March 2018 News

St. Patrick’s Day Flowers

Bells of Ire­land are the per­fect choice for a fun St. Patrick­’s themed-flo­ral design. Flower Duet is fea­tur­ing these flow­ers at our class at The Hunt­ing­ton Library this Sat­ur­day, March 17, 2018.

This Sat­ur­day is St. Patrick­’s Day and we love it because we’re part Irish. No real­ly, we are. After all, Casey is an Irish name! We’ll be teach­ing a class at The Hunt­ing­ton Library in San Mari­no that will fea­ture Bells of Ire­land, orchids and some oth­er beau­ti­ful sea­son­al flow­ers to cel­e­brate luck, green clovers and pots of gold.

Won’t you join us? Sign up at Brown Paper Tickets

How to Design with Daffodils

By Casey Schwartz

Daffodil Flower Arrangements

These love­ly spring bulb flow­ers have a light scent. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

It’s Daf­fodil sea­son! They are everywhere…get ’em while they’re hot!

A FEW TIPS YOU MUST LEARN ABOUT DAFFODILS!!!!

Also known as Jon­quils, Paper Whites or Nar­cis­sus, Daf­fodils do not play well with oth­er flow­ers. So, it’s best to keep these flow­ers on their own in their own arrangements.

Cut stems exude sap that can be detri­men­tal to oth­er flow­ers; there­fore, store sep­a­rate­ly in water for about 6 hours before mix­ing with oth­er flow­ers. Do not recut again when arrang­ing with­out flo­ral foam, or you will have to wait anoth­er 6 hours.

These are avail­able as pot­ted flow­er­ing plants, which are great for short-term indoor or out­door displays.

Nar­cis­sus are geot­rop­ic (stems bend in response to grav­i­ty), so store upright in uni­form light­ing. Most Nar­cis­sus have a del­i­cate to strong fra­grance, which some peo­ple may find overpowering.

Daffodil Pavé Step-by-Step

Step 1: Place a lay­er of flow­ers around the lip of the vase with stems reach­ing to the bot­tom of the vase.

Lay­er #1 of Daf­fodil Pavé. The num­ber of flow­ers need­ed will depend on how open they are and how big the vase open­ing is for your design. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Here is an overview look at the first lay­er. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Step 2: Place a sec­ond lay­er of Daf­fodils rest­ing just on top of the first lay­er. Here is a view from the top.

An overview of the sec­ond lay­er so you can com­pare the first to the sec­ond. The num­ber of flow­ers you’ll need depends on the vase size. The first lay­er will take more flow­ers than the sec­ond and so on. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Fin­ished view of Daf­fodil Pavé from the top. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Step 3: Fin­ish with a few final blooms at the top. Make sure all stems reach the bot­tom of the vase. Always cut at an angle so stems can drink water.

Final Look!

Hmmm…pretty! Daf­fodil pavé by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Old Fashioned Flower

Daf­fodils are old-fash­ioned, so why not dis­play them with their greens in a clas­sic vase like this ceram­ic cupid vase? Cut at dif­fer­ent lengths to add some whim­sy to the design. This is only 10 stems of a dou­ble bloom variety.

Design tip: The tallest bloom should stand twice as high as the vase. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Modern Look with Classic Daffodils For Less than $5

These are won­der­ful­ly nos­tal­gic flow­ers of spring, but they can also look quite ele­gant when clus­tered togeth­er show­ing off their clean stems in a tall glass cylin­der. Keep it mod­ern by let­ting the heads just skim the lip of the vase.

This ele­gant look can be done with just 20 stems of daf­fodils and a 9‑inch cylin­der from Dol­lar Tree! This is an arrange­ment that costs less than $5 in Los Ange­les to make not count­ing the gas in your car tak­ing you to Trad­er Joes to buy the flow­ers! Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Step-By-Step Rose Compote How-to Floral Design

By Kit Wertz

First…you might ask…“What is a compote?”

Then…you’d like to learn more, right?

This design takes just four ele­ments and looks amaz­ing from all angles! We are work­ing with the fol­low­ing elements:

• flo­ral cut­ters or knife
• 1 com­pote vase (a fan­cy word for a foot­ed container)
• 1/2 brick flo­ral foam (soaked in water and flower food)
• 2–3 stems waxflower
• 10 stems spray rose (this is just one bunch)
• 5–7 stems Hol­land Rus­cus (also called Israeli Ruscus)
• 7–9 stems stan­dard car­na­tions (match the col­or of the spray ros­es for max­i­mum impact)

Pink and White Spray Ros­es! What is not to love!??? Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Waxflower is the first step. This cre­ates the over­all shape of your design. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Step 1: After you’ve soaked the flower foam and fit it into your com­pote con­tain­er so it’s a snug fit. Add the Waxflower as shown. Form a V with the two main stems. The height should be twice as high as the vase. Add two more stems elon­gat­ed out to each side. One longer than the oth­er. Final­ly, add two stems to the front and the back of the vase that are about half the width of the vase.

Add the spray ros­es. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Step 2: Add the Spray Ros­es as shown. Keep some of the green­ery on the stems to add vol­ume to the design. Make sure there are no leaves on the stems that will go into the foam. This is your “mass flower” and needs to be the major­i­ty of the design. Pay atten­tion to the front and back. Fol­low the lines of the waxflower.

Add the Rus­cus. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Step 3: Add the Rus­cus to help offer a lit­tle more depth and dimen­sion. This helps make the flow­ers’ col­ors stand out more.

Fin­ish with Car­na­tions. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Step 4: Fin­ish with the stan­dard Car­na­tions as shown. Try to place them strate­gi­cal­ly through­out the design. On all four sides…some high…some low…none at the same lev­el or right on top of each other.

