Tall stories from the world of flowers
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Mother’s Day Designs
Flowers are the favourite gift for Mother’s Day, and every year the public spend thousands of pounds on flowers to celebrate this special occasion.
Preparations for Mother’s Day include the following:
- Keep lists of previous years’ sales to assist with the ordering.
- Make out flower delivery Cullen Bay routes and check that the drivers know the areas.
- Write out all cards well in advance.
- Make sure that all staff, and temporary staff in particular, understand the shop procedures.
- Set up containers and green the week before.
Over the years, the preference for certain designs has changed, from the bunches of primroses and violets of the early years of this century, through to formal rigid arrangements in the 1960s and 1970s and back to handtied informal designs for the 1990s.
The Growth Cycle of Bulbs
In the growth cycle of a bulbous plant, the underground bulb, nourished by its storehouse of food, goes through a number of distinct stages. The bulb sprouts roots, stems, leaves and flowers Stoke, simultaneously growing larger or producing new bulbs for the following growing season. After the leaves wither, it enters a period of dormancy. All bulbs progress through each of these stages, but the details of the cycle vary among the five major types of bulbous plants: true bulb, corm, tuber, tuberous root and rhizome. The gardener with his spade or lifting fork plays a part in the growth cycle of many of these bulbs. Many of the true bulbs, such as the daffodil, can be left in the ground through the winter in all parts of the country. Most other bulbous plants demand more care during winter dormancy. A corm like the gladiolus, a tuber like the tuberous begonia, and a tuberous root like the dahlia must be dug up in fall and stored in a dry place until spring in areas where the ground freezes. Even in the South such bulbs produce the biggest flowers if dug up, divided and stored until the spring planting season.
Perennials: Powerful Partners
From studying the new garden catalogs in mid-January to tucking mulch in among the plants just before the winter snows arrive, gardening is full of delightful surprises and never monotonous. As soon as the snow melts in the spring, we hurry out to discover which perennials are peeping through the wet earth after their winter hibernation. With the first spring shower, many that had seemed dead on first inspection suddenly sprout green buds, and we know that more delights will appear each day until the cycle of seasons bring gardening to a close once again. It is this quality of metamorphosis that attracts us to herbaceous perennials. They are fascinating because most bloom for only short periods and seldom looks the same two days in a row, or two years in succession. Our early morning walks reward us with a changing display of blossoms and an endless variation of plant textures, heights, and fragrances. We wait expectantly to see if the new hybrid iris we splurged on last fall from a Kitts Green flower shop will be as spectacular as the catalog description promised, or if the blooms of the peony that were disappointingly small last summer will improve this year. Each season is a new adventure.
Texture, Size and Color for an Arrangement
The textures of silk and dried florals vary greatly and it’s valuable to remember the importance of textures in floral designing. Putting too many similar textures together can be boring. Mums have a busy texture and are complemented by a smooth-textured flower such as a small lily or something with few petals. Smooth berries make a nice counterpoint to a textured carnation.
Varying the sizes of the flowers Salford used in a design is as important as varying the textures for maintaining the viewer’s interest. If all are the same size, it is difficult to understand where to look first. Generally, large mass flowers become the focal point, medium-sized flowers are added for interest and to fill out the design, then small filler flowers are inserted to fill empty areas.
Color is also important when designing with florals; in fact, it’s often the first element noticed in a design. Usually, when we’re designing for ourselves, the room décor determines the color combination used. But a room’s color doesn’t lock you into that color combination. Many times a colorful room benefits from a calming arrangement of neutral flowers and natural dried materials.
The Language of Roses
Roses had many romantic meanings for genteel Victorians who used the “language of flowers” printed in 19th Century etiquette books. To send flowers Miracle Mile South from hopeful suitors was common practice. The gift of a single red rose signified “I love you.” A proper Victorian lady might reply with a single yellow rose, which implied that her admirer was fickle, or a white rosebud, which told him “I am too young to love,” or a single rose leaf, which meant “I care not.” If the suitor was really a gentleman, he would sign off with a musk rose, which meant “Thou art a capricious beauty.” But if his original red rose elicited another red rose in reply, a match was made.
