How to Make an Olympic Bouquet

Background on the 2010 Olympic Bouquet

The green rep­re­sents the green land­scape of British Colum­bia and the flow­ers cho­sen can and do grow in B.C. in the sum­mer months but not in the win­ter. Green Spi­der Mums, while not  indige­nous to the region, were grown in a green­house by a local nurs­ery in the Cana­di­an province and the oth­er flow­ers and green­ery were import­ed. The florists who won the con­tract are two  women. Mar­git­ta Schulz, own­er of Margitta’s Flower Bou­tique at Lons­dale Quay in North

Van­cou­ver and an extra­or­di­nary woman who found­ed an orga­ni­za­tion that trains women with a vari­ety of soci­etal back­grounds in the flo­ral design trade.

The name of the florist is Just Begin­nings Flow­ers in Sur­rey, B.C. and the amaz­ing design­er and own­er is June Strandberg.

Learn more about this sto­ry at the Cana­di­an Florist website.

 

Supplies Needed

• 5 green spi­der mum stems
• 6–7 green hyper­icum stems
• 5 leather fern stems
• 1 bunch lily grass (about 25 stems)
• 3 large Aspidis­tra leaves (peace lily plant leaves)
• rub­ber bands or twine
• flo­ral shears
• short opaque vase with about a 2‑inch opening
• Option­al: 2 yards roy­al blue dou­ble-sided satin ribbon

More Olympic Flower Coverage:

Vacou­ver Olympic Offi­cial Website 

CTVOlympics.ca

Yahoo Sports

The Human Flower Project

Step 1: Net­ting cov­ers the mums to pro­tect the blooms dur­ing ship­ping; these nets should be removed very care­ful­ly by gen­tly pulling them off. Let mums sit for a while in a vase so the blooms relax before you start arrang­ing with them.

Step 2: Clean the stems of the mums and Hyper­icum berries of all their foliage

Step 3: Remove the low­er sec­tions of the leather fern so just the tips remain

Step 4: Start with the small­est bloom, and place in the cen­ter. Place each stem around and slight­ly under­neath the mid­dle bloom so they nes­tle in togeth­er nice­ly. secure with rub­ber band or to be more Eco-friend­ly, kitchen twine.

Step 5: Nes­tle in hyper­icum berries around the mums. Make sure there are berries all around and secure with anoth­er rub­ber band
or more kitchen twine.

Step 6: Add the leather fern tips in a star shape as shown below. Secure with anoth­er rub­ber band or more twine.

Step 7: Gath­er about 10 longest stems of the lily grass and gen­tly fold over. Secure with a rub­ber band as shown below.

Step 8: Repeat with more lily grass and leave some free. Sur­round the gath­ered bou­quet with the round­ed lily grass and the free lily grass, alter­nat­ing around the arrange­ment to give it a sym­met­ri­cal look. Fin­ish with the Aspidis­tra leaves that you gen­tly fold over like you did with the lily grass and place each one on three sides of the bou­quet. Secure with rub­ber bands or twine. Cov­er the rub­ber bands or twine with a roy­al blue rib­bon to give it a real Olympic look or place it in an opaque bud-type vase. Con­grat­u­la­tions, you’ve just made a bou­quet fit for Olympic champions!