Have you ever seen somebody kind of pinching the rose heads….I do it sometimes….it is a way to see how firm the roses are….generally, the firmer they are, the fresher they are…..but NOT ALWAYS true. Some rose varieties are just softer because of the petal counts or the way the petals open. A rose that comes to mind is a POLO rose. It is a white rose that opens up like an old fashioned rose, even though it technically is not an old fashioned rose. Those rose heads will typically be softer when you pinch them. They also are not a bright white. The picture above contains POLO roses.

Another soft rose is an Osiana, which is a beautiful shade of peach. It doesn’t have a super big petal count and therefore is typically softer to the pinch than other roses. The Osiana rose is the rose on the right below this post.

Besides the pinch test, there are other things to look for when buying roses. The stems should look and feel straight and strong, as opposed to limp and weak. The heads should be upright with no drooping petals. The foliage should not be yellowing or falling off. You’ll also want to be sure they don’t show signs of insect problems or fungal disease. If you see anything on the stem or just below the flower head that looks like gray mold…don’t buy the roses!

Next time, I have more Rose tips and pointers for what to do after you get your lovely roses home! See you then.

A good way to think of it is that you are creating the arrangement in sections. The focal flowers, the supporting flowers and then the fillers. Following this simple guideline, you can expand the number depending on the size of the arrangement you are looking to make. Keeping scale in mind, you should cut your stems and adjust the height of each group so that the visual effect is to draw the view’s eye around the arrangement. For instance, the most basic arrangement would have 3 focal flowers, 3 supporting flowers and then 3 fillers. Expanding the size of your arrangement is very easy from this starting point, but always make sure that your star attraction, the focal flower does not get lost when adding additional flowers to each level.

But before you toss in the shears and walk away, let me give you a simple quick fix that will help put that sparkle into your arrangement. Most of the time this happens because the overall arrangement is too light or too dark. Adding in a little contrast to your arrangement will help to balance the colors you’ve chosen. For arrangements that appear too dark, try adding some white flowers. Right away the arrangement will brighten up and the white flowers will add great contrast, making your darker blossoms stand out the way you had imagined they would.

If your arrangement feels too light or washed out to you, add some dark purple. Dark purple booms help add the needed contrast in an arrangement that is too light. They give that added contrast and frame out the lighter blooms to create that much needed focal point.
 

Be sure to cut the stems on an angle. Cutting them off straight or hammering the stems will increase the chance that bacteria could grown and cause your flowers to wilt prematurely.

Place your cut flowers loosely in a bucket of cool clean water that has been prepared with flower preservative in it. If you are making a large arrangement, having a second and possibly a third bucket available will help to keep your flowers from being crushed in on each other. This will also help eliminate the risk of bruised petals.

If you have purchased your flowers from a local florist, flower market or wholesaler, they will come to you already cut and wrapped. Once you get them home, you will need to re-cut them on an angle, so that the fresh cut stems will be able to absorb water more readily. You can then place them in buckets just like you would do with flowers chosen from your own garden and get ready to start your creation!

On the East coast they have some water picks available that I have never seen on the West Coast.  I am determined to find them, even if I have to have them shipped from New York!  The water picks had a tube on the end of them about 1 inch long and a hyacinth stick fit perfectly into the tube allowing you to easily extend the length of a flower stem for inserting into an arrangement.  A lot of the floral arrangements done by Preston Bailey Designs are HUGE and long stemmed flowers are a must for these, so the water picks with the hyacinth stick fittings were used on almost everything they did for the second course.

One of the highlights of my trip was dinner at Preston Bailey’s home.  His chef prepared a raw food meal for us and for those unwilling to try the vegan diet, Preston also had tilapia and pizza.  The dessert was ice cream and cookies (again all made via the RAW FOOD principles, which means completely vegan and nothing cooked over 104 degrees).  I don’t understand how they make ice cream and cookies this way, but they were fantastic!  It is also good for you and your waistline.  Preston says it is keeping him young!  Hats off to Chef Dana.

Another highlight was meeting Theo Bleckmann, Preston’s partner and musician extraordinaire!  Theo travels the world performing and teaching music and singing.

