Florist Friday: Wedding show pics, part 1

It's picture time!  As I had mentioned in this post, we did a big wedding show a couple of weeks ago.  I've got lots of pictures to share, which I will be doing over the next couple of weeks. This week I'm going to start with the most vibrant, colorful bouquets and boutonnieres that I made, so get ready for some eye-popping color!

Spring/Summer

Gerber daisy are quite possibly the most cheerful flower.  With their wide array of colors, from soft pastels to super hot pinks and oranges, and their simple yet fun shape, they just seem so happy.  And what more joyous occasion than a wedding!   

 

This bouquet of hot pink and orange mini gerber daisies is accented with green hypericum berries for an extra punch of color.  This is a really fun bouquet, complete with lime green swirled wire in the centers of the orange gerbers, as well as wrapped around the stems.  And of course, there's a matching boutonniere:

Fall

And for those fall weddings, the firey shades of red, orange and yellow are so warm and rich.  It's no wonder that autumn is such a popular time of the year for weddings!

This autumn bouquet features golden sunflowers, bright red gerber daisies and roses, circus roses, and orange ranunculus.  The dried chinese lanterns and lotus pods give it a touch of natural earthiness.  The stems are encased in magnolia leaves, with their soft, velvety back sides exposed, and the gold wire adds a touch of shine.

The coordinating boutonniere features a single miniature sunflower, paired with an orange ranunculus bud.  The two are accented with a dried magnolia leaf, then wrapped in a galax leaf and gold wire.

That's all for this week!  Be sure to come by next week for a more soothing palate of blues, greens, and purples.

Florist Friday: A dozen roses, half a dozen ways

Being a florist, it's hard not to think about roses this time of year. We know all to well that Valentine's Day will be here soon, and we will be creating many, many arrangements of one dozen roses. But Valentine roses need not be red, and they need not be arranged in the traditional way. With so many amazingly beautiful varieties of roses available today, and so many different ways you can arrange them, there are plenty of options for those who want to send roses, but don't want to be stuck with the same old same old. So today I'm going to show you half a dozen ways to give a dozen roses, which is really just the tip of the ice berg. Your options are truly only as limited as your imagination.
Sweet Unique is a medium head pink rose with a lighter pink on the outside and a brighter pink on the inside. Here one dozen Sweet Unique roses are arranged in a topiary, complete with polka dot grosgrain bows. Sweet and unique!


Milva is a large, ruffled petal orange rose. Its combination of vibrant color and subtle tones of orange, peach, and a touch of pink make it one of the most stunning roses. Here one dozen Milva roses are tucked down into a large square vase, and sprouting up out of the top along side pussy willows. A perfect hint of spring!

Gelato is a new variety we've discovered at the shop. It was love at first sight! A warm peachy-pink accented with a splatter stripe of cream in it, this rose simply couldn't be any prettier. Here one dozen Gelato roses are nestled into a a bed of plumosa ferns, accented with white birch branches. Delicious!

Circus is one of the most vibrant roses I have seen. With its bright yellow petals tipped in in a lively orange, it really packs a punch of color! Here one dozen Circus roses are arranged in a low dish, accented with gold wire and feathers. Fanciful and fun!

Black Magic is a luxurious deep red rose. Photographs of this rose never quite do it justice. You really have to see it in person to appreciate the velvety texture and the rich dark red of the petals. Here one dozen Black Magic roses are arranged in an upward spiral, which is echoed with silver aluminum wire. Gypsophila (Babies Breath) is nestled in the center, and a handcrafted wire and rhinestone heart dangles from the top. Simply elegant!

Of course, you can always just do the traditional dozen red roses in vase:

But wouldn't you rather give or receive something a little more interesting? I know I would!

Florist Friday: recovering from the holidays

Working at a florist can get a little crazy at certain times of the year. December is always a busy time for us, making holiday centerpieces, decorating for parties, and delivering poinsettias. Then January is usually pretty quiet and calm, which can be kind of a downer after the holidays, but it does at least give us a chance to rest up before the Valentine's Day rush hits. And it gives my dry, cracked, pitch-covered, holly-scraped hands a chance to heal just in time to be scraped up by all those rose thorns. Maybe this year we'll get lucky and get roses with very few thorns. We shall see.

In any case, this year we have 3 wedding shows to do in January/early February, so that should keep us busy. I love doing wedding shows, as they give me a chance to really be creative. Our first one is this weekend, so I should have some pics to share soon!

Flower Friday: A study of color, line, and texture

I love when we get a breather from the usual chaos of working at a flower shop, and I can take the time to create an arrangement that's more of an art piece than a bouquet. It's fun to get a chance to experiment, and try something completely different from the usual dozen roses or pick me up bouquet.

This piece is really a study of color, line, and texture. It all started with the sunflowers...we had a couple of sunflowers that were missing a few petals, so I plucked the rest of the petals out, which leaves you with a wonderful color combination of soft green and dark chocolate brown. I had seen sunflowers used this way at a floral design show before, and was amazed at how beautiful they looked without their petals. To compliment the centers of the sunflowers, I chose a rich brown container, which unfortunately you can't really see in these pictures. I really wanted to stretch the limits of the small container I had picked out, so I opted for these incredible Japanese Fantail Pussy Willow branches that had been sitting around the shop. These are one of my favorite branches to use, because they create such beautiful lines. In order to really highlight the lines, I kept everything else in the arrangement low and close to the container. And remembering a bit of what I had learned from my class over the summer, I made sure to pay careful attention to how the lines looked from every angle.

I chose a Fatsia leaf to cover the base of the arrangement, and folded a couple fingers of it back to reveal the soft green underside which is a perfect match to the edges of the sunflowers. And lastly, I filled in with some beautiful golden Celosia, green Hanging Amaranthus, and some sort of dried pod (not sure what exactly it is), which made for an interesting combination of textures.

Overall, I was very happy with how this piece came out. And I'm looking forward to the next little breather, so that I can experiment more with floral design as art. :)