Greener Weddings

Read this on a mug today..."Imagine what you can do if you could not fail".  Sometimes I think it takes that giant leap of faith to start a new venture or to try something new.  This week we took a few steps toward a small dream I have been having...to start a small flower farm.

We have five acres of hilly, gravelly land that in the past, we have planted with fruits and vegetables.  Two years ago we moved our veggie garden closer to our home which left our old garden unused.  We also have an unused greenhouse that we built a few years ago.  My biggest excuses so far for not planting flowers have been:

• 1. I don't have the time to take on such a huge project, and
• 2. How can I get perfect looking flowers by using organic methods? 

Who would have guessed that a recent purchase of tulip bulbs would jump start my dream of growing flowers.  My husband Mike encouraged me to use our old garden space for flowers and also helped to plant it.  Still worried that I won't have time to take care of flowers during the middle of a busy wedding season.  Maybe if we start small...I'm thinking it will all work out. 


1/4/12 Garden update!  Busy researching, ordering and planning my little flower farm and ordering lots of seeds and plants.

Here is an awesome website if you are planning a cut flower garden.  You can input soil type, growing location (we are 5 in Ohio), etc.  http://www.selectseeds.com/cgi-bin/htmlos.cgi/04182.20.1156915100022947165

Make sure to select the cut flower option.  Have fun planning your garden, and check back to see the progress on ours.

We at Blooming Flowers have been Earth friendly since we started our business in 2003.  We use biodegradable or recyclable materials whenever possible, compost, recycle and go paperless whenever possible.

Thanksgiving Centerpiece Flowers

I have been thinking and planning for a few weeks on how to bring a rustic feel to our church Thanksgiving potluck. After many futile hours of drilling holes to set OASIS foam down into a log, a friend suggested I build the arrangement on top of the log, and cover the foam mechanics with moss.  Thinking about this problem for awhile, I decided to use the little green round plastic design bowls; they worked perfectly.  The flowers were easier to transport separate from the logs and the arrangements could be taken home easily after the event.

Dear hubby and our friend Ed helped with all of the "log logistics"...the cutting and drilling of the wood.  The tall logs were difficult to cut square, but the shorter ones at 4" tall worked perfectly.  The only 8" log to be square enough to use, is shown in the picture above.

To dress up the plastic table cloths up a bit, I purchased two yards of burlap and simply cut it into five, 14" pieces.  I was going to sew the long edge, but they were holding up ok, with only a little bit of fraying and since I was short on time, I left them unsewn.  The burlap runners are about five feet long.

The candles pictured above were my favorite decoration for this event.  Dear hubby used a chop saw to cut twelve pieces of wood from a 4 inch diameter log.  I started drilling them with a 1 1/2 inch drill bit and drilled down far enough to fit the Hobby Lobby tea lights that were on sale, 100 for $3.  They are supposed to have a 3-5 hour burn time, but I pre-tested them and got only 1 1/2 hour burn time.  Sooo, I found some different tea lights that also had a 3-5 hour burn time, but the candle itself was thicker and had more wax.  My husband used a drill press to drill deeper holes, so now the bigger tea light fit down into the log.

A few fall silk leaves scattered on the tables added to the festivities.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Blooming Flowers Certified Professional Florist

 

On August 1, 2011, I passed my written and hands on tests for becoming a Certified Florist under the National Alliance of Floral Associations (NAFA) Certified Florist Program, through the Michigan Floral Association and Michigan State University.  (Sorry about that OSU friends...the Ohio Floral Association has adopted this program exclusively.)

The Certified Florist Program was created in 1997 by the Michigan Floral Association and was recognized nationally by NAFA in 2008. It was establish to recognize talent and create a quality standard throughout the retail floral industry. Florists that employ a Certified Florist display a blue and gold circular seal for easier consumer recognition.

Blooming Flowers has been creating fresh floral art since 2003 and continually seeks a higher standard!

Theresa

Columbus Anthenaeum and St. Joseph's Cathedral

On September 24th, we were honored to deliver wedding flowers to the Columbus Anthenaeum and St. Joseph's Cathedral in Columbus, Ohio.  Beautiful hydrangea flowers filled our delivery vehicles to the brim.

