The Future is Bright!

When I walked in to week two of my floristry course I was intrigued to see buckets of orange flowers awaiting us. When our tutor told us the names of the flowers - 'Lion King' carnations and 'Miss Piggy' roses I couldn't help but laugh at how appropriate they were. The ruffled petals of the carnation certainly looked a bit like a lions mane and you could easily associate the tightly curled petals of the rose with a snout or a tail!

On closer inspection of course the flowers had beautiful varying shades of coral, salmon, orange and peach all of which looked in harmony next to each other. Our project for this week was to make a section hand-tied bouquet, and we would also be using aspidistra and aralia leaves. The first task was to group the flowers into small sections using the foliage to wrap the flowers.

Then each of the smaller sections were combined to create a larger arrangement, using the foliage to divide and frame the clusters of flowers within the bouquet. Some people have a phobia about carnations, as they have a history of being associated with funerals and garage forecourts, but by combining and grouping three of them together, they take on a different aesthetic and almost look like a completely different flower which I think is stunning. 

I think my celosia got a little bit lost in the bouquet as I didn't have them up high enough, and so, after a few days at home I decided to give them pride of place in a smaller hand tied posy. I dissected my section hand-tied bouquet and practised my spiral design again to create what I think would actually make a lovely wedding bouquet for the more adventurous bride! And even though our tutor tries to steer us away from clashing colours, I couldn't resist putting this little arrangement in a bright turquoise ceramic jug.

I think the colours totally pop against each other and look pretty cool actually!