Flower: Orchids
Max Life Span: Three weeks
Longevity Tips: “Orchids are easy,” says Lower East Side florist Elizabeth Ryan. “Just keep the water fresh and recut stems a quarter-inch every three or four days.” Cymbidium orchids last longest.

Flower: Mums, carnations, gladiolas
Max Life Span: Two to three weeks
Longevity Tips: Get gladiolas while some blooms are still closed, then snap off the top bud to help lower ones bloom. For mums, scrape the bottom two or three inches gently with clippers. Open carnations with your fingers and fluff the petals.

Flower: Flowering branches (azaleas, rhododendrons, cherries, dogwoods)
Max Life Span: Up to two weeks
Longevity Tips: Scrape the stem at the bottom, and use clippers to split it up the center three to four inches. Local branches like libernum and crab apple are much more fragile and will collapse after five or six days.

Flower: Lilies
Max Life Span: Up to two weeks
Longevity Tips: Pluck the first round of blooms as they die to help the second round. Removing pollen when it’s still hard can help lengthen life span.

Flower: Roses
Max Life Span: Ten Days
Longevity Tips: Pinch the rose. “If it feels meaty, buy it. If it feels mushy, don’t,” says Ryan. For the longest life, keep in cool water. To time full blooms for a party, use warm water instead.

Flower: Local peonies
Max Life Span: Ten days
Longevity Tips: Buy them tight, when they look like golf balls, and you should get ten days out of them.

Flower: Tropical flowers (ginger, heliconia)
Max Life Span: One week plus
Longevity Tips: Ryan recommends an old florists’ trick: Spray with Pam or olive oil to help lock in moisture.

Flower: Gerbera daisies
Max Life Span: One week plus
Longevity Tips: Gerbera stems tend to grow weak, even when the flower is strong. Do like many Korean delis do, and prop them up with a plastic straw. Or go the old-fashioned route and use a wire.

Flower: Irises
Max Life Span: Under a week
Longevity Tips: The freshest ones are completely closed. “Peel back the outer green covering like a banana to help it bloom,” says Ryan. Or just buy stems that have already opened a little.

~ katie charles ny magazine

Think about all of the unusual, unexpected and fun things you already have around the house that can hold water and interest. Here’s a short list to get your creative ideas going:

• Old watering cans, enamelware pitchers, cast iron kettles, antique coal hods and teapots make great bases for doorstep arrangements, country kitchens or baths.

• Ready for a fun and creative project? Collect an assortment of plain bottles, vases or containers and decorate them with fabric, ribbons, paint, sequins or even gift-wrap. Make each design unique, or come up with a special motif.

• A row of champagne glasses with a large blossom in each makes any dinner an elegant occasion. Soda bottles, wine bottles, mason jars or colored glass bottles are great for a more casual affair and are also attractive clustered on a coffee table.

• Use bowls and shallow dishes for floating flower heads and add floating candles for a bright and shining effect.

• Here’s the great cover-up. Use flowers to hide unsightly flaws. A ding on your living room wall? Put a table in front and a container of flowers to mask it until you have the time to repair and paint. A water stain on your mahogany side table? Cover it with a container of your favorite cut stems.

The possibilities are as many and varied as there are flowers.

photo courtesy www.realsimple.com

Today, you can use flowers to enhance any color palette and create any number of decorating effects. You can even use flowers in place of traditional home décor items. For a window treatment, imagine a row of simple vases holding your favorite flowers, instead of the usual curtains. For artwork, how about hanging a vase of flowers instead of a watercolor?

Flowers in the bathroom? Why not! A simple plastic tumbler filled with fragrant blossoms makes an attractive air freshener.

Add a touch of romance in your bedroom with a few beautiful stems that complement or accent the color of your linens or wallpaper. Or make visitors feel extra special with a bright bunch of cut flowers sitting pretty on the guest room nightstand.

courtesy www.bhg.com

Any job is more enjoyable when the surroundings are cheerful and attractive. So make an executive decision to decorate your home office with cut flowers. Fill a coffee mug with a few stems and use it as a paperweight. Or fill two matching vases with flowers and use them as bookends. Create a bright light with just a couple colorful stems on your desk.

Basil and oregano aren’t the only spices that can liven up your kitchen! A few well placed arrangements can help spice up your kitchen, too. So quit staring at the timer and start enjoying all of your kitchen spaces. And make sure you add flowers to your shopping list this week!

Cut flowers are a lovely and fun way to greet guests at your front door. For a wonderful welcome sign, attach a basket of fresh flowers to your door knocker, hang just a few stems with a beautiful bow, or fill some milk bottles with your favorite flowers and set them on the front steps. Create a great first impression in your entrance hall or foyer with a small bouquet in a crystal pitcher or an umbrella stand filled with a few dramatic long stems.