Here is a sneak peak of the beautiful purple, antique green and white hydrangea flowers being delivered to the Columbus Anthenaeum:

We are so thankful to have been chosen to be part of this wedding and welcome the opportunity to create beautiful floral art for your next event.

Tall Timbers, Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Wedding and Event Venue

Last weekend we had the pleasure of setting up for a wedding at Tall Timbers, Reynoldsburg, Ohio.  The staff was very friendly and helpful and it was so nice to have a water source near the reception area so that we could set up our centerpieces.

At one venue last year we were told to use the men's restroom for water.  Oh my...what a day that was.  We, (2 ladies), were filling up vases for submerged flowers and suddenly the toilet flushed.  We went running out of that men's restroom as fast as we could and parked ourselves on a bench as if nothing happened, except we were panting from scurrying so fast.  Then...after what seemed like ages of waiting non-chalantly on the bench, we peeked into the men's restroom to check on that poor soul we interrupted only to find out we somehow set off the automatic flusher and no one was in the stall the whole time! 

Back to Tall Timbers...last weekend's wedding was held on site and the reception followed.  The Bride's room for getting ready on site was a bit small and warm, which might be a problem if you have more than 5 people getting ready, plus a photographer.  There is a restroom nearby that could be used as overflow space.  We delivered the wedding party flowers with ice packs in convenient delivery boxes that we stored on the shelf located in the room, which made more room for all the girls to get ready.

Here is a picture of the centerpiece that the Bride loved...and cost less money than a do it yourself centerpiece because the vases, mirrors, flowers, ribbon, delivery and set up were all provided.  What a relief it was to the Bride too!

We are going back to Tall Timbers next weekend, but this time for a reception set up.  The friendly staff and close water source helps make our delivery and set up go smoothly, and no need to run away from flushing toilets, lol.

Tall Timbers update!  Here is a picture of our tall cylinder calla lily centerpieces that everyone was raving about.  A very elegant flower centerpiece statement, but very cost effective because the vases, mirrors, flowers, delivery and set up were all provided.  My partner devised a method that anchors the calla lily and bends them for that dramatic, showy, but elegant effect.

The Brides ivory and pink color scheme truly highlighted this beautiful floral display.   We are going to Tall Timbers again soon, and love being a preferred florist there.  Please call us to be your wedding or special event florist at Tall Timbers toll free, 1-888-401-7363.

Tashia and Brian's Wedding 10-2-10

Picture day...yay!  I really liked Tashia and her mother Vicki from our very first wedding flower consultation.  I could tell they loved flowers...and weddings!

Tashia and Brian got married on 10-2-10 at God’s Community Outreach with a reception following the ceremony at The Madison, both located in Chillicothe, Ohio.

It is so exciting to see pictures finally, to remember their wedding day and this wonderful family.  Photo's by Jackie Good Photography.

Tashia and Brian's wedding party

Love this....!

A cozy reception at The Madison, Chillicothe, Ohio.

 
We were so happy to share in Tashia and Brian's happy day and look forward to their future together.

365 Days of Flowers...Day 7, Peonies from my neighbor

Today's flower inspiration comes from my wonderful, thoughtful neighbor, Juanita.  She made this beautiful peony arrangement with flowers from her garden.  A lovely arrangement from a lovely lady! 

Follow my blog to see daily floral inspiration (mostly) from my garden...you may win a free design book.  Winner announced next Tuesday, June 7, 2011. 

365 Days of Flowers...Day 6, Hair Flowers

Hair flowers are becoming very popular accessories for prom, homecoming and weddings.  Here is a cute little hair flower technique that is easy to do and wear!  My hair is very fine, and bobby pins usually fall out, but I loved this flower so much that I wore it all day...cooking, weeding, studying...it looked great and didn't fall out.  I used one bobby pin to fasten it in place.  The flower is a dianthus, so it is long lasting and also has a slight fragrance.

