Dream Big and Work Hard

I recently wrote my first resume! It gave me anxiety, made me angry, frustrated – I just did;t feel as though I sounded like a good enough candidate for the kinds of jobs I was pursuing. To my surprise, I got my first call a week later. The owner of the shop wanted to meet me and see what my skill level was by doing an arrangement for her. She was familiar with the program that I’m enrolled in, and appreciates the value of the certification I’m going for. Last Wednesday met her and made an arrangement in foam. She talked to me and a bit while I was doing it, asking me about school, why I want this job, and gave me a few tips about technical details in floral design. It seemed as though she wanted to take me under her wing and teach me about the business. This is what I want to do.

Today, she offered me the job. I’ve got my foot in the door, now there’s nothing that I can’t do. This is my career path. It’s amazing.

I got so much resistance when I took a leave of absence. My parents, while supportive of my dreams, wanted me to graduate college, get a degree, that piece of paper. When they realized I could obtain a credible certification for floral design, they liked the idea a bit more – although you do not need any type of formal education to be a florist or floral designer. And now I’m doing it. I didn’t let anyone stop me from what I felt was right for me. If I had backed down and stayed in school, I would have been forced into just choosing something for the sake of getting a degree. You have to do something you enjoy, something that makes every day worth something to you. I’m proud of myself. I am closer to my dream each day. This is just the beginning.

Propagating!

This is my Wandering Jew! Aka, Tradescantia. When my mom bought this plant, it was full, bushy, beautiful… and she killed it. One of the most common mistakes people make with the Wandering Jew plant is to water it directly in the middle. When you do this, you can cause root-rot. The best way to water is at the edge of the pot. My mom gave me this plant, thinking it was done for. I pinched off all of the dead legs and leave until I had only two measly pieces left. At first growth was slow, but once I placed a photograph next to the pot, it began to climb. It’s as if the plant did better when it had two surfaces to grow against and support itself. About a month ago, I pinched bag some spindly legs and began to propagate!

These are five legs in a jar in my living room. The second photo is to show how much light they get on a regular basis. Since they were sitting so high up, they were not shaded by anything. In the last month they have grown significant roots. Pinch off your leg at one of its joints; this is a little knob in the vine where new branches will grow once you pinch them back. Roots are also most likely to grow from these places when placed in water or soil. Place your legs in water, on top of moist soil with their nubs in contact with the dirt, or plant directly into fresh soil.

These are the roots on the smaller legs that I propagated. I got too excited and forgot to take pictures of the larger ones before I planted them, ha. But yours should have long, skinny roots growing before planting if you are going to propagate them in water. This method has worked best for me, although many people have great luck placing their pieces directly in/on soil.

These are my new babies in a cute little planter I got at Rite Aid down the street for extremely cheap. They always have great planters and pots in the early spring. I made sure to plant them and lean them up against the pot and table, hoping that this support helps them grow better. I’m not sure if they would be better off if I placed them downwards, but they were upright in their jar, so I think they will be okay. I’ll update soon!

Leftover Flowers are Beautiful, too!

This is the small arrangement I made for my living room with 5 leftover purple cremon spider mums. The name of the foliage is slipping my mind right now, but I love how perfectly they all fit in the vase on that chair (which is doubling as an end table indefinitely). It was so easy to throw together once I used floral tape to create a grid over the top of the vase.

Module 6 – Complete!

Sympathy Arrangements, Part I

Large Symmetrical Arrangement

Easel Spray

These are traditional arrangements for funerals, although they are also commonly used in wedding work, too. For the large symmetrical arrangement I used purple spider mums, in addition to red gladiolus and white alstroemeria, which were used in both. I used tepe (what looks like palm fronds), trimmed down to fit the arrangement. I also used huckleberry and lemon-leaf (also known as salal) for foliage. The alstro was not as filling as I would have liked for it to be. If I had noticed this sooner, I would have bought 9 or 10, instead of only 7. I can imagine that I may need to redo this one when my instructors email me back with their review. I used #9 ribbon in both to fit the large scale of the arrangements. This was my first time working with an easel and cage. Since the cage creates barriers between the stems and foam, it was much harder to place the flowers and I had to start over once because my foam began disintegrating and falling all out. Once I knew exactly where to place my flowers, the second time was much easier. This was one of the more expensive assignments I’ve done, costing me about $70 in perishable materials (flowers and foliage). I usually use the same flowers in the second arrangement as I do in the first to save money, so I used the spider mums to create an extra little arrangement for my living room. I think the next time I do an arrangement like this, I would like to use more alstro, or a even add spray roses to fill in a little bit.

