FURNISHINGS : A Guide for Budding Flower Arrangers

When Carol Smith sees roses budding in her garden, she quickly brings them inside to display. “Flowers brighten up my home, and arranging them is relaxing and enjoyable,” she says.

Like painting, flower arranging is an art that encourages creativity and self-expression. Whether you’re arranging flowers in an antique can or an elegant vase, you are creating designs that will beautify the interior of your home.

By keeping some guidelines in mind, anyone can design with flowers.

“When you cut your flowers, don’t use garden clippers or scissors, because they pinch stem ends; the flowers won’t drink and will die much more quickly,” says Susan Jacklin, owner of Susan’s Flowers in Fountain Valley. “Cut flowers diagonally with a sharp stainless steel designer knife and insert them into water right away, because stems generally close up in 30 seconds.”

In the garden, bring a pail of warm water along when you cut and slip flowers into it. Then when you’re arranging the flowers, re-cut the stems under warm water before placing them in the vase. Make sure each diagonal cut is an inch to an inch and a half long, which enables flowers to drink plenty of water.

The height of the flowers cut for your arrangement should be one and a half times the height of your container.

Also add a preservative to the flower water, which will prolong its life for up to a week longer. A popular brand is Floralife, which can be found at the florists. “It cleanses stems and provides the flowers with nutrients, as well as keeps bacteria levels down,” Jacklin says.

When arranging your newly cut flowers, remove as much foliage as possible, because it will drink water that should go to the flower. Any greenery below the water line will also spoil and cause the flowers to die more quickly.

Leave the foliage around the blossom and fill in the arrangement with “filler”--greenery and certain flowers that are used to “round out” arrangements, providing dimension and texture. Greenery used as filler includes tea leaves, leather leaf and bear grass.

“Filler flowers give a fuller appearance and add various colors,” says Pat Gosnell, owner of Regal Flowers in Orange. “They include baby’s breath, monte casino, Queen Anne’s lace and statice.”

Greenery can also add to the design. Bear grass is long thin strips of grass that can be looped and made into bows. Other greenery can be braided. Gosnell teaches these techniques at her four-week flower arranging classes offered through the city of Orange Community Services.

You can buy filler flowers at your local florist, or use various plants from your yard. “Alyssum might work as a filler flower as well as asters, and statice, which is easy to grow,” Jacklin says. Greenery can also often be found. The bush pittosporum has eye-catching foliage, as do asparagus greens and many kinds of ferns, such as the sword fern.

Be creative when choosing colors for your design.

“Most people know that lavenders and pinks look good together, but they often don’t realize that more vibrant colors thrown in with softer tones can create attractive displays,” Gosnell says. “For instance, try adding yellow to an arrangement that is primarily pinks, lavenders and purples. Different shades of blue also look good with peaches, and red can always add some spark.”

To make an arrangement, you will need a mache (a cup made out of cardboard that resembles papier-mache and is lined with tar to hold water) and an oasis (a green brick that resembles smooth Styrofoam) to hold the water and flowers in place.

The oasis is soaked in water for 10 to 15 minutes and placed in the mache . Flower stems are pushed through the oasis as far down as possible and secured. The papier-mache must be watered daily.

There are several types of flower arrangements, the most common ones are the rosebud vase, the all-around, the one-sided, the fireside and the high style.

“A rosebud vase has one to three roses with Queen Anne’s lace, baby’s breath and greenery such as bear grass,” Gosnell says. Always wire the heads of the roses to the stem with 24 garden wire so they don’t droop.

The all-around arrangement is most often used for centerpieces, which are viewed from all sides. Start such an arrangement by “greening up” with leather leaf and other filler leaves, Gosnell says. Place them in the sides and a few directly on top. This will ensure that the oasis is hidden from view.

“When arranging your flowers, always insert an odd number of the same type, same color flower into your arrangement,” Gosnell says. “Start with your largest flower of the most dominate color and place one in the middle. Then work down and around like a star.

“Place two more flowers down lower, opposite each other, and then two more opposite each other even lower. Then place an odd number of the next dominate flower into the arrangement in the same way, filling in the bare spots and dispersing the color. Do this until you’ve run out of primary colors and then fill in the blank spots with filler flowers.”

The one-sided arrangement sets against a wall or furniture and is generally arranged in a vase that has a wider opening. Although you build up the front, make sure the sides look nice if they can be seen, and “be careful using this arrangement up against a mirror,” Jacklin warns.

To keep flowers snug in wider vases, use green designer tape. “Make a grid of small squares between 1/8 and 1/2 inch at the opening of the vase,” Jacklin says. “Then place the filler and flowers in the holes.”

The fireside arrangement looks like a basket of freshly picked flowers. “This is a relaxed, spontaneous style which is simple, yet colorful,” Gosnell says.

The stems protrude from one end of the basket, giving the illusion that the flowers are simply laying inside. Create this look by cutting off a few inches of stem and sticking the flowers and the stems into each side of an oasis. Then cover the oasis with greenery.

Good flower choices for the all-around and the fireside baskets are carnations, daisies, mums and statice, which are hardy and last up to two weeks if a preservative is used in the water.

The high style uses more exotic, often tropical flowers. “This design is simple, yet elegant,” Gosnell says. “Instead of being full of flowers, it is more sparse, yet very eye-catching.”

The flowers used are usually tall and include orchids, protea, bird of paradise, calla lily, delphiniums, liatris (which is a tall spindly purple flower), freesia, nerine (which has a variety that is hot pink), snapdragons, statice and tulips. Some of these flowers must be bought at the florists, although you can grow many of them.

When creating high-style designs, use shallow ceramic lotus dishes and oases, because these arrangements are often too elegant for baskets. To enhance their exotic look, cover the oasis with California Crystals, a clear gel-like substance that looks like small ice cubes and shimmers in light.

Use your imagination when choosing containers. “Put flowers inside old vases, ceramic dishes or coffee pots,” Jacklin says. “You could even put a container in a paper bag, insert flowers and tie it with ribbons, or put flowers in plastic toys.”

Many arrangement are also made in baskets.

To ensure that your flowers last as long as possible:

* Change the water daily and re-cut the stems every other day. “The flowers will drink,” Gosnell says. “The more they drink, the longer they’ll keep.”

* Keep flowers out of drafts or direct sunlight. (Keep their stems warm and their heads cool.)

* If you place flowers in a refrigerator to keep them cool, remove any fruit, because the acid it emits will turn flowers brown.