Interest in a Cut Flower/Floral Design forum?

celt, I really enjoyed your arrangements posted on the hyperlinked thread!

Next time I trim my fan palm, look out.

Here are some run of the mill, ho hum, ordinary arrangements from last year:

Mixed daffodils

Iris, dame's rocket, snowball viburnum, hosta leaves, etc:

Iris and Peonies

Larkspur, roses, yarrow, nigella, coreopsis,etc

for some reason, DG is cropping the top and bottom off my vertical pictures!

We're going to be forced to do "square" arrangements in order for our pictures to post correctly!

Here is a simple one....'Spellbinder' daffodil.

Just for fun, here is an arrangement of cuttings in a water fountain I made of shells:

Alright, last one for today....another water fountain. Water is barely visible trickling out of center square jug:

Life is Good!!!!!

Where do you get these wonderful fountains?

Oh, I made them for a garden club program. They are easy to make but hard to keep clean!

They only require a $5 pump, a bit of flexible plastic tubing, and and inverted flower pot. Then you just pile up whatever you collect, add water, and turn it on.
After a while, the plant components get nasty and it all has to be disassembled and cleaned, which is tiresome. Mine just sit around without water now!

Thanks for calling them wonderful anyway. That made me feel good.

TD
Thank's very much ,it's all a learning curve for me right now and i got a good pointer from Gemini Sage. I love all the flowers you have, they're so happy looking . Unfortunately flowers are not so abundant in tropical plants and I'm reluctant to cut them when they do finally arrive, but the foilage will take over if its not kept in check so there's pleanty to utilise indoors.

This message was edited Apr 5, 2007 10:49 PM

Susan, I used to use a lot of pennies in my fountains to thwart the gunk. Unfortunately our pennies are merely copper coated now.

thanks for the compliment gemini.

Toxic--very nice arrangements and love those fountains too; sure hope you have more pic's to share in the future . . .

sure hope we get a forum for cut flowers too . . .

Thanks for the tip Darius. I still have some of those old pennies around.
However, I also have 3 cats in the house and one of them likes to drink out of the fountains. (that's why they need to be clean) So would it be safe for that?

Thanks for your nice compliments everyone. My floral arrangements are usually not very fancy, just plopped in a vase and set out of the cats' reach. Usually I have to keep them on my kitchen stovetop...that is one place they don't get to visit! So you will notice the same area in my backgrounds a lot, LOL.
Any tips for keeping the kitties from knocking over vases?

Here are some tulips, ragwort, bluebells, phlox:

Another casual spring bouquet. The alstroemeria was from my greenhouse. A fellow DGer sent me a piece a few years ago.

For some reason, I'm not taking summer and fall bouquet pictures I guess.
A forum could motivate some of us to do better!

My cats always drank out of my fountain and I never saw any ill effects.

Thanks, Darius.
Guess I better get moving. My yard is covered with buckets, reemay, etc and it didn't even frost last night. Supposed to get really nasty cold the next 3 nights though (low 20's). I don't know if covering the plants will be enough for that kind of freeze, but I have to try.
Catch you all later...have a happy Good Friday.
Susan

Susan

If you come up with a way to keep your cats from knocking over your flower arrangements then pass it on cause I have one big fat cat (weights about 14 lbs) that has knocked over my arrangements a couple of times. And he's not supposed to be on the counters in the kitchen but he doesn't listen very well and there's not much you can do if you want to get sleep at night which is his usual "prowling on forbidden places" time. I wake up and walk in the kitchen to water and flowers everywhere. I shake my fist at him and threaten to kill him but he's still here. hahahaha

I love your arrangements; it's the different combinations of flowers that make them nice and you usually use several different types of flowers in each one. My problem is I don't have enough cut flower types that can go in an arrangement. Right now I have snaps; this summer I'll have zinnias. Do you have large gardens????

