Christmas Time, Floristry and Wine

The run up to Christmas has been really nice with one last arrangement to learn at college and a party on our last day.

A selection of long and low arrangements

My arrangement which will go on the table for Christmas  :-) 

I was also busy over the last few days making arrangements for friends. I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

Have a floral festive season!

Back at College - Garland and Topiary Tree

I dragged myself into college yesterday despite having this awful cold and cough that's doing the rounds, as I was determined not to miss out on my classes. I sneezed and wheezed my way through the Christmas garland and topiary tree.

Blue spruce, yew, sugar pine and conifer garland.

Once completed the decorations can be wired on. My classmate, Hannah went for some nice orange slices, pine cones and ribbon:

Here is mine at home with my German nutcracker soldiers keeping guard

In the afternoon we completed our topiary trees. The trunk had already been cemented into the pot, so just the foliage and decorations to add to a wet foam ball on the top.

Tutor Helen's lime green demonstration tree

Lottie's silvery tree

My natural-looking gold, copper and coffee coloured tree

I think these look really effective and a nice alternative to a Christmas tree.

Festive Friday Floristry

My last day at the florist's was another busy one. I started off with a pretty pink flat back bouquet:

Then the Christmas Interflora orders started to come in :-) 

At the end of the day I got to put my wreath-making skills to good use with a holly wreath. Such evil stuff to work with, holly, but the final result was nice and festive.

All in all an interesting, successful and very enjoyable first chunk of work experience. 

More Work Experience Creations

A much quieter day in the shop today, which meant the orders could be concentrated on. Here are a couple of things I made today:

Funeral wreath

Tied sheaf 

Day 3 - Turbo Floristry With A Smile

It was market day in town today, which generated a non-stop stream of customers in the shop. It's quite difficult to get the orders completed and serve customers at the same time, especially if you have a hand-tied bouquet in one hand that you are in the middle of!

Today I learnt that speed is of the essence, as it is necessary and important to spend time with customers, particularly tearful ones ordering funeral flowers or someone deliberating over wording on a card for a seriously ill friend. People choose to go into a florist's over grabbing a bouquet from the supermarket because of the personalized service they receive. It's always important to keep this in mind.

Here are two orders that I completed today in between dashing about doing a host of other tasks :-)

Work Experience - Christmas Period

As part of my City and Guilds diploma I have to complete three lots of work experience at peak times in the floristry industry. Today was my first day in a florist's shop. I started by conditioning all the flowers and was really pleased to then be allowed to work on several orders on my own.

Hand-tied bouquet for shop display 

"Exquisite" 

Bold and bright Christmas hand-tied bouquet with aqua pack

Bright and colourful "get well" flat-back bouquet 

It was so nice to have some freedom to choose the flowers I wanted. Some orders stipulate a particalur design from the Interflora catalogue, but others just give a price and a description such as "bright and colourful". The best thing was knowing that what I had made would be enjoyed by real customers.

Much as I enjoy making the bouquets, I found that it was the human element of floristry that I really enjoyed - knowing that you are the link between the sender and the recipient and are translating their thoughts and feelings into a floral design for someone they may not see very often.

I am looking forward to day two tomorrow :-)

Deck The Halls - Christmas Wreaths

More festive fun today with wired door wreaths. I wanted to do something a bit different and when my friend Lottie showed me a picture of a wreath with succulents on it from a Dutch floristry magazine, I knew I had to give it a go.

I've always loved succulents and I think they work really well in floral arrangements. 

Here is a selection of lovely traditionally-decorated wreaths made by my classmates.

The cinnamon sticks and orange slices smell wonderful.

Step into Christmas - Festive Floristry

Only the second day in December, but Christmas had well and truly arrived at college today. The classroom was full of evergreens, ribbons and baubles.

We started with the hand-tied door swag. I went for a gold, copper and peach colour theme.

My finished door swag

Although everyone did the same design, the different baubles and accessories make them really individual.

A selection of door swags

After lunch we moved on to the advent table decoration with red Dianthus.

I've told my parents not to worry about decorating the house this Christmas, as I will be steadily filling it up with festive floral displays in the coming weeks!

Event Floristry - Double Assessment Day

Phew, what a day! Two assessments to carry out, starting with the low level table arrangement. We had to include ancillary items to tailor it to a particular event. I chose New Year's Eve.

I added sparkly baubles, crystals and lights to my arrangement. I was pleased to get a merit.

In the afternoon it was time for assessment number two - the pew end.

 This one had to be made in 20 minutes. Another merit :-)

Event Floristry - Top Table Arrangement and Pew Ends

A busy day today with three designs. We had white flowers today including Gerberas, Santini Chrysanthemums and white Aster.

First up was the top table arrangement, which flows over the edge of the table. I started off by placing all the foliage into the wet foam.

Next the flower material went in to complete the arrangement.

I will be remaking this next week as an assessment piece.

The flowers had to be removed as usual for the arrangements in the afternoon - two kinds of arrangements to hang on the end of the pews in a church.

Tied pew end

Pew end in wet foam

They make a nice collection :-) 

New Covent Garden - The Early Bird Catches the Glittery Twig

My day started at 2:30 am when I was rudely awakened by my alarm clock in order to head to college to meet up with my floristry group for the 4:15 coach to London. Our destination was New Covent Garden Flower Market (NCGFM) in Vauxhall.

NCGFM has 18 flower wholesalers stocking British and foreign flowers, 2 foliage wholesalers stocking seasonal foliage from Britain and mainland Europe and foliage from South America, Australasia and Africa. There are also plants and sundries available.

Today was a special college day which included an insight into buying from the wholesalers, an overview of the market, floristry demonstrations and of course, shopping!

I  couldn't resist the glittery twigs!

It was great to see so many flowers and foliages and get an idea of what is available. The materials and the demonstrations gave me lots of ideas for future arrangements. I also learnt how to go about buying wholesale and that the flowers are sold in wraps (bunches of 10, 20, 25 or 50 stems) and boxes. Interestingly, Dutch flowers are sold in buckets of water and British flowers are sold dry in boxes.

Anthuriums

Below are some photo highlights of my morning at NCGFM.

Ornamental cabbages

Marquee roses

Festive wax and glitter-covered apples

Gourds

Grape hyacinths

Shiny shells

Ranunculas

A selection of red flowers

Wholesaler's stall

Tropical foliage

After all that floral excitement, it's early to bed for me ;)