End of Summer Dahlias
As the summer winds down and we begin to see cooler evenings and shorter days, we say goodbye to a favorite summer bloom -- dahlias. In this Flower School How-To Video Leanne works with an autumnal color palette and end-of-season bounty to create a foam-free design with interesting mechanics. A tall bronze compote overflows with cottage yarrow, snapdragons, smokebush, bunny tail grass, dill, and of course dahlias -- it's a stunner, enjoy!
Video Transcription
The bounty of summer, so many fabulous flowers paired with the color palette of autumn. Such intensity. Today, foam free, interesting mechanics, let me show you how it's done.
The compote, watertight, ready to go. The mechanics, working with the kenzan. To place it, using a single glue strip, pulling it off and placing it around the edge, wrapping it, pulling it around, stretching it, and then placing it down. It will securely adhere. Then that's not enough. Going one step further with floral netting. Tape that in place, and then add fresh water premixed with flower food, and you're ready to go.
To cover the mechanics, a combination, some Ruscus tucked in. It can go into the netting and it can go down into the kenzan, so you can get it to stand upright or go sideways, or a little bit of both. Then, coming back with some dried smoke bush to give it that beautiful late-summer, bronzey, mahogany color, tucking it down in, letting it drape over, and then coming back with some yarrow, making sure that it inserts deeply into the water down into the kenzan, so that it will drink and hold well.
Adding in now the more delicate flowers, maybe some line material, snapdragons, inserting it into the kenzan, making sure that it's nice and secure. The dahlias, letting them tuck in, finding the perfect spot and then repeating, so you get the lines reinforced, filling in the arrangement.
As you finish, take a moment and look at it from all sides. Make sure you have balance. Doesn't have to be totally symmetrical. It can be asymmetrical, but needs to be balanced. Then go back, add a little texture, little brightness, some dill coming out towards the front. Maybe some bunny tails for lightness coming up through the center. And then again, turn it and look again to make sure you're satisfied with all the placement.
The recipe, I started with a base of Italian Ruscus and Smoke Bush, one large piece of Smoke Bush, and about seven stems of Italian Ruscus. Then I use seven of the Snapdragons, five of the Dahlias, 10 of the Cottage Yarrow, seven of the Dill Weed, an entire bunch of Bunny Grass takes up that whole center area to create the beautiful compote.
As we transition from summer to autumn, dahlias are at their peak. You can see they pair wonderfully with that autumn color palette. You'll find more creative inspiration on the website, flowerschool.com. If you have questions, you can reach us through there, but now it's your turn. Find the beautiful dahlias, gather autumn treasures, and create your arrangement. Be sure to take a picture and post it on social media, #FloralDesignInstitute, that way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.