We’re working frantically now with the editors to get the Fundamental Floral Design course online by 9/27/11.  It will be available at www.lovegevity.com initially.  Over time, it will be available at 2000 colleges and universities across the United States.  The course is also being produced in Spanish.  The intermediate course will be available shortly after the Fundamentals course is live….Very Exciting stuff covered in the intermediate course, which includes ALL Preston Bailey designs including structures, chandeliers, walls, trees and so much more.

Your wedding colors and flowers create a perfect personalized image of your wedding day is.  But, creating the right combination of colors can be daunting.  There are four basic color scheme definitions and knowing a little about each will definitely help you as you think out what colors will make your special day perfect.  Of course, the first thing you should select are the types of flowers that you want which will dictate to some degree the colors that you chose.  A color wheel is a great tool to have as you sit and plan out your wedding.

Related or monochromatic colors -This is one of the easiest schemes to create because it takes one color and uses various hues of that same color, such as pale pink, pink, red, dark red.  You can prevent this scheme from looking bland by mixing up the types of flowers that you are using within the arrangement.  This will help create diversity and great eye appeal as well as keeping with the related theme.

Complimentary Colors – These are colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel.  Examples are yellow and violet or red and green.  If you think about it, a lot of what we think of as traditional holiday colors are just complimentary colors on the color wheel.  You can even take this a step further and use some eliments of the Monochromaic scheme and give a wide variety of visual appeal by using various hues of your complimentary colors.

Triadic Colors -  This scheme is a little more difficult and consists of using three colors on the color wheel that appear in equal distance to each other.  Or form the shape of a triangle as shown in the image.  They don’t compliment each other and may be more difficult to work with.  An example of triadic colors would be blue, yellow and red, or purple, orange and green.

Discordant Colors – This color scheme is one of the most difficult to put together and is best left to the professionals.  It is made up of two sets of complementary colors.  It takes great skill to put these together without ending up with a clash of color.

Even if you have followed every step, chosen your flowers carefully, followed every precaution, there is always the potential for your flowers to droop.  One of the biggest causes of this could be something known as a stem air lock.  When this happens, flowers are prevented from getting enough moisture and that causes them to start to wilt.  But there are ways to help restore your flowers and help ease wilting or drooping.

Make sure to take them to a cool room with as little direct sunlight or bright lights as possible, since heat and bright light will add to the situation.  And some flowers are more susceptible than others, Tulips for example are very temperamental and can droop and loose arrangement shape.

Wrapping your bouquets in tightly wrapped newspaper, covering the stems and blooms, then placing them in a container full of cool water, deep enough just about cover them for 2 hours will help ease the wilting or drooping.

If the petals have started to open too soon, carefully placing a pipe cleaner around each bloom during this time period will help to hold it to the shape and size you need it to be.

For drooping stems, you might want to carefully prick them with a pin just below the flower head.  This helps to release any air that might have been trapped inside, which created the airlock that prevented them from taking in enough moisture.   And if your stems do not respond to this, you can always use floral wire up through the center of each stem to help straighten it out over it’s entire length.

I buy my flowers, most of the time, from the San Francisco Flower Market.  I grew up in San Francisco and visited the flower market before I was a florist.  It is a fascinating place to visit.  It is so BIG.  There are two main warehouses know to the florists as the Japanese side and the Italian side.  I just watched a video produced by J TV about a recent visit to the San Francisco Flower Market and want to share it with you.

You will be able to see for yourself just how big the San Francisco Flower Market is.  I have bought flowers from everyone you will see Jay interviewing.  Enjoy your peek at the San Francisco Flower Market.  And, everything they all say about “family” is so true!

We’re having another Recessionista Bridal Workshop….if you are looking for ways to save money on your wedding, this is the place for you to be.  We’re giving out Swag Bags filled with all kinds of goodies for you, door prizes, great hands-on experiences, food sampling and so much more.

Where:      Tre Events, 1212 Howe Ave., Sacramento, Ca.

When:       August 15, 2010

Time:       1:00 – 4:00 PM

This workshop is FREE to you and your guest, but you must pre-register at www.recessionistabridalworkshop.com