This is a photo of my supplies and materials for today's hair flower project.  The flowers were cut this morning and allowed to hydrate in warm water mixed with flower food.

I trimmed the dianthus stem under the calyx.  Notice how big the calyx is...it is so tempting to cut through the calyx for a lower profile, but don't do it!  The flower will fall apart.  I tried it, lol!  I used the petals that fell off of my first flower and glued them to the second flower with OASIS cold glue so the new flower would have a fuller profile.  This is called making a composite flower.

Next I pierced the calyx with a lightweight floral wire using the piercing technique, bent the wires down, and wrapped them around the stem, then finished with floral tape.

Finished!  Here is another version of this hair flower technique, using a spray rose.  You can trim the rose stem shorter, since the wire gets pierced through the rose ovary.

A quick little project, but oh so cute!

Follow my blog to see daily floral inspiration (mostly) from my garden...you may win a free design book.  Winner announced next Tuesday, June 7, 2011.  

365 Days of Flowers...Day 5, Calla Lily

Here is a picture of the tools used in today's modern design; a rectangular vase, floral shears, plastic pearls and calla lily.

The stem placements for the sleek modern calla lily design I sketched were driving me crazy.

 I tried a new technique to bend the calla lily.  I peeled off a little bit of the stem on the opposite side of the curve that I wanted to make.

The stem peel works okay, and the stem was easier to manipulate without folding, but it also made the stem slimy and difficult to work with.  I prefer my old method of taking a room temperature calla lily and gently running my thumb down the shaft while gradually bending the calla.  I will use the stem peel only if I need alot of bend in the calla stem, like bending the stem into a circle.

Next I bound my lily stems with wire and tied a spider plant leaf around the stems to disguise the wire.

Finished...finally.  The simplicity is deceiving!  Not only were the calla stems difficult to work with today, the pictures from my camera were giving me a hard time too...they kept loading sideways!  Short of asking you to skew your head to see the design, I finally got the pictures formatted...whew!

Follow my blog to see daily floral inspiration (mostly) from my garden...you may win a free design book.  Winner announced next Tuesday, June 7, 2011. 

365 Days of Flowers...Day 4, Book Giveaway

 June 7, 2011....Congratulations FloraBella Flowers!  You've won the Design School Book!  I sent you a confirmation email this morning.  I sent a follow up message to you, but have not heard back from you.  Please email your mailing address to Theresa@bloomingflowers.net

Thanks all for taking the time to read my blog.  I hope to offer more cool things and interesting blogs in the future.

Thanks!
Theresa








A great book for learning about floral design principles...and it can be yours free!   Just follow this blog, and a winner will be selected randomly next Tuesday, June 7th, 2011.

To follow this blog, scroll down and click the "Follow" button located on the right column of this page.

365 Days of Flowers...Day 3, Clematis and Calla Lily

About 5 years ago I planted a clematis vine under my lilac bush as a companion plant.  When the lilac bush is finished flowering, these beautiful large clematis flowers appear like magic on the north side of the lilac bush.  They seem to make very happy partners in my garden.

Clematis can be used in your floral arrangements as a single flower or you can use a portion of the vine with several flowers for an English Garden look.

Today's Memorial Day inspiration comes from the vase pictured.  It was given to me by my mother-in-law years ago, and I thought it was the ugliest vase ever, so I hid it in my basement. I am guessing the vase is from the 1970's and is at least 40 years old.  Now that her health is failing, I suddenly was made aware of how beautiful the vase really was.  Today's challenge, was to take a retro vase and make something equally beautiful, but new with it.

Here are the materials I used for today's project.  The vase, clematis, day lily leaves and calla lily.  The calla are from Dill's Greenhouse, and didn't quite make it into my flower bed yet.

I placed day lily leaves in the vase and fanned them out.

The clematis is a little floppy headed, so I reinforced it with a loop of 26 ga. wire.  The loop goes over the top of the center of the clematis, down between the side petals, then wrapped around the stem on the back side of the flower.

Next I used some floral tape to conceal the wire.