Patty

In courses I took many years ago I learned that you use flowers in odd numbers: 1,3,5,etc.
Also I learned that fewer flowers w/SOME greenery (called filler) are better than too many flowers. The odd number of flowers make the focal point and can be arranged in triangle, round or eliptical shapes but too many flowers make the arrangement just a hodge-podge.We used to be given lots of flowers - everyone had the same flowers and we could use any they wanted and make the arrangements. These were to be informal bouquets not rigid, formal arrangements. We would make our arrangements and the teacher would critique each one. Out the stems came and we would start over - time and time again. At the end of the session most of us had a pleasing arrangement using not too many stems. We learned to cut off the stems or add to the stems to make them the correct height, etc. We learned to wire flowers so that they would go at an angle or curve. It was fun and we really learned! It was a gratifying experience. The teachers were local florists and they were happy to teach us.

Ann

I would also like to see a forum for this. It's one of the main reasons I grow perennials. At one time, I had nearly all daylilies in the yard, and nothing to cut and bring in the house or to work. In the last few years I have been trying to plant a lot more perennials back into the beds for making vases of flowers for inside.

I've never had any formal training, and wish there were classes I could take locally. I've spent many hours pouring over library books etc. on the subject! I have a large variety of vases of all sorts I have been buying at flea markets and so on.

Peonies will be in bloom soon.... I can't wait. They are my favorite for bringing in. I have quite a few types... but the big huge "bomb" types never stay upright in the garden. Makes a good excuse for cutting them all and bringing inside. The pale pinks, and deep roses look lovely in a deep cobalt blue vase I found.

I think it is great if someone wants to learn floral arranging from the professionals, but i think we were talking in the beginning about new ideas of what we could bring in the house.....I am hoping that people will post regardless of what they formally know about "rules" of the floral industry....mine certainly won't be professionally done and floral arranging it not my passion....growing and bringing in the house....plop in a vase......
We can all enjoy a cutting flower/floral arrangements in this forum....please post your peonies when you cut them!!!!!
Thanks everyone, taxicodendron and everyone for the great pictures.....
this is fun!!!!

When I first bought my acreage 25 years ago, I brought home an armful of Joepye weed and goldenrod and made a huge bouquet in a big old brown potter water jug. When my Mom visited, she made a big fuss about my container of weeds. Well, here we are years later, and the best nurseries are selling both joepye weedd and goldenrod as perennials! LOLOL

I have fun finding all sorts of things in the woods and fields to add to vases!

oh...and by the way... even though I said I have spent hours pouring over photos in books from the library on flower arranging and wish I could take classes..... this does not mean that I know anything at all about really putting a good looking arrangement together when faced with the vase and a bucket of fresh cut flowers. I think one of my downfalls is that I just LOVE foliages of all kinds and get a little "over the top" adding in fillers of all kinds. I need to take a lesson from the person above who said to use less stems in the vase, make it simpler! I try to stuff to much in there!!!!

My very favorite arrangements to do are tiny vases. I have a handful of tiny little vases... maybe 2-3 inches tall. Small little flowers like violas, epimediums, little dianthus like Tiny Rubies, lavender spikes... etc. It can be a challenge. These are usually the ones I take to work. I have a way of packing them in my lunchbox to transport inside a plastic container to keep them from getting crushed.

This would be a really fun forum! I was just thinking today I'd like to have a dedicated cutting garden because I love arranging.
Here are my Hyacinths I cut to save them from the freeze. I think there's three cultivars in this pic, I added another cultivar today.

Lana

This message was edited Apr 7, 2007 5:20 AM

Patty,

Yes, I do have large gardens. Or did, until this freeze situation!
I, like so many others here, am addicted to plants, plants, more plants, can't stop getting plants....can't take care of all the plants....give away some and then immediately acquire more....but it is truly wonderful to have an abundance for cut flowers. If I only have a few blooms it is really difficult to go lop them off.

Daylily,

The wonders that can be found along roadsides, woods, etc are great additions to bouquets (if it is legal to pick them, don't try that in Colorado, for instance). I only take a few, and never take any unless they are abundant. Usually they come from my own very extensive roadsides.
As to picking daylilies for bouquets: I find myself waiting until the last few flowers are forming on the stalk, then hate to cut it for that reason! So I am increasing my daylily gardens to have more to harvest.
Otherwise, I pick a few single blooms and make a silly looking arrangement like this one (which I made just to document some bloom colors, I think):

My very first daylilies arrived in the mail yesterday.....my heart just smiles.....Aren't we all addicted?? That's why we are sitting on DG!!!! I have always had a cutting garden because my grandma did......if I have nothing else, I will have a cutting garden...This summer will have to be limited as our summers are scorching hot....think I will just grow gladiolus, all kinds of zinnias, cosmos and the new bombay series of celosia..unless you all can help me think of anything else....(I grow down at the garden in rows so that I can lay drip hoses on each row)...
gail

Gail--what day lilies did you receive? My coleus are looking better every day--the colors are becoming more pronounced. I'm wondering if I will need to bring them in the house tonight.