Colour in flowers
What is colour? A basic explanation is that colour is experienced when a beam of light is refracted (broken) by a surface, and the eye then transmits the effect to the brain; in other words, we can say that it is essentially a visual sensation.
The colour wheel
For practical use in floristry, it is best to refer to a wheel or triangle of 12 full strength hues (or colours), devised to illustrate the natural associations between colours. There are three so-called primary colours — red, yellow and blue. Any two of these, mixed together, produces a secondary colour; again, there are three secondaries - yellow and blue make green, yellow and red make orange, and red and blue make violet. The tertiary colours (not only in flowers Carmunnock) are produced by mixing a primary with an adjacent secondary colour; for example, blue and green make blue-green.
Achromatic or neutral colours — white, grey and black — are not technically colours (being colourless), but they are used change the value of a hue; adding white, grey or black produces, respectively, a tint tone or shade.
Love these flowers series - Dahlia
Dahlias are among the most accommodating of all garden plants and can easily be grown virtually anywhere in the United States and Canada if the roots are protected from frost. Their blossoms, which come in every flower color except clear blue, range from miniatures less than an inch across to giants more than a foot in diameter; they bloom from midsummer until frost on stiff, erect stems 1 to 7 feet tall, providing constant color in the garden and superb selections for Everton flower delivery. The plants grow from tuberous roots and die back each fall either from maturity in warm climates or from frost elsewhere.
The horticultural name, D. hybrida, alludes to the fact that modern dahlias are descended from several species native to Mexico. New hybrids are introduced frequently and go in and out of popularity, almost like automobile styles. They vary so much in flower and stature that they are classified in 16 categories, each of which spans the full color range and most of which include the full gamut of heights and blossom sizes.
One of my favourite flowers - Achillea (yarrow)
Characteristics: Yarrow is a long-blooming and rugged perennial. It will quickly establish handsome colonies in the border. The flowers bloom from June through September. To maintain maximum color, cut flowers that are no more than two days old, because they tend to fade with time. I find that the easiest yarrow to dry is Achillea filipendulina, commonly called fern-leaf yarrow. It has striking yellow flower heads that appear on sturdy 4-foot-tall stems. The foliage of yarrow has a lovely fragrance and can be dried and added to potpourri. The pungent foliage can also help deter moths when used in storing winter garments.
Harvesting/Drying: Harvest in late summer when the flowers are fully opened and the heads feel firm to the touch. Hang individual stems in a warm, dark, well-ventilated spot or dry them upright. If space is limited you may tie a small bunch together with a rubber band, but the flower shape is better if each flower is hung individually. Be careful not to crush the flower heads. Dried yarrow is a good filler plant and travels well if you plan to send flowers Caerau to another person. It makes a soft, natural, yellow base, which blends well with other dried materials. For a winning combination, combine yarrow with blue salvia. Use in potpourri or as filling for dresser drawer moth bags where its fragrant foliage will help deter moths.
The Green “Monster”
What can happen as a result of chance mutation was startlingly illustrated in the early 19th Century with the appearance in America of Rosa chinensis viridiflora, an all-green rose. An occidental offshoot of a China rose, it is a free-flowering and otherwise normal plant, except that all its petals have been transformed into sepals, whorls of narrow, bronze-tinted green leaves that turn reddish brown with age; the flower, moreover, is completely sterile, having no stamens or pistils at all. Some East New York florists see in it a strange kind of beauty, whereas others think that it merits its alternate Latin name, Rosa monstrosa, the monstrous rose.
Need more?
This information is brought to you by the Flower Baron. Another great resource for flower and florist information is Flower Fact Jungle.