I placed the clematis next.  Biggest flower on the bottom, then the medium sized one, then the smallest, in a zig-zag pattern.  The size of the clematis flowers and their bold color lend alot of visual weight to the arrangement, which makes them act as the focal area.

The clematis and lily leaves were a pretty arrangement by themselves, but I felt it could be a bit more, so I placed calla lily in a radial pattern in the vase, then folded the right side of the lily leaves into loops, (tucked them in).  On the left side I let the lily leaves stick out and trimmed them with scissors to their current length.

If you look closely, this is a study of the repetition of three's...three clematis, three calla lily, and three lily leaves on each side.  A perfect number, representing the holy trinity, and a perfect tribute to loved ones.

365 Days of Flowers, Day 2...Moss

In my backyard and between the wild plum trees, this lovely, luscious moss grows on the ground.  It gets trampled, and sometimes driven over, but still maintains my path with a beautiful green living carpet.

I peeled up a layer of moss for today's project.  I suppose some kind of sharp edged, flat tool, like a drywall spackling knife would have been helpful to loosen the moss, but I was in such a big-fat hurry, that I dug under the edge of the moss with my fingers and pulled.  The moss lifted in sheets...big ones if you are lucky.

Here are the materials I used for today's project.  A bucket of warm water with floral preservative added, moss, a block of maxlife OASIS foam, 22 gauge florist wire, floral cutting shears, and wire cutters.  Not pictured is the knife I used to cut the foam.

First, I soaked my OASIS foam in warm water, with the lettering face up, until fully saturated.  Be careful not to push down on the foam, because then it will not saturate properly resulting in dry pockets in the foam.  I have been kind of anxious to try out the new maxlife foam....so here goes.

I cut my saturated foam in half, then used one of the wires to impress a diagonal on top of the two foam halfs that were next to each other.  This is an easy measuring technique to make a square of foam.

I think I enjoyed the next part a bit too much, kind of like soap carving when I was little, except easier because the foam just melts away.  I placed two rubber bands around my foam block, and carved the edges off to form a sphere of foam.  OASIS makes pre-made wet soak spheres, but I didn't have any on hand, so I decided to make my own.  The pre-made spheres can come with netting on it, to help retain your stem insertions.

Next, I added more rubber bands to hold my two pieces of foam together.  I used rubber bands because they are durable and can shrink and expand with the wetness of the foam.  Like the netting of the pre-made spheres, the rubber bands will also aid in retaining insertions.

I made my own greening pins with 2 - 3 inch pieces of 22 gauge florist wire that I bent in half, making a hairpin.

The piece of leftover OASIS foam came in handy for catching the wires as I cut them. 

I laid the moss on my prepared foam sphere then pinned it in place, pushing my homemade pins in as far as possible.

The picture below shows the pin insertion, then I pushed it down all the way, so it was no longer visible.

The pieces went together easily, kind of like a puzzle, then I added more pins to make sure the moss fit snuggly on the foam.

I gave the sphere to my neighbor as a hostess gift for having us over for a block picnic today.  Don't you think the moss sphere looks terrific in her garden?

365 Days of Flowers, Day 1...Wild Roses

Studying for my National Certified Florist Exam inspired me to start this series of flower arrangements from my garden.  I have been reading about the Victorian Age where flowers were arranged for the home each week, using flowers they grew in their garden.  The Victorian period was named for Queen Victoria, who ruled in England from 1837 to 1901. 

Day 1 is tough, because I'm thinking where do I begin?

Looking outside my window, I see this huge, overgrown monstrosity of a wild rose bush.  I am not even sure where it came from, but I suspect it is a reincarnation of a wild rose bush that I planted nearby, and thought was dead...only to sprout up a few feet away from the original plant.

 This plant has very small thorns that can be pokey, so wear gloves to avoid the sharps.  I used my cutting shears to clip off a few blooms directly into this water filled bowl.

 Next I prepared my container by laying a grid on top of it with clear floral tape.  Here are the tools I used, plus a picture of the vase with tape.  You can use clear tape, if you do not have clear floral tape. 

