G3 Tauranga: Flower Arranging at Vicki's

TePuke
26 June 2014

Vicki organized a fun morning with Murray who owns the TePuke Florists. He first explained some good basic flower keeping tips. If you cut the flower stem on an angle it allows for better water absorption. Change the water ever two days and cut the ends of the flowers each time. Also add two drops of Janola to the water. You do the same cut with woody cuttings but also cut up the stem to split it slightly up the centre, again to help it soak up more water. Murray had a great tip on how to revive roses or hydrangeas when there heads droop. Cut the stems on an angle then sit the stems in hot water, if you do this in a glass jar you can watch the air bubbles come out the stem, as when the bubbles stop you pop it in luke warm water and hay presto the flower heads will pop up! This does not work on all flowers by the way.

When picking roses Murray takes a bucket of water with him, cuts the flowers then cuts the stem again under water in the bucket, so no air can get up the stem. Always pick early in the morning or evening, as that is when the sap is at its lowest.

We then got into some flower arranging. Murray started by make a bed of magnolia foliage in his hand in a spiral format. He said sometimes he uses hydrangea foliage too as they are both large leafed. Paula asked about using camellia foliage and he said he didn't use it often as it has small leaves and sat quite flat. He then proceeded to pop in willow sticks to give it height and interest and then added the flowers, keeping them nice and high so you could see them clearly. And just like that he had a lovely arrangement in his hand, he made it look so easy. Murray demonstrated how just adding some ferns around the bottom changed the look again. Tie it off with some string, trim the bottoms and pop it in a vase.

Another arrangement Murray did was to get a handful of birch branches, twist it around itself and use that as a base, proceed to add foliage and flowers.

Murray also touched on making high arrangements. By splitting a branch and pushing it down onto the rim of the vase then continue adding more branches for height. Once you get the main structure stable by join branches with wire, you can then start adding flowers placing the heads into the spaces created by the structure.

We also got Murray to have a look at an arrangement Vicki had done just to give us a few tips on other ways to look at arranging it.

Fold flax and staple it to form a loop

Flower arranging tips:
Stick to 2 - 3 at the most flower varieties.
Greenery base, magnolia or hydrangea foliage is good, keep it low.
Add height and interest with flax or willow branches.
You need visual space in an arrangement.
The arrangement should be about 2 times bigger then the vase you use.
And most importantly less is best.

Thanks Murray is was very inspiring and hugely informative. Let the flower arranging commence!

Some of us then had a look at the new landscaping Vicki and James have done. Last time we came to Vicki's was in 2012, my how things have changed. It looks fantastic, well done guys.