St. Patrick's Day Flowers
Floral designers love the opportunity to create whimsical novelty designs. This is the opportunity to allow our creativity to go wild. In this Flower School How-To Video Leanne creates a design for St. Patrick's Day using a St. Patrick's Day party hat. The finished design would be a perfect centerpiece for a St. Patrick's Day party or as a gift for a favorite Irishman or Irishwoman. Enjoy!
Video Transcription
Welcome to TheFlowerSchool.com video library. I'm Leanne Kesler, director of the Floral Design Institute. And today, I'm here to share with you a whimsical design perfect for the St. Patrick's Day holiday.
The mechanics are simple. It's foam-free. I have a glass vase filled with water, with flower food, and then the hat. I start by cutting. Yes, I cut it open, and I cut through, and I cut through, which then allows me to bend it down to support the flowers. Then placing it on. Give it a little push so that it's nice and snug, and I'm ready for designing.
I'm going to use a green hydrangea to work as an armature for my design. Giving it a cut, thinking about the height, then cutting. To make sure that it drinks well, dipping it in alum. That will make it absorb the water more completely. Then sliding it down into the hat, fluffing it out, and that becomes a mound to support all my blooms. We can add a little bit of foliage, feeding it through, getting that darker green.
Now I have Kelly green, light green, and then a deep shade of green. Now the fun begins. Pick your most favorite green or white blooms and fill in. A little bit of genesta to add a bit of a line, coming up a little higher. Some green-tinted carnations, angling them through. Ranunculus, so delicate. Long-lasting, which is amazing because they look fragile with that high lacy pedal count, but they actually hold so very well. Adding the bud. Maybe a spray rose. And then additional blooms to get it full and lush.
The trickiest part of this design is finding the favorite hat. They come in so many different sizes, different shapes, so pick the hat you like, then search through your vases to see which one fits the best. Then the flowers are easy. The recipe? One hydrangea bloom. Then I used three ranunculus, three spray rose, four carnations, then three stems of the genesta, a little bit of the Israeli ruscus to finish filling it in, and you're good to go.
Designing for a holiday is a lot of fun. You can get a little more whimsy into your work than you would on a normal everyday basis. For more creative inspiration, check out the website, FlowerSchool.com. If you have questions, you can reach us through there or pick up the telephone and give us a call at (503) 223-8089. Now it's your turn. What are you going to create for the holiday? Be sure to take a picture, post it on social media, and hashtag Floral Design Institute. That way I can see, and everyone can see what you do as you do something you love.