The vase is a yard sale find, and I think it's original purpose was to be used as a serving dish for ice cream or fruit.  It is best not to use scissors to cut your flowers because they can crush the stem cells of the flower, which would inhibit water intake.  The scissors pictured here were used to cut the tape. Some florists use knives only to cut their flowers, so that also would be a good option for you to cut your flowers.

Next, I trimmed about half of the foilage off of the flowers and placed them into the vase.  I started with a layer of low flowers, and then added a few taller ones for interest, and so the arrangement did not look quite so flat.

Finished!  Now who can I give this too?  Maybe I'll keep it on my table for dinner, wouldn't these look lovely with three in a row on a long table set for an informal outdoor dinner or party.  A beautifully dainty and lovely arrangement from that huge overgrown bush...who would have guessed!

Enjoy!  Try this arrangement, with any small flower you have growing at home, and let me know how it turned out, I would love to hear from you!

Growing Stephanotis

Stephanotis is a vine that flowers with beautiful, 1 inch, scentilicious blooms.  The blooms smell heavenly.  Use of stephanotis as a wedding flower stretches back to Victorian times, and was known to represent marital happiness.

The stephanotis pictured above is growing inside in Ohio and flowers in May or June.  I purchased two plants from Logee's Greenhouse, and the vines flowered the first year.

I followed the directions on how to care for the stephanotis vines that came with it from the grower.  My small plants required a small container, so I opted for a 4 inch size clay pot for each vine.  Unglazed clay is recommended because the moisture wicks away from the plant and makes it easy to see when the plant needs to be watered.  To be successful with this plant, you have to be careful not to over water it.  When it is time to water, a good thorough watering is best, until the water runs out of the bottom.  Your vine might exhibit drooping leaves if it is dry.  If the leaves are browning from the bottom up and falling off, it is a good indication that you are over watering.

I over watered this plant when I first got it, and it looked terrible.  So, after some hopeless neglect, it started to grow!

Temperature and light are also important for any plant.  The stephanotis vine likes bright sunlight and moderate temperatures.  It can tolerate a minimum temperature of 50 degrees F and a dry atmosphere. 

I keep my stephanotis in an East facing window and water occassionaly...once a week, or once every two or three weeks, depending on the season.  I repotted both vines into a 10 inch ceramic pot, and they seem to be doing fine.  They are twining and growing on a homemade bamboo trellis.

Blooming Flowers Featured on Mayesh Website

Thank you Mayesh it was fun seeing our Blooming Flowers wedding work featured on your website.  Thanks also for your kind words...."We are so lucky to work with and be associated with the best in the floral business!"

It means so much to us at Blooming Flowers to be recognized for all of our hard work.

Pink Urban Art for Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Columbus, Ohio 2011

We at Blooming Flowers were both excited and humbled by participating as a decorator in the Columbus, Ohio, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, 2011.

At 4:00 in the morning on the day of the race, my dear hubby drove me downtown and helped me place pink pinwheels in our designated planter by the finish line of the race.  I do not have a picture of the pinwheels, but here is a picture of downtown that day at about 5:00am. (No cars!)

  


Our pink pinwheels were dwarfed by the enormity of the event and especially the many special people involved as survivors, walkers, runners, organizers and volunteers....whew!

Although the pinwheels were small, we know they at least brought a few smiles.  When we stopped for a quick breakfast, right there before us on the restaurant television, on channel 10...were the little pink spinning pinwheels.

Prom Flowers

Blooming Flowers specializes in one of a kind prom, homecoming, wedding and event floral art, made especially for you.

To order flowers for prom or your special event, contact us by phone 1-888-401-7363 or through our website, Blooming Flowers.  You can also FB us, at www.facebook.com/bloomingflowers

We love photo's...tag us on Facebook!

2012 prom photo's, love these!

Lizz and Barry, photographer Photos By Dixon

 

Jessica and Nick

Some Photo's from 2011 prom:

Facebook photo from Lizz, we love it!

Facebook photo from Lydia, we love this too!

Here are just a few of our Blooming Flowers prom flowers taken with my cell phone camera.