Spots on your linen napkins? A single or double stem placed over the spot makes a great “stain remover.” Or, use fresh stems for napkin rings at your next summer barbecue. Simply bend the stem around the napkin, slip knot it, and clip off the excess.

For the dining table, go for something intimate and intriguing. Put a single, short stem in a shot glass or individual mini-vase and set one at each place setting. What a great way to give every guest a fragrant favor to take home.

As you can see, the possibilities truly are endless for decorating with fresh cut flowers. In the family room, fill an empty fireplace with a big bucket of flowers. Or arrange a variety of containers with cut stems across your fireplace mantle.

For an instant laundry brightener, rinse out an old bleach or detergent bottle, fill it with cut flowers and place it on your washing machine or shelf. It’ll help lighten the load on washday! And don’t let your staircase go bare! Create a “stepped” effect with a series of flowers in interesting containers.

courtesy of lessake

Now you get the picture.

Expand your ideas to different areas throughout your home. The important thing is to have fun and enjoy.

Here is a nice idea to welcome your favorite teacher back to school – or maybe get off on the right foot with a new one! It’s a lovely and simple arrangement that would look just as good with plain yellow pencils and whatever flower happens to be your teacher’s favorite.

Materials:

• Coffee mug
• Approximately 30 colored pencils (approx. 10-inches in length)
• brick dry floral foam
• 3 stems orange spray roses
• 3 stems orange daisy mums
• 1 rubberband
• Plastic cup that fits inside the coffee mug
• Floral clippers, scissors, knife and preservative

Directions:

• Step 1 – Cut the foam to fit the bottom of the coffee mug. Do not soak the foam in water.
• Step 2 – Next, with the pointed end up, begin inserting the pencils inside and around the rim of the mug. The floral foam will help the pencils stay in place. The pencils sometimes do NOT line up perfectly but that’s okay.
• Step 3 – Cut the plastic cup, if necessary, so that the top of the cup meets the top of the mug. Now set it inside the mug and fill it with water that has been treated with floral preservative.
• Step 4 – Cut the lateral stems of each flower off the main stem; then gather the flowers in your hand and rubberband them together. When gathering the stems try to get all the blooms as the same height.
• Step 5 – Finally, cut the stems so that when placed in the cup their blooms meet the tops of the pencils.

These lovely simple hanging jars would be wonderful for a garden wedding or backyard party.

Miss Cherry Pie at Wedding Bee designed these ones for her wedding and the delicate dahlias look wonderful, but I also think they would look fantastic with some wildflowers and sunflowers.  A simple bow tied around the jar would be a nice touch too.  Miss Cherry Pie suggested hanging these jars with tealights as another decoration idea.

I think you could even put waterproof electric tea lights in the bottom of your jars for a little added drama.

Instructions for creating the hanging jars like Miss Cherry Pie’s are on her site at Wedding Bee.

Here are some great tips from Darcy Logan at Do It Yourself to keep your cut flowers lasting as long as possible.

Nothing is more depressing than wilting or dying flowers. Keep your bouquets lasting longer by following these simple tips.

1.    Check the water level in the container as soon as you get the flowers in the house. This includes any flowers that were delivered.

2.    Cut garden flowers early in the morning. Flowers that are cut on a hot day won’t last as long because the heat of the sun draws moisture away from the petals

3.    The ideal temperature for flowers is between 40ºF and 50ºF. Store your flowers in your fridge overnight will make them last longer. If they won’t fit in your fridge, place them on the floor in the coolest room in your house at night.

4.    Remove all leaves from the part of the stem that is submerged under water.

5.    You can clean the stems by lightly brushing them with a vegetable brush. This not only helps the flowers, but it will keep the water cleaner.

6.    Cut flowers will last longer if the stems are prepared correctly. Preparing the stems helps them take up water quickly. To prepare stems:
•    Cut about one-half inch off the end of the stem at about a forty-five degree angle. Don’t use dull scissors to cut the stems because they can crush the stem.
•    For best results, cut the stems underwater. Cutting them under water prevents air from getting into the veins in the stem of your flower.
•    Split all stems about one-half inch from the bottom with a knife or crush the bottom of the stem with a mallet (if the stems are woody).
•    Place the stems in deep water and leave them there for a few hours before moving them into shallower water.

7.    An airlock could develop in tulips and hellebores and prevent water in the stem from getting to the flower. To prevent this, pierce through the stem at intervals with a needle.