 

Exciting news!! I have to make 10-14 small arrangements, and one large arrangement on Friday for my grandparents 50th anniversary party on Saturday! This will be my first time creating many arrangements for something formal! I’m excited and nervous and ready to show off my talent. I’ll update about it then!

Thirsty Thursday

I like to do my watering on Thursdays, since I’m usually off from work and spend some quality time with my many babies. From now on, I’ll post a few photos of one or two plants and write about the species and how it’s doing in my environment; this will also help me keep track of their growth and the impact of any changes I make in my care routine. Generally I give them a good dose of water on Thursdays, and every few months or so, I use 1/2-1 Miracle-Gro Plant Food Spikes, depending on the size of the plant. They work really well with most of my plants, but I haven’t tried any others. If anyone has any they could recommend, I’d appreciate it!

Split Leaf Philodendrum (Monstera Deliciosa)
These plants tend to do best in bright, filtered light. I have been experimenting with this ones location, due to the fact that the leaves are not splitting. Usually they will have oblong slits along the them, but if they don’t get enough light, they won’t. This plant is still a little further from the windows, next to my front door, so I may have to move it. These plants typically climb and could reach upwards of 10 feet in the right conditions, although mine hasn’t began climbing anything and I’ve had her for almost a year. They should be repotted once a year to give them room for new growth, so soon I’ll do a little update when I replant & move her closer to the sunlight. Water when the soil becomes dry with warm water; since the Split Leaf is from the rainforest, you can also give it a mist every few days to keep it happy. Fertilizing once a month is ideal for this plant, like I said, I’ve only used the plant food spikes, but I’d love to know if anyone has had great luck with other plant foods/fertilizers.

Backdate (Mod.1-5)

Here is a semi-short summary of what I have been learning so far in my floral design distance course. All of the arrangements in this post are my own.

Module 1: Silk Flowers (fake flowers)

Round Arrangement  &  Centerpiece Arrangement

You would not believe the amount of work that goes into silk arrangements. You can’t just pick out the flowers and stick them into a piece of foam use it. You must remove each flower head (or lateral, which is a stem with multiple flower heads) and then use wax floral tape to attach it to an 18g wire. It sounds simple, but after attaching each flowerhead, leaf, or lateral to a wire, it is nearly impossible to use your hands for much else (which my instructor warned me about in the DVD). This lesson has by far been the most tedious. It took several days just for me to complete taping, and only about an hour to arrange both designs. The round arrangement (left) is my favorite of the two, although I like the draping of flowers on either side of the centerpiece (right). In Module 2 I similarly recreate each of these designs using fresh flowers.

Module 2: Fresh Flowers & Care

Round Arrangement & Centerpiece Arrangement

Technically both of these arrangements are centerpieces; both are meant to be viewed on all sides. I am only attaching one photo of each arrangement in this post because I want to keep this short, but also give you a good idea of what I’m doing here. Fresh flowers take much less preparation. The best way to keep your flowers as fresh as possible, make sure you cut off at least 1 1/2 – 2 inches of the stem at a sharp slanted angle, remove all leaves that will be below water level (these will rot and contaminate the water), change your water and add new preservative (if available to you), and cut off another inch of the stem. This will make sure your flowers can take up as much water and nutrients as possible. In these arrangements I used Oasis floral foam. To use it, all you have to do is fill a bucket or large bowl with water and preservative, set the desired sized block into the water, and let it absorb on its own. DON’T run water over it or it push it into the water, as this will create air bubbles inside and your blooms won’t get the necessary amount of water.

Module 3: Design Rules

Asymmetrical Design & Western Line Design

As you can see, the asymmetrical arrangement (left) is a pretty obvious right angle. These are often used to frame areas of focus in a room; maybe on top of a mantel around a painting or on either end of a table to frame the bride and groom at their dinner table during the reception. The western line design has an arm that slightly extends forward towards you. This is more subtle, but both have beautiful draping larkspur coming down to meet the table. In this lesson I learned about the Elements and Principles of Design. These are just as they were taught to me in high school. If you have taken any basic art class, you would learn these from the start. They are incredibly important when creating art, just as in creating a design. When you see an arrangement, think of it as a living sculpture. Someone put a lot of thought into the placement of each flower, even if it looks “effortlessly” beautiful.

