Extend The Life Of Your Lilies With This Simple Trick
Removing The Pollen Can Be Dirty Business
Yes, removing the pollen in your lilies can be dirty business, but as the saying goes…somebody’s got to do it! By removing the pollen from your lilies you can actually extend the life of your lilies by an additional day or two. But, that’s not the only reason you should remove this powdery substance.
Whether you are working with day lilies, enchantment lilies, oriental lilies, asiatic lilies…they all have stamens that once they mature will turn to a powdery pollen that will stain anything they touch. Most times your florist will remove the pollen from the lilies, but sometimes your lilies will arrive with a closed bud and it will be up to you to remove these stamens of pollen once the lily has popped open.
Read More»Floral Design Can Be A Messy Business
WD-40 Is My Answer To Removing Glue & Paint
The beauty of choosing floral design as a career is that we get to make such beautiful works of art out of flowers and other botanicals. But behind the scenes, it’s a very messy job!
We work alot with wet foliages, pollen, mosses, sticks and all types of botanical products that are just by nature dirty during the process. And then, of course, you have to add in all of the variety of glues that we use, sealers, enhancers and paints to make our products prettier and to ensure they last as long as possible. At the end of the day the florist industry is a very messy business.
I often laugh because you’d think that a since a floral designer works with nothing but pretty flowers and exotic plants all day that their work environment would be so clean and perfect. And yet, when we go home our clothes and hands are sometimes dirtier than those of a mechanic!
Read More»Mossed Orbs Add Whimsy To Floral Arrangements
Yes, We Used Ping Pong Balls!
One of the reasons I love my job is that I get to create unique and beautiful things from some of the strangest items ever! And, this week was no different.
I was walking through the Sporting Goods department at a local store and noticed their ping pong balls. Now, most people would immediately think about playing a game of ping pong and the fun they would have competing to be the winner. But not me….no…..I immediately think about moss. Can you imagine….how did I come up with mossed orbs. As soon as I saw the ping pong balls all I could think about was how I could cover these balls with moss and use them in my flower arrangements. And then, I started thinking about how cool they would look covered in a variety of leaves…creating texture and depth.
Read More»Planting Dusty Miller For Floral Arrangements
Hues of Gray For Your Arrangements
If you are looking to make your floral arrangements look unique and have an interesting texture, you can always rely on using Dusty Miller plants to achieve that goal.
Known for it’s silvery-gray fern like foliage, Dusty Miller is also known as Silver Dust due to it’s silver hue foliage. I love working with this foliage in my floral arrangements because it’s color reflects well off of the other darker green foliages in arrangements.
Read More»Using Greening Pins On Green Sheet Moss
Learn How To Rust Greening Pins
I love to use green sheet moss to cover my floral foam when designing a floral arrangement. You can use green sheet moss to cover styrofoam when using permanent botanical arrangements or you can use it to cover your floral foam when you’re designing with fresh flowers.
Many times people will just take a green floral wire and cut it approximately 4 inches long and then bend it into the shape of a hair pin to create a pick that will hold the moss in place once you have put it on top of your foam. However, professional florists use greening pins. These pins are used to secure a variety of things in the floral industry, but I love to use them to hold my green sheet moss in place.
Read More»Using Sheet Moss In Flower Arrangements
Sheet Moss For Fresh or Permanent Botanicals
Using fresh green sheet moss is one of the “florists tricks” to concealing the foam in your container. Most of you have had some experience with the gray Spanish Moss, but this video shows you how to use Green Sheet Moss.
You can use the Green Sheet Moss for permanent botanical arrangements or for fresh floral arrangements. I do, however, recommend that if you are using it with fresh flowers to totally saturate the moss before covering your foam. If you add dry sheet moss on top of wet floral foam, the moss will act like a wick and absorb your water from your foam…taking water from your flowers!
Read More»Planting Forsythia For Flower Arrangements
Flowers From Your Yard
Forsythia bushes make a beautiful addition to your landscaping efforts. But, the real beauty of these bushes is that we can cut the forsythia branches and use them in our fresh cut flower arrangements. In the Winter you can cut the branches and use them to create Winter-scape arrangements. When Spring arrives you will have prolific yellow bell shaped blooms to use in your arrangements. And, then in the Summer, you will be able to use the branches as they have leafed out. They create beautiful branches of foliage for your DIY Flower Arrangements.
Read More»Why You Should Plant Forsythia Shrubs
Yellow Bells In Your Yard
One of the first shrubs to bloom here in Southern Tennessee is the Forsythia bush. You can’t miss them because after a long cold and damp winter of gray and brown….out of no where you will see the yellow blooms profusely popping out all over the land.
Read More»How To Decorate A Christmas Garland For Your Mantle
- At December 14, 2014
- By Jerry Williamson
- In How To Video
0
In this video I show you step-by-step how to decorate a permanent Christmas Garland and give it a lavish look to display on your mantle, over a doorway, hang it on a wall, or even use it as a centerpiece down the center of your dining room table.
If you would like to know how to make the base of the garland (the trick I used) Click Here To Watch That Video first…then come back to this video to finish up your Christmas Garland.
Also, if you’d like to watch me as I decorate an artificial Christmas Wreath, just Click Here To Watch That Video.
This Amazon link is my affiliate link. When you purchase from clicking here…I receive a small commission from Amazon. You pay no more than normal. Although the commission is a small amount, I really appreciate you using my link!
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Make Your Christmas Garland Look Fresh and Real
- At December 07, 2014
- By Jerry Williamson
- In How To Video
- 0
This short video will give you a few tips that will help ensure that when you take your Christmas Garland or Christmas Wreath out of the box it can look fresh and real. Whether you have had the garland stored since last Christmas or if you just received it in a shipment from a retailer, you need to know these tips to make your garland look alive, fresh and real. These tips will make your garland look like it was installed by a professional florist and that’s what you always want to achieve when decorating.