8.    Change the water and mist the flowers with water everyday. If it is difficult to remove the flowers from the vase, use a turkey baster to remove the water.

9.    Use water that is a mixture one tablespoon of bleach per quart of water. The bleach will keep the water cleaner and kill any stench from the water.

10.    To keep water looking nicer in glass vases, try adding a few drops of food coloring to the water.

11.    A teaspoon of sugar added to the water will help renew flowers.

12.    Keep the flowers out of direct sun and away from heat and drafts. Even a fan can cause flowers to wilt quicker.

13.    Use a straw to fix or stabilize any broken or drooping stems.

14.    To prevent tulips from flopping over, wrap them tightly in wet newspaper and then place them in about two to three inches of water. Leave them there for about two hours. Push small pins through the stems just below the flower heads and they will stay soldier straight.

15.    Remove any dying flowers immediately. Dying flowers emit ethylene gas that will cause the other, healthy flowers to wilt.

I’ve eaten flowers in salad (pansies were good, marigolds I’m not so fond of) and had candied flowers, so I was excited to find this wonderful article at Wise Bread about edible flowers.  Linsey Knerl, the article’s writer,  has includes some great links, including a couple lists of flowers that are edible and those that are poisonous – make sure to check the list carefully before snacking!  Also, keep in mind that flowers you’ve sprayed with pesticides aren’t good for eating, even if the flowers themselves aren’t poisonous you don’t want to ingest those harmful chemicals.

Those of you with gardens are probably entering a new season of produce. Squash plants are getting icky, but they are still producing more zucchini and summer varieties than you can handle. If you are looking for a bit of variety in your day, why not give the flowers a try!

While picking her dozens of zucchini and summer squash last week, my always resourceful mother commented that I should try eating the squash flowers. “Come again?” Yep, she knew all about frying the flowers for food. I had heard of flowers for salads and such, but never squash flowers, and never frying them.

Well, I took some home (the male flowers only) and I washed them, cut off the green bottoms, and the inside boy parts (this would be the stamen for those who are anatomically aware). I dipped them in a bowl of eggs, and then in a bowl of seasoned bread crumbs. Two minutes in a hot bath of vegetable oil, and I got the most mouth watering, crunchy delights. They had a floral hint, but tasted more like a delicious fried thing that I can’t describe.

If you get the chance, this is what it is all about! I enjoyed the flowers with some fried zucchini, summer squash, and mushrooms. This would also be dandy as a tempura. The kids even ate them!

I began searching frantically for even more flower recipes. My eyes were opened to the world of Stuffed Nasturtiums, Lavender Cookies, and Squash Flower Soup. With even more research, I found that most of us eat flowers everyday and didn’t even know it. (Ever hear of a clever flower called broccoli?)

While you most certainly can plant edible flowers for the sole purpose of a nifty new recipe, your most budget-friendly approach is to grab a checklist of the safe flowers to eat and get foraging! (Please note that there are also some very common flowers in most yards that are very poisonous. If you don’t know what it is, please don’t eat it.)

Rose hips, nasturtiums, bachelor button, apple blossoms, carnation, coriander, sweet Williams, honeysuckle, lotus, and glads are just a few of the hundreds of edible flowers just waiting to be fried, baked, or boiled into a delicious gourmet meal. For even more inspiration, check out Edible Flowers by Kathy Brown, or visit your local extension office website for some great entertaining ideas for an edible flower get-together everyone will enjoy.

And if flowers don’t float your boat, you can always revisit Andrea Dickson’s article on Edible Weeds.

This is from the Official Olympic Website:

Fresh flowers are everywhere to be seen and smelled in the Fengtai Flower Distribution Center. Here, over 1,500 kinds of flowers have been carefully selected for use in the many display areas and during the various kinds of Olympic ceremonies. In August, these high-quality flowers will be sent safely and accurately to the various Olympic venues.

The Center covers 2,600 square meters, and is set up for research and development, processing, production, packaging, and distribution. Already, there is a link between the Center and other flower centers throughout the country, wherein flowers can be sent directly to the base to be prepared for Olympic presentation, after which an air-conditioned vehicle will transport the end products to the Olympic venues.

To date, the Center is equipped with six air-tight vehicles to meet requirements for the “Good Luck Beijing” series of sports events. For the Olympic Games in August, that number is expected to rise to 30. After the Games, the Center will still serve floral fans, customizing arrangements to meet the needs of customers, offering top service to local residents.

From the time the flower is picked to the time it reaches the athletes’ hands, only 6-8 hours would have passed.

Early every morning, according to the needs of the day, flower pickers will send the appropriate number of flowers to the distribution center. Flowers that have spent the night not rooted to soil will be abandoned.

