Home Helps: Flower Arranging 101 Home: greenlightwrite.com featuring |
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Unless they're allergic, almost everyone loves fresh flowers. A bouquet delivered by a florist is wonderful and so impressive, but simply gathering flowers from your own garden or picking up a bundle at the grocery store and arranging them yourself can be very rewarding. It's fun, it will lift your spirits and it's easy to do. Here are a few basics and some suggestions on how to make Mother Nature's flora gems last their longest. You'll need The relationship in size between the vase or container of your choosing and the flowers is usually equal. However, if you like a Victorian look, use flowers that are twice as tall as your vase. Make sure the flowers won't overpower the vase and topple it over- this is one place where bigger bottoms are never undesirable. Look around your home for fun and unusual containers that might offer a particular theme such as a watering can, an old tin or a canister. Chose a narrow necked vase or bottle to keep the flowers standing upright. If your container has a wider mouth, put a shorter, narrow-mouthed jar inside to hold the arrangement upright. If the flowers won't cover the interior bottle, place the arrangement above eye level (on the mantel) so the bottle won't be visible over the top edge. A floral frog is a glass (better because it's heavier) or plastic holder with holes in which to insert the flower stems. It sits on the bottom of the container. These are reusable, but many people prefer floral foam, which you may want to hide in an opaque vase or container.
What to do Wash and rinse the vase or decorative container and the frog. Bacteria of any kind will shorten the life of the flowers, so your vase must be clean. Soak the foam in water before poking in any floral stems. Be careful about the scent of the flowers you choose. While roses are wonderful, society garlic with its pretty purple flowers will add an unpleasant odor to your house. If the flowers will be displayed in a small, hot room, the intensity of the scent will increase dramatically. If you're gathering flowers from your garden, use a clean, sharp knife and make a deep-angled cut, making sure the stems are extra long. Scissors will also, of course, cut the stems, but a knife is better because it won't pinch the stem and impede water absorption. Fleshy, thicker-stemmed flowers like hydrangea will absorb more water if you crush the bottom couple of inches with a hammer. If your flowers are from the market, cut the stems off under water. Let the flowers soak for several hours in warm water to open the water-absorbing capillaries in the stems.. Strip all the leaves from the parts of stems that will be beneath the water to prevent decay. If you're not using foam or a frog, a pretty, coordinating ribbon will help hold your flowers where you want them. Gently gather the stems together and loosely tie the ribbon just above the opening of the container to keep it out of the water. Or try strings of invisible tape, criss-crossed over the mouth of a wide container to hold the flowers. If the arrangement is to showcase flowers that are all of one length, gently gather the flowers in your hand. Once you're happy with the general look of the arrangement, trim all the stems to the same length. Immediately put the stems in water in your vase. You can play with the arrangement once the flowers are in the container. If you're decided on an arrangement using flowers of different lengths, work from the center out, but work quickly. Move the flowers about until you like what you see. Remember, flowers are forgiving. Use an odd number of flowers if you're only using a few. Otherwise, trust your creative instinct. Small individual blossoms can sink to the bottom or be hidden by large flowers. If you gather together several of these smaller blossoms and insert them into the arrangement as if they are one flower, they will hold their own. They can also be gently tied with a rubber band, floral wire or floral tape, as long as this doesn't show. Don't be intimidated by large, professional floral arrangements. If you think your arrangement is pretty, then it is. I will guarantee it will be charming.
Life Saving Flowers like sugar. Add clear soda pop (not diet) of some kind or a spoonful of sugar each time you change the water. Refill the vase daily by carefully tipping it over in the sink and then adding more cool water. If the water gets cloudy, it's time to change it. Also, some flowers can suck the water almost dry. Watch closely the first day to make sure the bottoms of the stems are covered. Keep the arrangement out of a hot window, away from heating vents and in a cool location. If your house is particularly warm, add very cold water when you change it or even ice cubes. I've been known to place the entire arrangement in the refrigerator overnight, if it will fit.
A Smaller Bouquet After you've had your larger arrangement for a while, some but not all of the flowers will naturally begin to wilt. Discard the old stems, gather what still looks good in your hand, cut the stems off by several inches to where they look fresh and place them in a smaller container or vase.
Handheld Tussie Mussie Instead of making a smaller bouquet that sits in water, make a tussie mussie, a hand held bouquet. Have the floral tape handy. Just wrap the stems you've cut for the smaller bouquet with the tape, cover the tape by winding a ribbon over it, tie a bow, add a bobble if you desire and you have a pretty "sit about." See our article for details.
Dried Arrangement Let your tussie mussie dry and it with any luck, it will still be lovely. Remember, our ancestors kept their mementoes from special occasions alive by drying their bouquets. Sadly, not all flowers dry well. Roses and hydrangeas are great. So is status and baby's breath. When your arrangement is on it's last legs, hang anything that still looks pretty upside down by tying a ribbon onto the stems and fixing it to the corner of a mirror or door jam. Dried flowers can go everywhere in the home, including the kitchen.
Since Mother Nature supplies us with flowers, it takes little labor to create a fresh and natural look for home, office or as a gift.
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