How to Arrange Flowers

I love to keep flowers in my home. I buy them in winter when none are growing in my yard or the flowering plants in the greenhouse are resting. I never feel like my arrangements are just the way I want them. I found a wonderful blog about how to arrange flowers today and rather than try to tell you all I found, I'm posting the link with the terrific pictures for you here.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

http://www.ballardstylestudio.com/2012/11/flower-arrangement-ideas/

How to have beautiful roses and flower arrangements too

A cheap natural trick for beautiful roses:  flatten a banana peel and bury it approximately 1 inch deep at the base of each rose bush. Bananas contain Potassium and roses love potassium. Potassium also helps with disease resistance too - for roses as well as humans :-)

A few tips for keeping fresh flowers such as roses and other blooms fresh longer in arrangements:

* Remove any leaves that would be under the water, But don't remove the thorns from rose stems. This seems to shorten the life of their blooms,. Most florists remove the thorns for safety reasons but you can leave them on the ones you bring in from your own garden. 

*Lukewarm water is best for most cut flowers, but use Cold water for flowers that grew from bulbs like daffodils, Tulips, etc.

  *Do not place fruit near your cut flowers.  Fruit releases natural gas that will cause your flowers to die or wilt sooner. 

  *Keep your arrangement away from direct sunlight too.

 Here is a recipe for homemade flower bloom preservative:

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice to 1 qt water, 1 Tablespoon Sugar & 1/2 teas bleach, 1 aspirin and a penny - yes, a penny! It's the copper. Drop a penny in a vase of tulips to keep the flowers from opening too soon. 

Tips for Using Hosta in Floral Arrangements

Sum and Substance Hosta

Whether jumbo like the Sum and Substance above (grandson Tad is my best garden helper!) or miniature like the little Blue Mouse ears at right, Hosta make a unique addition to a floral arrangement. The flowers of many Hosta are beautiful and fragrant.  The ones in the picture below are from my Choo Choo Train variety that lines one of my garden paths. Both the leaves and flowers of this one are pretty with my pink surprise lilies - we call them naked ladies here in the south. :-) The painting of the old Amqui Train Station is by my husband Bill. Bill is an accomplished artist and I'm pretty proud of him. Below are steps to making the vase lined arrangement.

Hosta bloom and leaves with lilies 

hosta leaves line the vase

            

  To line a vase with Hosta leaves choose leaves that will fit inside your vase and be totally submerged in the water. I chose small new leaves from one of my dark green Hosta to contrast with the lime foliage and Red Knock Out Roses (picture above).
 Start by deciding how many leaves it will take to go around your vase, lapping over each other. It took 3 leaves to go around my 4 inch square vase.
 I started in one corner and pressed the leaves up against the side of the vase. Now add other leaves behind the first keeping the stems hidden behind the  leaves.                                                                                       

press 1st leaf against the side

Continue until the vase is covered. Add water and flowers. The leaves will stay green and fresh for days!

 leaves overlapping around the vase

leaves covered with water