Sue's Family, Flowers and Fun Stuff: September Flower Club

Flower Club seems to come round more quickly month by month and here we were again, after dropping Jamie at cubs I headed off to pick up my friend J and then we headed off to club, both eagerly looking forward to the designs we were going to see. I was also looking forward to showing J and S (my darling old tutor and mentor) all the photos from The Bucks County Show and giving them all of the details of the show itself. I took some photos along and quite a few of the other ladies from flower club were interested in the photos too - I seem to be the only one who competes at the moment, it would be nice to get some others interested and then we might be able to form a team for the Nationals or even Chelsea (no calm down Sue!!).

So the demonstrator was, as usual, brilliant and I totally loved her designs - here they are with just a couple of comments from me!

J and S really really loved this one and whilst it makes really good use of the stand and the aspidistra leaf manipulation is good, I just feel that the anthurium get lost in the design and they don't have the impact they can have, I feel it may be down to the lightness of the colour of the wood, but fully understood why the demonstrator had used it. I may have used a different colour chrysanthemum - a pinker one but I am not being critical as she may not have been able to have sourced the colour she really wanted either way - it is a lovely design.

The stand for this one is so interesting (but not the most interesting she used in the evening) and her use of accessories was really good too. You cannot tell from this picture but the roses were the most amazing colour, sadly she didn't have the variety but they were a stunning shade of orange, a real wow colour.

I didn't get a good angle on this arrangement for this photo, but it was a pair of arrangements which flowed one into the other and then back again, in shades of pink and green. Her containers were again very unusual, a wicker-twig effect wreath ring is the best description and the arrangement was lovely. There is a lot of variety of colour, shape and texture in this arrangement too, which is essential in all arrangements. The dense fatsia, contrasts with the fronds of the palm leaf and then wisps of ming fern (which is also great for covering up the mechanics of any arrangements). Lots of variety in the shapes of flowers too which adds to the interest in the arrangements. A lovely arrangement.

One of my favourites of the night, the simplicity, drama and sophistication of black, white and green takes some beating for me and I really really loved this one. A very simple design with the flowers, but when you have roses as beautiful as these were, you really don't need to overpower them with much of anything else. Again her container was brilliant, I think it was a garden planter which had been sprayed black and something I am going to have a go at when I find the right planter but I love the shape of this one. I love Mitsumata (the twigs in the middle of the design giving the height which balances the height of the container and I now have an idea of how to use the flat midelino sticks which are pretty new onto the market, which the demonstrator used to add movement and texture to the left of the arrangement (as we look at it) which also balances the palm leaves on the right.

My favourite of the night is, I think, the pair designed on the large silver balls, which were by far the most interesting containers of the night, on a night when the demonstrator had some of the most unusual and cleverly used containers of any of the demonstrators that I've seen. In this instance she had used light shades and as soon as I can find some like these then I will be getting myself at least one as it is the perfect shape to make a crescent arrangement on, as you can see in the picture below. At first I thought she had made them herself out of the aluminium wire which is available from florist wholesalers but chatting to her later she said she had bought them, envious - yes I was!!

I love this one particularly with its lovely shape and think these would look really good for a wedding reception, one of those very girly pink and silvery do's!! Silver can be quite a hard colour to work with but teaming it with pink does the trick. The soft ruscus and dendrobium really do all of the hard work in getting the shape of the crescent, really love this. She contrasted the pinks with a very pale green carnation which just adds an extra colour into the mix (she called it pistachio but it may also be known as prado pino).