Flower Arranging - Lots of Flower Arranging!

Monday 15th June

A usual day today, Jamie at school, Mike on a day off, so we pottered around doing bits and pieces and then went off to do our own things and it isn't any surprise that I have spent quite a bit of time flower arranging today. Even though I made 3 arrangements, I made no impact on the flowers, or that's how it felt. I went out and begged and borrowed some foliage from neighbours and here is what I did.




This is a parallel or continental arrangement, also one of my favourites to do as it can look striking. I have used orange roses (they maybe Babe or Marie-Claire but that is just a guess), orange gerbera, yellow/red spray chrysanthemum and carthamus. The roses and gerbera are done in line arrangements and the chrysanthemums and carthamus I've group in the middle around the hazel. I like keeping to a single colour palette too, as I believe it gives extra impact (and that particular colour works so well in our living room!) I've used a variety of foliage including fatsia, laurel, ivy amongst others which gives a variety of sizes and colours. I used some contorted hazel to add a bit of architectural interest. The 'mechanics' are oasis in an opaque glass dish. I love the dish as it works perfectly for this size continental arrangement. I was very happy with the arrangement.


I followed that with a line arrangement, which I did using oasis sat in a small black dish, which I then sat in an identical but larger black dish. I like making arrangements in black containers. I have used a phormium/cordyline to give the height and structure at the back of the arrangement and used them in the arrangement folded into hoops to give added interest at the bottom and take the foliage through the arrangement. Similar foliage to the last arrangement, with a couple of hoops of lime green sisal for some added interest on the left. Then a simple line arrangement of 5 orange gerbera, which I wired and guttered to give them added support and hopefully make them last a little longer. This is another of my favourite styles of arrangements, I like this one particularly because of the space that you can have in and around the arrangement, the clean and clear lines and that it looks so modern and contemporary.






Finally I did a small arrangement in an art-deco style tea-pot. I'd originally bought this to give to someone as a present, she was, at that time, like me into art-deco pottery, but it was another one of the things that she was 'into' for a brief period before she was 'into' something else, so I decided to keep it for myself and also managed to find a jug and coffee cup to match it, so I was very happy. Note to myself here I must blog about my pottery collection as I am still into my art-deco pottery, sadly it can be a bit too expensive at times, and also collect pottery by an Irish potter called Jack O'Patsy which is modern and I truly love it, it gives me lots of pleasure and is also super to use in my flower arranging.


This was a round, table centre, posy type arrangement, kind of cottage garden, chocolate box arrangement in a way. I used a tiny bit of foliage, wired individual stock flowers, peony and carthamus. I tried to use white/cream, green and orange to reflect the colours in the tea-pot. I'm not sure about this one, as it is not my own personal taste, but feel it is important to challenge myself and now wish I had done tiny complementary arrangements in the cup and jug - maybe next time. The photo also doesn't really show the arrangement at its best, another note to self, must do a short photography course, I did one years and years ago, but camera technology has come such a long way since then, need to learn it all again!


Hope you like them, and I would love to hear what other flower arrangers, florists have to say.

Ciao

Sue

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