Succulents are beautiful in a bouquet.
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Floral Design
As a Crown Garden Club member, it was my turn to do the library flowers for our public library. My philosophy about floral design is that I try not to buy any arranging materials; instead, if possible, I try to harvest everything from my garden. As usual, succulents rule the day, mainly because I have so many of them growing around the yard. I love designing with succulents, but I do get counted against in the flower show because I’m not using “traditional” materials. To that rule, I say poo-poo.
Here’s my finished product for today’s design. I wouldn’t say it’s my best design, but I’m happy. Really, how can you go wrong with succulents! I used aeoniums, aloes, and a couple of echeverrias for accent, arranged in an old trophy I bought at a garage sale. When I bring the arrangement home, it will go on display in the house for another month or two, then I’ll replant the pieces out in the yard.
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I’ve finally come up for air since the Flower Show last week. Always fun, super busy, and in the end, very satisfying. The floral designs were excellent and although I only got a third for my design (see April 20 post for picture), I did score a 90+, so I was happy.
My favorite design of the show, which was also a top winner, was built with bromiliads and aloe blooms. The colors were stunning and depicted “Olympic Flames” beautifully. (Unfortunately, the cell phone camera didn’t do this justice, but you get the idea.)
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The Coronado Flower Show is this Saturday and Sunday at Spreckels Park. The theme of this year’s show is “A FLORAL OLYMPIAD.” I have signed up to do a floral design in Section B. The theme of the section is Olympic Traditions and the class I’ve entered is The Olympic Rings. Having said that, it’s time for a design review!
Elements & Principals of Design are pretty fundamental in art, but I had never had a formal introduction to them until I went to Flower Show Judge School. In the class, especially at the beginning, I was a bit overwhelmed taking it all in, but it’s getting easier. Some people used acronyms they made up to help keep things straight, but it wasn’t sinking in for me until an instructor compared Elements to the ingredients of a recipe and Principals to the recipe. Poof, now I get it!!! Elements are the tangibles and Principles are how you use those tangibles.
Elements of Design
Color – The characteristic of light by which the individual perceives objects or light sources; how the eye sees and interpret wavelengths of light
Form – A three dimensional object
Light – Illumination necessary for vision
Line – One-dimension visual path through design
Pattern – design formed by solids and spaces between them
Size – the perceived or visual dimensions of components rather than actual dimensions
Space – the open area in and around a design
There are 3 kinds of space – total space, space within plant material, space established in design
Texture – Surface quality of a material
The only way I can remember the Elements is to put them in alphabetical order.
Principals of Design
Balance – visual balance or stability
Dominance – the greater impact of one element over the others
Contrast - use of opposite characteristics to emphasize differences
Rhythm – created by a dominant visual path of lines, forms, and/or colors in a design
Proportion – comparative relationship of areas and amounts
Scale – the size relationship of one object in a design compared to another
Some people use BADCROPS as an acronym to remember Principles. Drop the vowels and you have your PRINCIPLES.
I have realized over time that I use Elements and Principles in a lot of creative things I work on. If I had majored in art, I probably would have gotten this training in some form, but better late than never. I love learning something that changes my perspective, and the Elements and Principles were a biggie.
This is what I’m entering in the Coronado Flower Show. I wonder what the judges will think about my design.
Floral Design - Section B Theme: Olympic Traditions Class: The Olympic Rings
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I heard Barbara Paterson del Sol, Southwestern College Floral Design Instructor, speak at my garden club a couple of weeks ago. It always amazes me that there is always something else to learn!
Barbara talked a bit about cutting flowers. For aged flowers, past season, it’s better not to use cold water. Specifically, water temperature at 110 degrees will get pulled into the flower stem better. If the plants are wilted, hotter (hot enough to make tea) is better.
Flowers like their little trimmed feet in warm water, but they like their air temperature cooler. Storing flowers is typically done around 34 degrees. Sounds like flowers would like a day at a ski resort jacuzzi!
Barbara talked a little about soaking the whole flower because they will absorb through the leave and petals, too, but I don’t have much in the way of notes from her talk about that, and didn’t find anything on the internet so I don’t know what else to tell you on that! Input, anyone?
Stems should be recut every other day. Also, flush out the water at least every other day. Do as I say, not as I do. 
Another interesting tidbit from Barbara was about floral food. Plants need food to have strength to stay upright. The best preservative for flowers is (drumroll, please) half 7-UP/half water. Floral food, i.e. those little packets that usually come with a bouquet, is second best. I bought a jug of floral food a while back, but good to know about 7-UP. I can quench their thirst and mine!
Here are a couple of websites about floral conditioning:
I like this website because it addresses stems and foliage.
This primitive webpage is deceiving. There is direction about quite a few different flowers and how they should be conditioned.
Alright, go. Cut flowers. Condition. Enjoy…..
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A couple of months ago I created a simple arrangement with small mums, cat tails, and palm seed stems. I loved the simplicity, the colors, and textures of the arrangement.
After the mums faded out, I replaced them with succulent cuttings to give the design some longevity. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that the cat tails had other plans. I’m not sure what I thought their longevity was supposed to be, but I sure didn’t expect them to go to seed. I looked over one day to see the fluffy bulging cat tails and watched them get bigger and bigger over the next few days.
Finally, I took the design outside to the compost bin so I could extract the cat tails from the rest of the arrangement. Big mistake. I was a bit unprepared for how light and fluffly the seeds were so I created a huge mess that I trailed through the house. And Mi Esposo had just vacuumed. Oopsie, or should I say, lo siento!
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Last week I did an arrangement celebrating the colors of the season: Red, White and Green. I was pretty happy with the finished arrangement but I’m much happier with this week’s project. I bought two more batches of flowers from the Farmer’s Market, plus some carnations and mums from Costco which is a lot more extravagant than I usually go money-wise but, hey, it’s the holidays!
Last week’s bouquets were loaded with little red mums and white statice. This week’s bouquets came with pine greens and pepper berries, which I think created a softer overall look. Plus I added a lot more texture with the extra white mums and the red carnations. Same container, my beloved garage sale find, the patina’d urn. What do you think?
Ready for Christmas Eve dinner - NOT!
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