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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


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

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


Kilcoan Gardens in Northern Ireland

July 27, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Kilcoan Gardens is a recently established business, growing & arranging cut flowers in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Kilcoan mixed jug arrangement

Kilcoan mixed jug arrangement

Cherry Townsend took up gardening as a hobby about 12 years ago, after her son was born.  This hobby soon turned into an obsession and a few years ago Cherry decided that she would like to be able to earn a living from her love of flowers.

Inspired by an article in Country Living magazine about Jane Lindsey at Snapdragon Gardens in Scotland, Cherry set about converting some of her parents land into her dream business and Kilcoan Gardens was born.

Their old shetland pony was swiftly moved from the prime spot and Cherry started planting. She was fortunate to have an extensive mature garden in situ of 2 acres, featuring a wide range of shrubs and perennials.

With plenty of material to propagate from, the gardens soon started to bloom. A mild maritime climate on the peninsula of Islandmagee (but with plenty of wind!) means considerably less frost than inland, so flowers like dahlias continue for several weeks longer than in gardens further from the coast.

Kilcoan Gardens is currently selling at local farmers’ markets and delivering hand tied bouquets to the local area and through the

Kilcoan Gardens are ablaze with summer colour

Kilcoan Gardens are ablaze with summer colour

website, Cherry hopes to be delivering freshly cut, locally grown flowers throughout Northern Ireland very soon.

Everything at Kilcoan Gardens is seasonal and tended by Cherrys’ own hand.  The extensive range includes; annuals, perennials, herbs, roses and cut flower foliage and berries.

Fresh cut flower arrangements, range from hand tied posies to larger bouquets. Kilcoan Gardens also sell organically grown perennials and herbs.

Seasonal Christmas products include; wreaths, table arrangements and narcissus and iris bulbs which have been forced for a beautiful indoor display. Seasonal arrangements are also available for Mother’s Day and Easter.

All enquiries are welcome, with mail order flowers available soon.

Kilcoan Gardens take pride in being environmentally aware and use recycled materials and packaging wherever possible.

More information

Kilcoangardens.com

Country Living Magazine

Filed Under: Features, Industry Focus Tagged With: Christmas Products, Co Antrim, Cut Flower, Cut Flowers, Cutting Garden, Dream Business, Flower Arrangements, Hand Tied Bouquets, Iris Bulbs, Jug, Local Farmers Markets, Mature Garden, Mild Maritime Climate, Narcissus, Northern Ireland, Perennials, Prime Spot, Shetland Pony, Snapdragon, Summer Colour, Table Arrangements


World Cup Flowers

June 12, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Many florists are getting into the football spirit and producing window displays featuring World Cup themes.

Vandella Flowers in Carlisle is one such high street florist.

Vandella Flowers of Carlisle

Vandella Flowers of Carlisle

They have produced three large window displays at their store in Carlisle, Cumbria.

With an England theme limiting the designers to white and red, the colours of St. George,  the challenge of producing a display was no doubt quite hard.

Sadly they may have had to resort to some non British cut flowers to pull the task off.

Limited colour pallet

With Scotland, Ireland and Wales not in the World Cup the British florist is somewhat stuck with two colours to work with.

Carnations are the staple of the flower designer providing a multitude of colours.

Here are a few ideas for seasonal flowers to populate your display

World Cup floral display with England theme

World Cup floral display with England theme

England colour scheme – red and white

  • Carnations – red and white
  • Roses – red and white
  • Poppies – red and white
  • Daisy family including agyranthemum
  • Ranunculus –  red and white
  • Lilly – including Lily of the Valley, Asian Lily,
  • Red fruits including the strawberry would work for a short duration table display.
  • Cow parsley in abundance from British hedgerows is an ideal white bulk flower to fill out any display.
  • Japanese Iris and Iris Germanica can be garden grown and provides structure and architecture.
  • Pieris – new leaf growth on this shrub is often in shades of red.

Share your designs

Have you produced a World Cup themed display for your window or maybe produced an exhibit for a local horticultural show?

You may have gone really wild and produced displays for all 32 teams.

Let us know about it, via the contact us form,  so we can feature a gallery of your designs and plant lists over the next few weeks.

Filed Under: Features, Showcase Tagged With: Argyranthemum, British Hedgerows, Carlisle Cumbria, Cow Parsley, Cut Flowers, Daisy Family, England, Flower Designer, football, Iris Germanica, Japanese Iris, Leaf Growth, Lily Of The Valley, No Doubt, Ranunculus, Red And White Roses, Scotland Ireland, Seasonal Flowers, Street Florist, Structure And Architecture, Vandella, White Daisy, White Lilly, Window Displays, World Cup


Holker Show 2010

June 6, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Floral arrangements at this Year’s Holker Garden Festival, took us on a journey around the world.

Reds, oranges and yellows featured in some very creative designs.

Floral demonstrations were hosted by Ken Hough and Noreen Fishburn who will both be on the Chelsea Flower Show team for 2011 representing NAFAS.

Best in show was won by Mrs S Wareing, with her simple but stunning design “England’s Green and Pleasant Land” made from native plants that could easily be sourced from any garden.

The wonderful miniature arrangements in the “Luck of the Irish” category were truly captivating.

Gallery

This SlideShowPro photo gallery requires the Flash Player plugin and a web browser with JavaScript enabled.

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: Chelsea Flower Show, Creative Designs, Demonstrations, England, Fishburn, Floral Arrangements, Garden Flower, Journey, Ken Hough, Native Plants, Noreen, Oranges, Reds, S Green, Stunning Design, Wareing, Yellows
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