Want to learn more designs & pro­fes­sion­al flo­ral tech­niques? Sign up for our month­ly sub­scrip­tion to Flower Arrang­ing Fri­days For­ev­er class­es online and you can learn a new design each week! With Step-By-Step videos and down­load­able PDFs so you’ll know exact­ly how to cre­ate a won­der­ful flo­ral design and learn trade secrets from Kit & Casey of Flower Duet!

Slow Flowers Summit — Sign Up and we’ll see you there!

What is the Slow Flow­ers Summit?

Called a “TED Talk for Flower Lovers,” the SUMMIT is a one-day lec­ture series for cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als, thought lead­ers and pio­neer­ing voic­es in the pro­gres­sive Amer­i­can-grown flo­ral com­mu­ni­ty. Designed to stim­u­late curios­i­ty, exam­ine con­ven­tion­al assump­tions and explore con­scious and eth­i­cal prac­tices in the flo­ral indus­try, the Sum­mit agen­da asks speak­ers and audi­ence mem­bers alike to inquire, inform, include, insti­gate and inspire. Flower Duet will present at this year’s Sum­mit!

Debra Prinz­ing devel­oped the SUMMIT as a new “live” com­po­nent to the Amer­i­can Flow­ers Week cam­paign (June 28-July 4). AFW devotes a week of activ­i­ty via events and social media plat­forms to pro­mote domes­tic flow­ers, raise con­sumer aware­ness and unite America’s flower farm­ers with the U.S. flo­ral industry.

Kit attend­ed last year’s inau­gur­al sum­mit in Seat­tle and wrote a lengthy arti­cle about all the won­der­ful pre­sen­ters. It was a price­less day of con­nect­ing with like-mind­ed flo­ral design­ers and flower farmers.

In 2017, Debra Prinz­ing devel­oped the SUMMIT as a new “live” com­po­nent to the Amer­i­can Flow­ers Week cam­paign (June 28-July 4). This week devotes a vari­ety of events and activ­i­ty on social media plat­forms to pro­mote domes­tic flow­ers, raise con­sumer aware­ness and unite America’s flower farm­ers with the U.S. flo­ral industry.

READ MORE: Behind the Scenes at the Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit 2017

The 2018 Slow Flow­ers SUMMIT is part­ner­ing with the Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Flo­ral Design­ers (AIFD), to co-locate and offer the Sum­mit as a bonus pro­gram tak­ing place the day pri­or to the start of AIFD’s Sym­po­sium.

Reserve your space!

Flower Duet Nominated for Best Wedding Florist for 2nd Year by California Wedding Day Magazine

Casey and I were nom­i­nat­ed for the 2nd year in a row for BEST WEDDING FLORIST in Los Ange­les by read­ers of Cal­i­for­nia Wed­ding Day Mag­a­zine! If you are in the indus­try you can vote for us! Vot­ing end­ed but win­ners will be announced in May. Thanks for your support!

Book Recommendation:
Martha’s Flowers: A Practical Guide to Growing, Gathering, and Enjoying

Just pub­lished a few weeks ago, this is the lat­est book from the Doyenne of Design, Martha Stew­art.  From the publisher:

“The essen­tial resource from Martha Stew­art, with expert advice and lessons on gar­den­ing and mak­ing the most of your spec­tac­u­lar blooms

Martha Stew­art’s life­long love of flow­ers began at a young age, as she dug in and plant­ed along­side her father in their fam­i­ly gar­den, grow­ing healthy, beau­ti­ful blooms, every year. The indis­pens­able lessons she learned then–and those she has since picked up from mas­ter gardeners–form the best prac­tices she applies to her volu­mi­nous flower gar­dens today. For the first time, she com­piles the wis­dom of a life­time spent gar­den­ing into a prac­ti­cal yet inspired book. Learn how and when to plant, nur­ture, and at the per­fect time, cut from your gar­den. With lush blooms in hand, dis­cov­er how to build stun­ning arrange­ments. Accom­pa­nied by beau­ti­ful pho­tographs of dis­plays in Martha’s home, burst­ing with ideas, and cov­er­ing every step from seed to vase, Martha’s Flow­ers is a must-have hand­book for flower gar­den­ers and enthu­si­asts of all skill levels.”

Pur­chase online in Hard­cov­er or E‑Version.

Flower Tool: Start with Clean Buckets & Tools!

“Clean and fresh” takes on new mean­ing with flow­ers. Your buck­ets, cut­ters, knives, bench­es and oth­er equip­ment used in pro­cess­ing should be san­i­tized. Bac­te­r­i­al counts rise rapid­ly in the hold­ing solu­tion unless buck­ets are cleaned with an antibac­te­r­i­al solu­tion and the solu­tion con­tains a prop­er­ly mixed flo­ral preservative.

Tips include:

1. Do not use soap when clean­ing buck­ets and vas­es (might leave a residue)
2. Use com­mer­cial­ly pre­pared prod­uct like DCD
3. Alter­na­tive­ly, use vine­gar or bleach to san­i­tize your equipment.

Water qual­i­ty has a direct effect on the longevi­ty of your cut flow­ers. Clean water is essen­tial. Look into your buck­ets and con­tain­ers and ask your­self, “Does this look clean enough to drink?” If the answer is “No”, then your flow­ers should­n’t be stood in it!

We use all ways to clean our tools. Com­mer­cial­ly pre­pared clean­ers for the flo­ral indus­try include DCD Clean­er which dis­in­fects, cleans and deodor­izes con­tain­ers, tools and work sur­faces. From the manufacturer: