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celebratoryTopic: Flower Facts
What is flower taping?
This is the technique of covering wires with a specially manufactured tape. A good florist must be able to tape materials quickly and neatly, and in the beginning this will take practice. Wired stems are taped for the reasons given below.
- Taping conceals the wires, giving protection and a professional appearance that heightens the general public’s appreciation of the florist’s skills.
- Sealing the stem with tape gives a natural appearance and holds in the moisture, prolonging the life of the materials that can no longer take up water.
Prepare the flowers or foliage for taping. Hold the item to be taped in your left hand (if right- handed), between your thumb and forefinger, and the tape in your right hand, again between the thumb and forefinger (reverse the positions if you are left handed). Gently rotate the item, so that tape winds around the top of the stem, then stretch the tape against the stem, at a 45 degree angle. When it comes time to have the flowers delivered Headley Park all of this work would already have been done.
Continue to rotate the item carefully, stretching the tape and at the same time moving down the support wire, ensuring that the tape covers the wire. Twist the tape onto itself to seal the end. The taping has now created the required natural stem-like appearance.
Door Garlands
After the tree, the door garland or wreath is the most popular festive design. Its cheerful colours and pungent aroma of pine offer a true seasonal welcome.
Many people prefer to keep to traditional materials, such as holly, mistletoe and ivy, and to colours such as red and green, but it is possible to incorporate other materials and colours.
Door garlands are a traditional symbol of welcome and hospitality, dating back to ancient Persia. The Greeks also used garlands or wreaths made from greenery such as olive or laurel in their ancient Olympic games, and laurel is still used in the victors’ chaplets. In those times, evergreen plant materials were an obvious choice for wreaths, as many cultures worshipped evergreens such as laurel, mistletoe or holly.
To present-day florists, the advantage of garlands is that they keep fresh throughout the festive season. Whatever the end use of a garland, be adventurous in your ideas and try out unusual combinations of flowers Hackney and foliage, making designs that are unique, bold and stunning.
A traditional base of moss wired onto a frame is still the most popular way of forming a garland, but materials such as straw, vines, wisteria and honeysuckle make wonderful alternatives, and have the additional bonus of needing no wire frame. Whatever the frame, it can be decorated with a wide variety of materials, including nuts, cones, berries, apples, tangerines, kumquats, and even fungi.
Too hot to handle
While some flower species can't tolerate lots of hot summer weather, the half hardy annuals may sometimes droop in this weather but they will perk up in the later summer months. You can choose some tender annuals like scarlet sage, morning glory, petunias, begonias, celosia, balsam, nasturtium, and verbena. Flowers that can withstand almost anything a Queensland winter has to throw at it can be found in the local shop you use to get your flowers delivered Stafford Heights. Always do your homework prior to planting as some plants just can't handle the heat of summer.
Bulbs’ Resistance to Cold
Summer-flowering bulbs come from so many parts of the world and are available at virtually every Charing Cross flower shop. They belong to so many genera that they have few things in common except that they bloom sometime between spring and fall. Some, like most lilies and camassias, originated in cold climates and are hardy enough to survive winters outdoors anywhere in most climate zones. Others such as the caladium, which is native to the banks of jungle rivers in South America, are tender, or susceptible to cold; even their dormant tubers cannot stand temperatures that fall lower than 55°. In most areas such bulbs must be dug up in fall before the ground freezes if they are to be saved for flowering the next year. Resistance to cold (or the lack of it) determines not only how a bulb should be handled during winter but also when it should be set out to grow in the garden.
Swags and Garlands
Swags and garlands are wonderful additions to any decor. Drape them over a dresser or down the length of a dining table, or hang them over a mantel, mirror, doorway, entrance or headboard. Start by measuring the area where the swag will hang. Remember to keep swags of dried material well away from fire or extreme heat where they may be a fire hazard. Use a sturdy base constructed of wire, heavy woven jute or a Styrofoam form. Wire together two lush branches cut to size for a natural-looking swag base. Attached at the middle, they naturally provide small twig shapes that will serve as bases for the dried flowers to be wired or glued onto. The winter holidays are a perfect time to use evergreen roping for your base. It is sold at a Crumpsall flower shop by the yard.
Wire several dried flowers together to form bouquets. It is best to make all of the small bouquets out of the same flowers. Lay the individual bouquets along the swag base and secure each with a piece of wire long enough to be twisted along the entire length of the swag. If you like, ribbons or bows can be incorporated into swags as you go. Swags can be made to celebrate each season: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Designing an event
Many people agree that flowers are one of the most important elements in any event design. From big parties to small get-togethers, flowers can bring that added touch of elegance to any setting. If you are planning to appoint a florist for your event, discuss what you want to achieve with your flowers. Many people do not know what they require and will be left with disappointing flowers. Lots of hosts or organizers hire florists that can turn out to be a disappointing investment. If you follow the rules laid out within this blog, you will find a good Koreatown florist that knows exactly what you like and can use flowers to reinforce the mood you wish to create. Never be afraid to ask your floral reseller to show you some examples of their work so that you can judge for yourself if they are the ones you wish to work with.
The Prolific Floribundas
The hardy floribunda roses, with their large, distinctive clusters of flowers, are the result of the crossing by a Danish rose breeder of the beautiful but relatively fragile hybrid tea rose with the sturdy polyantha, a dwarf rose noted for its dense bunches of tiny blossoms,. Since then the floribundas have become second only to the hybrid teas in popularity among rose gardeners, and the amount of the flowers delivered Wilmington each year is impressive. Today hundreds of varieties fill gardens with great puffs of color all summer long, and are often used as informal hedges and as borders for sidewalks, walls and building foundations.
The five-petaled flowers of Betty Prior, a popular floribunda rose, closely resemble pink dogwood in shape, size and color, and have a pleasant, spicy fragrance. Like many older floribundas, this variety is usually grown as a shrub or as a hedge. It was introduced in 1938.
Europeana is one of the newer floribundas bred to provide handsome flowers suitable for cutting. A single cut stem can supply an instant bouquet of nearly two dozen large, brilliant red blossoms, each one containing as many as 25 to 30 ruffled petals.
Go for something different
Flowers such as zinnia, tall phlox, peony, foxglove, sunflowers and others will be fresher than those that have been shipped long distances to a retail florist. You may find flowers that you love, but never realized were available as a cut flower. Always do your homework first, that is the golden rule here. If the flowers arrive on your wedding day and are not what was expected, then its too late to do anything about it.
Finding a reputable local florist to fulfill your flower delivery Midway North can be easier than you think. Check the local telephone directory and do some internet searches. They can give you names of florists in your area. Local farmers markets are also a great place to locate a local flower grower.
Feeding and repotting Orchids
Most orchids benefit from a specialist orchid fertilizer that is fed as a weak solution and applied once a week. To do this, use only half the amount mentioned on the packet. The type of fertilizer will depend on what your orchid is growing in, so it is wise to check that first.
Sooner or later, unfortunately, the orchid is going to need repotting. Remove the old mix from the pot, being careful not to damage the roots. Rinse the roots and trim off any hollow or mushy ones, as they are considered dead. Place the plant into a new pot, orchids apparently like being root-bound, so there should only be about 1' between the roots and the edge of the pot. Add the new mix/medium to the pot, tapping the sides to make sure it settles properly. Press gently to settle the plant but don't use too much force or the roots may break. Use a stick to support the plant in the pot so it is secure. If your plant is growing in sphagnum moss, make sure it is damp before wrapping it round the roots and repotting, that way you don't have to worry about pockets of air. After repotting, the plant should not be watered for 3 - 5 days to allow it to recover. A flower delivery Hammels from your local florist should have some instructions on how to do this correctly.
Need more?
This information is brought to you by the Flower Baron. Another great resource for flower and florist information is Flower Power.