle nature of dried flowers, spray the finished arrangement with a preservative.
Edible and Non-Edible Flowers
It’s a popular trend these days to add some colourful petals to a salad or simply place a flower or two on a dish as a decoration. It’s a simple way of adding colour and variety to your meals, but a word of caution is required. Make sure you pick the right flower – many cut flower favourites are actually poisonous and should never be used, even as a garnish.
Several vegetable favourites, like broccoli and cauliflower are actually flowers, so you probably eat flowers more often than you think. But remember, there are many more poisonous flowers than edible ones, either sold as cut flowers by your local Beswick florist or grown in our gardens, so you need to be very sure the flower you use is safe. Never eat any flower that you are not absolutely sure is safe, and make sure you know how it was grown. Many cut flowers have been sprayed with insecticides and fungicides, so don’t use flowers sold in bunches in cooking. Edible flowers are most often sold loose, either as part of a salad, or by themselves. You will need to wash all flowers that you intend to eat – even if you grew them yourself.
Packing perfection
Foliage from distant countries, such as Costa Rica, arrives on our shores in perfect condition enclosed as it now is in sheets of polythene, within strong boxes. The polythene keeps the foliage in the conditions of high humidity that most foliage types prefer. Mimosa also requires high humidity around its fluffy flowers, and is sold in individually sealed bags.
Chrysanthemums are usually enclosed in cellophane sleeves and packed in boxes to prevent movement during transit. The cellophane also slows down the transpiration and evaporation of water from the foliage and flowers, creating a moist and humid atmosphere. Gerberas, with their delicate petals, have an inner sleeve in the box so that each flower head is held quite still during the flower delivery Franklin Hills process.
Long-lasting Dried Arrangements
The glycerin-preserved materials are recognizable by their waxy, soft feel. The stems are supple and bend without breaking. Usually the flowers have been systemically dyed during the preservation process, resulting in vivid colors that provide a fresh look. Because of their fragility, stems of dried flowers and grasses may bend or break when you send flowers Agoura Hills to someone. In that case, wire wood picks to the stems, then insert the picks into the foam with the flower stem exposed.
Properly cared for, dried arrangements are long-lasting. Display them out of direct sunlight, which will fade the blooms. A too-humid environment will cause the materials to droop, while insufficient humidity or high temperatures will make them brittle and fragile. Dried plant materials are a pleasure to work with and can make an ordinary floral design extraordinary.
European flower arrangements
European or continental arrangements are, as the name implies, a style of design that originated in Europe and is totally different from the standard British arrangement. A European design is far more structured, balanced but not symmetrical, its impact coming from groupings of bold materials. Every leaf and flower shows, and must therefore be perfectly groomed.
It is important with this type of design to use bold materials and a variety of shapes and textures in order to give the arrangement its impact.
The foam can be covered with mosses and fungi and also by recessing some low-lying flowers. This type of arrangement, with its clean lines, looks very good in modern buildings, and because it contains very few flowers in a reasonably large piece of foam, it can be kept well watered and is long lasting. Florists Kenedy can also make a fair profit on such arrangements due to the minimal amount of flowers involved.
Protecting Roses
When you have your flowers delivered Norwood, remove their moisture-conserving wrappings immediately and dampen the roots. One way to keep them moist is to cover them with a wet piece of burlap; however, an even better way is to put the roots in a pail of water. This will enable the plants to absorb all of the moisture that their cells will hold. An old-fashioned, but excellent, trick is to use muddy water. If there is a considerable clay content in the mud, the roots will come out coated with a film of mud, which will keep them moist while they are being planted.
The plants may be left in the water up to 24 hours prior to planting if necessary. But rose roots must be protected from freezing as well as from dehydration, and care should be taken that bushes to be planted are not left out in the open overnight when freezing weather is expected. A combination of freezing temperatures and drying wind is especially lethal to roses. I once saw hundreds of healthy rose plants killed when careless nursery workers persisted in planting bare-root roses on a windy day when temperatures were only a few degrees below freezing. Even if the weather is mild, the bushes should be carefully sheltered from desiccating winds. It is a good idea to put them, immersed in their pail of water, in a corner of an unheated garage where no wind at all can reach them.
How about this?
Whilst we aim to provide you with a never ending supply of flower facts, you may like to check out Flower Files if you want even more! You can never have too many tips and facts when you love flowers, or wish to have a career in the floral industry.
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