Dozens of professional flower arrangers will be at work, tailoring bouquets to meet vigorous guidelines. Even stem length and the number of leaves per flower will be scrutinized and standardized.

During the Games, the Fengtai Flower Distribution Center will be quite busy preparing hundreds of flowers each day to meet the needs of the Olympics.

With a strict timeline, flowers are guaranteed to reach athletes’ hands fresh. According to a representative of the Center, fresh flowers can only be really kept fresh (after they are uprooted) for about half a day. 6-8 hours after a flower has been picked is when it shines the most; thus, only flowers that are taken out of the ground and delivered to athletes within that time frame will be used in presentation bouquets.

It’s not enough to ensure timeliness of delivery. In order for flowers to appear beautifully fresh, transportation methods must take into account temperature and humidity. Each bouquet will have its own special, insulated, waterproof, tailor-made “freshness preservation box” to ensure no damage or water loss.

After being placed in the box, the “freshness preservation boxes” are then carefully stacked into air-tight vehicles. The temperature must be controlled inside the car, standing at a steady 10-15 degrees Celsius.

“Protection Experts” to escort flowers

As the flowers begin their journey in the moving vehicle, they are accompanied by special “protection experts.” These professionals have been rigorously trained to deal with any sort of flower mishap during transportation.

Upon their arrival at the Olympic venue, special “flower receivers” will move the boxes into designated rooms for flower storage, also kept at a steady 10-15 degrees Celsius. At this point, only a “protection expert” can handle the flowers. His job is to remove the flowers from the boxes and thoroughly examine them for any sign of damage or deformation. If anything happened to the bouquet during transportation, this “protection expert” will immediately take charge, substituting the offensive flower with one that has been sitting on the “bench.”

Basic One-Minute Arranging

If you’re in a hurry and you’ve just picked up some bouquets from the grocer’s you can pump up the impact of a mixed bouquet with these quick ideas

photo source: www.realsimple.com

• Cut the stems really short and arrange them in a low, medium-wide vase.
• Group flowers of the same color into clusters, rather than evenly distributing all the different varieties, to create little focal points where the eye can rest.

Bouquet Makeover

Usually grocery store bouquets need a bit of work when you get them home. Choose flowers for the colors and shapes – you can make your own arrangements that will be more personal and look fantastic.

photo source:www.realsimple.com

• Take it apart, separating the medium- and large-size flowers from the smaller fillers and greenery.
• Bunch the larger flowers in your hand until you have a grouping you like.
• Gauge the proper height of the flowers by standing them next to the container and trim appropriately.
• Begin tucking in the small and thin flowers and greenery to fill in any gaps left by the larger flower heads.
• Place in a fun container

One-Color Wonder

One mixed bouquet in varying shades of one color can yield multiple arrangements if you’re willing to take the arrangement apart.

photo source: www.realsimple.com

• Separate the bouquet into two or three smaller bunches.
• Cut one flower to each stem at varying heights.
• Create several smaller arrangements in jars or colored glasses and group them together or spread them throughout your home for a bit of sweetness in every room.

Target Practice

Grab a few bouquets of zinnias in multiple colors for a playful arrangement.

Just One, Please

There’s virtually no arranging to do when you divide a bouquet into single stems and place them in a collection of bottles or glasses.

www.realsimple.com

One-Blossom Stunner

Could this be any easier? Create this high-style display almost instantly with a pretty glass and a single bloom.

An ice cream dish, a champagne bowl, and a martini glass all make attractive vessels for floating a showy dahlia.

A bit of fiveleaf akebia vine gives the display an organic quality. Try any handy (nonpoisonous!) garden vine, such as wisteria or trumpet vine.

photo source:www.realsimple.com

Filler Panache

Inexpensive bouquet fillers warrant an arrangement of their own – don’t be afraid to try something different!

]]> http://alternateflorality.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/quick-arrangement-tips/feed/ 0 alternateflorality www.realsimple.com www.realsimple.com www.realsimple.com www.realsimple.com www.realsimple.com http://alternateflorality.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/paper-daisies/ http://alternateflorality.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/paper-daisies/#comments Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:21:25 +0000 alternateflorality http://alternateflorality.wordpress.com/?p=75 ]]>

Here’s a nice alternative to silk flowers – paper ones that you make yourself.

These daisies are surprisingly elegant and yet very simple. All you need to make them is:

1. Paper
2. Hot glue gun with glue sticks
3. A craft knife
4. A circle template
5. Floral wire and green floral tape for making the daisy stems

The tutorial and flower pattern can be found at CraftStylish by Jeffery Ruddell.