Patty, I dmailed you....it is saying a low of 38 with a chill factor of 33....wouldn't leave my tender plants unprotected...they may survive but this weather will really set them back.....
I ordered a lot of daylilies from www.dianesseeds.com
She grows them in Utah....we will find out whether they will grow here or not....she is in a cold cold climate...from now on I will buy from growers in warmer climates, but they are giant...never seen such a big root system....I would have to go back and look at my order...just told her to send me 15 or 20 to get started....
She is a wonderful person...Diane Linsley...also a DGer I think....

Did you order evergreens? I ordered four daylilies last year--one evergreen, two semi's, and one dormant; they were named but I don't remember them. The only one that made it was the evergreen (Joylene Nichol) so evergreen is all I buy. I bought one other when I was in Houston visiting RJ--it was 'Carmen Marie'--both are a pink. I don't know if Carmen Marie bloomed last year; I bought it late in the season. I've pretty much quit buying any more day lilies simply from lack of space. I do think the named ones are beautiful. I think I have two others--Praire Blue Eyes and a Plum one that i don't remember the name. I at one time thought about having a flower bed for just day lilies but where would I put it. Just no space. I guess I should take my husband up on his offer to move us out in the country. he hates living in town says I could have a green house and big flower beds. The thought of starting over and leaving what I have now is daunting. I'm sure you can relate huh????

Patty, Patty, Patty....you are talking to a lady who, as an adult, has moved over 15 times....I love moving...but now I will stay put as I am 25 or 30 years older than you!!! Come on out to the country...(perferably close to me!!) Diane said she was going to try to give me daylilies which did not require dormancy...

I went out for a short drive up into the hills today, and found some wildflowers in bloom. Picked a few along side of road, as luckily had a container and some water. Here is what I did with them after I got home. I don't have time to go look up their correct name so will call them what we called them when kids.

On the right are buttercups, and some of the birdybeaks, then bluebells and finally the tiny white flowers we called baby faces. They smelled so wonderful when fresh picked.

Donna

Donna! Your picture makes my heart sing. Thank you!

OK, where's the forum.
Is there a specific number of people who have to support it ?
Do we have to go and campaign? LOL

Anyway, here's my latest tropical leaf creation, It's my tallest so far. I'm calling this one "Lush Echo" because of the "tacca" (bat plant) leaves in the back

Neil

Hi, Everyone. I love this forum! Hope it will continue. Your pictures are sooo helpful. My garden club began having an "arrangement of the month" by one of our members at each meeting this year. Though none of us is into professional arranging we've had fun. After the meeting we take the arrangement to one of the local nursing homes so they can be enjoyed by the residents. I'm posting the one that I made for December.

I can't stop now. (LOL)

Love the pictures.....thanks for sharing your enthusiasm for a forum like this!!!

Donna, I never heard anyone call shooting stars "birdybeaks" but I love it! Ours here in Missouri are white or pink, not the dramatic purple of yours. The colors in your multivase arrangement are gorgeous.

Neil, another great foliage arrangement!

sos, I love yours, too...what it the palm-like foliage?

This thread is getting really long. If we don't get our forum soon, we will have to start another thread anyway!

Oh, I forgot my bouquet de jour. Here are some Iris 'Eleanore Roosevelt', columbine, tulips, etc that I picked to keep them from freezing.

Happy Easter everyone, I hope you all have your bonnets on. I'm going to break down and see if i can buy some cut tropical stems today. After looking all all these great displays I'm jealous of all the colour, so i'll try to add some to mine.

Gem-- just wanted to say that the floral design forum is a great idea! Thanks for thinking of it.

Below is a pic from the Cincy Art Museum's 'Art in Bloom' exhibit 2006. (I didn't enter a design, but I'd like to get good enough to enter next year!)