All About Flowers – Our Blog | Flora2000.com

Looking for a new idea for your autumn centerpiece? This creative approach to floral design creates a luxurious tapestry of color and texture that begs you to touch. Yes, it is ok to touch the flowers. Go ahead! You can design with any flowers you like. My favorite flowers for pave’ designs are roses, sunflowers, chrysanthemums and statice. You can enhance the centerpiece with the addition of stones, shells, mosses, cones or seedpods. For a sophisticated touch, tuck in a few votive candles or a single fat pillar candle. Pave’ – a fabulous look you are going to love!

Native to the Mediterranean region, Lavender is a member of the mint family and is one of the oldest and most widely used of all flowers in the world.

Lavender is grown for its oil which is used as an antiseptic, insecticide and for aromatherapy. The flower buds are dried for potpourris and sachets. Lavender is used as a flavoring for pastries, teas, desserts and sugars. It is also used medicinally as an anti-inflammatory.

Each year, I look forward to making floral bouquets with fresh lavenders.

There are many Floral Design competitions throughout the world. In the United States, the most prestigious and longest running contest is “The Sylvia Cup”.  Hosted by the Society of American Florists (SAF), this competition is structured very much like an “Iron Chef” competition; selected top floral designers throughout the United States are given a surprise package of flowers and supplies, a surprise task and two hours to complete a fabulous design. The contest is a showcase for unique, creative and innovative floral design.

For centuries floral design has been accepted in Asia as an art form, yet only recently has the western world begun to accept floral design as a true art form.

In the late 1980s French Floral Designer Christian Tortu began his revolution of Floral Design as Art. Andrew Goldsworthy an accomplished English artist and sculptor raised awareness in the traditional art world through the use of flowers and organic materials in his work. Other significant floral artists include Gregor Lersch of Germany, Daniel Ost of Belgium, Elly lin of Twain, Damian Koh of Singapore, Hitomi Gilliam of Canada and John Haines of the United States.

Today there are organizations and art galleries in nearly every country of the world which feature floral design as art. Some of these include the American Institute of Floral Design, the Floral Art Society of New Zealand and the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies.

If you love flowers, make a point of visiting a Floral Art Exhibit sometime. You will be amazed.

There is always time for a backyard barbecue. Call your friends and throw the burgers on the grill. Plans to be made – checkerboard table clothes, plenty of napkins, fill the Ipod with dancing tunes and gather up the flowers.

For fresh inspiration, create a floral centerpiece in a watermelon or pick an excellent arrangement from Flora2000. Yes, fun, fresh and sure to put a smile on everyone’s face. Add candles to light up the evening and a pitcher of Mojitos with fresh mint from the garden. Mmmm… Sounds like a great time is about to begin.

There are so many flowers to choose from, where do I even begin? Pick your favorite color and choose one of everything you can find. Yes! That is the perfect answer. Mother Nature knew best when she designed the explosion of blooms at the end of the harvest. There is no need to limit yourself to just one variety. Gather one of every flower you can find – the more sizes, textures and shapes, the better.

Start with a small cluster of flowers and add individual stems into the bouquet at a slant. That is the magic trick! Place each bloom in at an angle and you will end up with a fabulous rounded bouquet. Before you know it, you have created a lovely bouquet. Pat yourself on the back for choosing such a grand collection of flowers and say thank you to Mother Nature for planning out the season of blossoms so well.

A drive through the countryside will surely bring you to an apple tree laden with fruit. And, of course, wild roses have grown gangly extending their branches out along the fence rows. Interesting tidbit of the day…did you know, the apple is a member of the Roseceae family? Yes, the rose and the apple are cousins. No wonder they work so well together in a floral arrangement.

Pick your favorites – green granny smith with green Jade roses, red delicious with red Freedom roses, and yellow golden delicious with yellow Emblem roses. Add a few foliages and you have a fabulous centerpiece. Soon you’ll declare “Hands off! Don’t be eating my apples. I need them for my flower arrangements”.

Grandparents Day, first observed in 1978, started small and has grown into a celebration of respect for all elders. Founder, Marian McQuade would be proud to see how it has grown beyond recognizing our blood relatives to including older friends, the elderly and the shut in. The day recognizes the contributions our senior citizens have brought to the world and allows us to focus on the wisdom and heritage that age can provide. What a wonderful opportunity to connect with our past. A gift of flowers is a wonderful way to say I love you and thank you for all you have done.

There is someone you know who deserves flowers for Grandparents Day

I love country fairs. I love to visit the exhibits of farm animals and flowers, eat snow cones and ride the Ferris wheel

There was a time when the country fair was a very important to the world of agriculture and floriculture. Breeders would gather to exhibit and showcase their animals, plants and flowers. Often there were competitions and winning the “Blue Ribbon” was not only important to the ego, but to the pocketbook as well. New seed stock was purchased, farming methods studied and breeding animals exchanged.

While many of the new varieties of today’s flowers are developed in the laboratory, the country fair was the laboratory of days gone by. And every once in a while; it’s the backyard breeder of flowers that develops a fabulous new variety.  Maybe that’s why I love the country fair so much. It’s a chance to see a new flower blossoms and to eat snow cones too.

Since time immemorial small bouquets of flowers have been given as a greeting or gift. These bouquets share a number of names; nosegay, posey and tussie mussie are the most common. In medieval times the nosegay (literally – to keep the nose happy) was carried or worn or carried around the head or bodice to mask the foul street smells of the time. Over time the nosegay evolved into today’s corsage.

The tussie mussie is a small, tightly made bouquet assembled with a carefully chosen selection of flowers and herbs with each item in the bouquet having a specific meaning. During the era of Queen Victoria the tussie mussie was wildly popular in England among young lovers as a way to send secret messages to each other.

I made the tussie mussie pictured for my young niece who was giving her very first dance recital. The flowers used have the following meanings:

Blue Hyacinth – Kindliness

Daffodil – Gracefulness

Heather – Admiration

Cherry Red Rose – Sweetness

Rosebuds – Beauty and youth

Coral Rose and Golden Rod – Good Fortune

St John’s-Wort – Protection

Is there someone that you would like to send a secret message to?