2010 August — British Cut Flowers

1960′s Flower Power

August 12, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

We are calling on the help of growers or flower specialists to ascertain the varieties of flowers grown commercially in 1960′s UK.

A request for help has been received from a floristry student who is researching the availability and historical use of flowers.

There appears to be plenty of information up to the 1930′s Art Deco period but very little for the 1960′s.

Our researcher is from the Richmond Adult Community College (RACC), who won a RHS silver medal at Hampton Court this year.

Our flower power era of the swinging sixties, saw great use of bold colour which was also probably reflected in the flowers and arrangements of the time.

Her research so far has led to the understanding that carnations, chrysanthemums, daisies, lilies, gladioli and roses were the main flowers grown for the cut flower market but she is trying to get confirmation that sunflowers and gerberas were also grown for commerical cutting.

As many of our commercial flower farms have been handed down through the generations, it is quite likely that some of them were in existence during the 1960′s.

Any help she can get with reference to colours and flower types will be much appreicated and you can add your thoughts via the comments box at the end of this article.

Many thanks Julie

Filed Under: Features, Q & A Tagged With: Adult Community, Appreicated, Art Deco, Chrysanthemums, Commercial Flower, Cut Flower, Daisies, Deco Period, Flower Farms, Flower Market, Flower Power, Flower Types, Gerberas, Gladioli, Hampton Court, Racc, Richmond Adult Community College, Silver Medal, Swinging Sixties, Varieties Of Flowers

Using perennials

August 9, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

If you are thinking of creating a cutting garden, consider perennials as well as or even instead of annuals.

The blog at “Flowers, Arrangements, Design” discusses this subject and shares some thoughts on cut flower garden design with a simple plan that many can use or adapt to suit their needs.

Perennial border in September

The picture of the herbaceous border opposite was taken in Mid September and there is still a wealth of blooms and foliage available.

Tall blue Echinops will even keep for winter displays whilst the lilac asters and white Anemone Japonica are always good as cut flowers.

A great many cut flower gardens use vast quantities of annuals, sown from seed each spring. These often give months of blooms but the season can be short lived. Many hours of sowing, pricking out and planting can be needed to get the best from the season.

Perennials not only provide year round interest and structure but give the flower arranger a longer season and foliage.

Even the seed heads of flowers look good in autumn and winter arrangements and evergreen foliage is always useful for bulking up a display and adding structure.

Perennials flower year after year and the regular cutting process forces the plant to put on more growth, often creating a second flush of blooms in the year and resulting in a larger plant the following season, which in turn will yield more flowers or foliage.

A wider range of flowers is available throughout the year and because perennials bloom at different times, your arrangements become more seasonal.

More information

Flowers, Arrangements, Design – Blog site dedicated to floral displays, gardens and ladscape

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Asters, Autumn And Winter, Bloom, Blooms, Cut Flower, Cut Flowers, Cutting Garden, Different Times, Echinops, Evergreen Foliage, Floral Displays, Flower Arranger, Flower Garden Design, Flower Gardens, Flowers Arrangements, Herbaceous Border, Japonica, Perennial Border, Perennials, Simple Plan

Fearless Flowers makes arranging easy

August 7, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

If you have always wanted to learn to arrange flowers for your home but don’t want to take the plunge with formal classes then Fearless Flowers is exactly what is needed.

We came across this site whilst on our web searches and were certainly impressed with the presentation and quality of the videos.

Annie Vanderwalker

Fearless Flowers is a virtual flower arranging workshop, the brainchild of Annie Vanderwalker who started the site at the insistence of her husband who appreciated her flower arrangements and thought other people would enjoy seeing them.

Although Annie was initially reluctant, he bought a video camera and filmed her taking a squash blossom and vine that was growing out of a garden refuse pile on their farm. “I curled the vine around a large flat container and set the blossom off to the side. He cut the video together and showed it to me, saying, If you can take flowers out of the trash and make something beautiful out of them, you’ve got a talent that others can appreciate.”

Two years and 130 videos later, the website is in full swing they and will soon have an iPhone app that will help people shop for flowers by showing them arrangements they can do and giving them the recipes. So if alstroemeria is on sale at the supermarket, you can go on your phone and find an alstroemeria arrangement you like, buy the flowers, and go home and do the arrangement.

By visiting fearlessflowers.com you will be able to see a video showing you exactly how to put the arrangement together.

Fearless Flowers offer a very reasonable year’s membership for only $29, half-year for $19 which gives you access to all videos on the site (currently over 70) and downloads of individual videos are $1.99. They also offer a DVD and gift memberships.

Annie says:

“I show you how to go beyond plunking flowers in a vase and do knockout arrangements that won’t cost you a lot of time or money. Pick the level you’re most comfortable with and dive right in. You’ll see how much fun fearless flower arranging can be.”

The Fearless Flowers website is very well written, concise and easy to navigate with many useful features including a section where guys can check out their own videos in ‘For Men Only’.

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: Annie, Blossom, Brainchild, Buy Flowers, Flower Arrangements, flower arranging, Full Swing, Gift Memberships, Half Year, Insistence, Iphone, Knockout, Plunge, Recipes, Squash, Supermarket, Trash, Vase, Video Camera, Vine, Virtual Flower, Web Searches

Flower classes demand in US

August 7, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Flower arranging classes in the US are seeing a marked increase in popularity with the young.

An article in the New York Times points to an upturn in demand for flower arranging classes and these are being attended by younger women.

In the UK, flower arranging always seems to have the unfortunate stigma of being attended by ladies of a certain age and of producing arrangements that are a little stayed and dated.

However, nothing could be further from the truth and there is a keen interest among younger women to learn how to arrange their home grown or shop bought posy.

With prices set to increase, a bunch of flowers needs to last as long as possible. Classes not only teach you how to create artistic arrangements but will help you get the best from your flowers by showing you how to condition and care for them.

Let us follow the trend of our friends ‘over the pond’ and learn to create stylish and fashionable displays.

Keep a look out in your local paper or college prospectus for night classes in flower arranging or contact your local NAFAS group, who will be only too happy to help.