Module 4: Pricing Techniques, Hospital Etiquette, Novelty Arrangements

Novelty Arrangement & Mug Arrangement

It’s hard to tell but the arrangement on left is in a small ceramic rocking horse, you can see a part of its bright yellow nose sticking out on the left side. I had to do this arrangement twice, as the first one was from the “front” of the container and disproportionate in height and width. This looks much better and my instructors were pleased. In this lesson I really learned what makes flowers so expensive. Wholesale is incredibly cheap, if you’re buying 25+ flowers, that’s the way to go. Unfortunately, no florist in their right mind would sell their flowers anywhere near that price. When you go to a florist, you could be spending anywhere from 2.5-7 times the actual cost of the flower, depending on your area and the availability. I also learned a lot about hospitals; certain areas won’t allow flowers at all, some will allow flowers but no balloons, and some will allow both. However, you should not send fragrant flowers such as lilies to a hospital because the rooms are only so big, and when someone isn’t feeling well, overwhelming smells can be nauseating. The hardest part of this lesson was probably making several bows. Just like with taping, my hands became cramped several times and I had to take a few breaks.

Module 5: Vases, Baskets, Flower Characteristics

Vase Arrangement & Basket Arrangement

I was happy to finally see a vase when I opened up my supply package that week; I have a lot of experience with foam and vases from when I worked as a florist at the grocery store, but hadn’t designed anything in a vase aside from the small arrangements in mason jars I would create with the leftover flowers from my other projects. It’s a big deal to make sure that each stem in the vase is clean and free of foliage, and cut on a steep slant so that it can take up the most water. They should all reach the bottom of vase, or come within at least an inch or two. The basket was also fun to work on, as this was the first design I got to choose on my own for my course. I could do an asymmetrical design (which is what I chose) or a round arrangement. My basket was a little taller, so I thought the asymmetrical could offer better balance.

 

If you have any questions about the types of flowers, techniques or just anything in general please comment and I’ll make a post describing my process, etc.!

My Very First Blog Post

 

Hello! Maybe I will have hundreds of posts by the time anyone begins reading my blog, maybe no one will ever read this, maybe no one will ever ready any of my future posts, but I am hopeful. I want feedback and criticism and encouragement. I want to learn above all else.

I had spent about a year working in the floral department of a chain grocery store in my area and loved every minute. Even the days I could barely get out of my extra long twin-sized bed in my dorm room, I couldn’t wait to take care of the plants and create arrangements. I knew I had found my passion. In October 2015, I took a leave of absence from the university I was attending, due to my lack of direction. I could continue on the track to become an elementary school teacher, choose to start over and pursue an art degree, or take the time to figure out a new path. I chose the latter, as I knew how much I loved flower arranging and wanted to figure out how to follow my dream. After much grief from my parents, they agreed it was best to do something that I love. I had found a direction in my life. It gave me hope.

I was skeptical at first, believing that I didn’t need a formal education to become a florist. I spent a lot time researching which programs would be best, the success (and misfortunes) of those in the industry, and the challenges that could arise during my career, and came to the conclusion that a solid, professional foundation would benefit me greatly in the future. In February 2016, I began a Distance Learning Program through the Institute of Floral Design. In the last 3 months or so, I have learned an incredible amount about the industry, professionalism, and different techniques that could have taken a long time for me to “just pick up” along the way.

I live in a decently sized apartment with my roommate, Forrest. She’s a social justice warrior by all measures and the only one you need on your side during an argument. My boyfriend, Brian, also practically lives with us, even though he has his own house with 5 of our closest friends. He’s like the aloof housecat that I never had; the best and only snuggle buddy I’ll ever really need. These two are my best friends. They support me always and never complain when I bring home yet another dying plant (I have a habit of buying or being gifted dead plants to bring back to life) or trash the kitchen during one of my flower arranging lessons. I’ll create a post to describe the way my courses are set up to give you a better understanding of how I’m learning.

Maybe I should put this entire post into the ‘About’ section of this site, but I’m still learning, so bear with me.