Flower Duet’s Special Valentine’s Day Gift Offering — Coming Soon!

Available February 7, 2015

Flower Duet will offer two spe­cial flo­ral Valen­tine’s gifts that can be ordered for Valen­tine’s Day! We’ll have options to ship to any­where with­in the con­ti­nen­tal Unit­ed States or to pick up at our stu­dio in the South Bay of Los Ange­les. Watch our Shop­ping page, flo­ral trends blog, Face­book, Insta­gram or Twit­ter feed to learn more on Feb­ru­ary 7, 2015. For now, it’s our lit­tle secret so stayed tuned!

 Moss Covered Letter Initial Wreath Tutorial

By Kit Wertz

Over the last hol­i­day sea­son, I saw a wreath for sale online that was a moss-cov­ered let­ter ini­tial. The cost for the wreath was $45, plus ship­ping! I made one of my own for about $8.

Here is my tuto­r­i­al on how to cre­ate a let­ter wreath that is per­fect for any occa­sion whether it be for a first birth­day par­ty, Bar Mitz­vah or Bat Mitz­vah, wed­ding or your own front door.

Moss-Covered Wreath Supplies:

• Wood­en Let­ter from Michael’s Craft Supply
• Super 77 Adhesive
• Pre­served Moss
• Sta­ple Gun & Wire (for Hook)

Step 1: Gather Materials; Prep Work Area

First, take the wood­en let­ter you pur­chased from your local craft store and place it on top of craft paper or a painter’s tarp which you can toss when you are fin­ished with your project. The spray glue will get all over the place and you’ll want to make clean up easy.

Step 2: Add Glue to letter

Spray the let­ter with the Super77 Adhe­sive lib­er­al­ly. Let it become a bit tacky by wait­ing about a minute before you start to add moss.

Step 3: Add First Moss Clumps

Add large amounts of moss to the glued let­ter. Press down and let dry for about 10 minutes.

Step 4: Remove excess moss and spray again

Remove the excess moss that did not stick and re-spray the entire top of the let­ter again with the Super77. Then, add more moss. Press down. Let dry and then remove any excess moss by trim­ming away with sharp cut­ters or craft scis­sors. Remem­ber to spray the sides of the wreath so you cov­er the sides with moss, too!

NOTE: I am wear­ing Nitrile gloves on this step because the moss tends to stick to every­t­ing at this point. Also, some­times moss can cause a type of der­mati­tis, so it’s a good idea to work while wear­ing gloves.

Step 5: Attach a Loop and It’s Ready to Hang

Turn over the back of the wreath and attach a loop of wire with a sta­ple gun. I used some alu­minum wire I had which I twist­ed around to make a loop. Then, I sta­pled it to the top of the W so I could hang it. You could use small hook eyes and hang it using invis­i­ble fish­ing line. If you want to hang it where peo­ple can see it from both sides, be sure to cov­er both sides with moss!

Hanging Moss-Covered Letter Wreath

Here is the fin­ished prod­uct! Done in less than 30 min­utes, for less than $10 for all the supplies.

Red Floral Ideas for Valentine’s Day Flowers

By Casey Schwartz

Ode to Red Blooms
by Casey Schwartz

Red ros­es are great,
But the bank you may break.
There are many more red flowers,
Which may wield the same powers.

Red means pas­sion. When you give red flow­ers to some­one, you are telling them that you are pas­sion­ate for them.

Anemones

Red anemones mean to “unlock the secret”, so these are per­fect to send to one you secret­ly admire. They are spring flow­ers which we’ve seen at the flower mart already!

Tulips

How much more mes­sage do you need if you send Tulips …. of course you will want a kiss. Amaz­ing­ly your love will grow as your tulips will too.  Expect your tulips to grow up to four inch­es once you have pur­chased them. Best to group these with just oth­er tulips as not to over­whelm the oth­er flowers.

Tulips Work­shop — Feb­ru­ary 15, 2015: Flower Duet will hold a spe­cial flower arrang­ing class fea­tur­ing tricky tulips on Feb­ru­ary 21, 2015 at our flo­ral design stu­dio in Tor­rance. You can attend our option­al tour of the Los Ange­les Flower Dis­trict before the class or just come to the class.

Ranunculus

Ranun­cu­lus mean “Radi­ant with Charm” and are just start­ing their sea­son this time of year. They are native to Asia, but have made an impact world­wide and are charm­ers with brides for bou­quets! Vase life is still only a week, but worth it.

Anthurium

Anthuri­ums are amaz­ing trop­i­cal blooms shaped like a heart. What could be more telling of how you feel. They also last up to a month in a vase. Talk about a long rela­tion­ship. These are avail­able year round and grown in the USA…a bit off the coast of Cal­i­for­nia! Red, Pinks and Whites.

Ginger

Anoth­er love­ly trop­i­cal which makes a state­ment is Gin­ger. Tall and bold in red and pink, they last a long time and are avail­able for Valen­tine’s Day.

Mango, Riffifi & Montoya Carnations

When one thinks of car­na­tions, Grannies usu­al­ly come to mind…these amaz­ing car­na­tions have hip names and visu­al­ly pack punch. Man­go, Rif­fi­fi, and Mon­toya sound like new age names at a local dog park in Los ange­les, but they are amaz­ing car­na­tions which will also last for weeks in a vase.

Peruvian Lily: aka Alstroemeria

A red Peru­vian lily like the one pic­tured here is called “Sym­pho­ny Red Pas­sion.” These love­ly blooms are known by their latin name, Alstroe­me­ria. We like to tell our brides who can­not remem­ber the name that it sounds like, “Ask her to mar­ry ya.”

So, choose these if you about to pro­pose. They also last up to and beyond two weeks in a vase.

All flow­ers will last at least a week. Just remem­ber to give them water and love and atten­tion just like any relationship.

Flowering Branches Bloom at the Mart and in the Garden

By Kit Wertz

In the last week of Jan­u­ary we saw the first flow­er­ing branch­es at the mart. They includ­ed for­syth­ia, quince and some pussy wil­low. Next month we’ll see cher­ry blos­soms, plum blos­soms and more for­syth­ia and pussy willow.

Join us on our next tour of the Los Ange­les Flower Dis­trict. We go almost every month and offer you guid­ance on how to choose fresh flow­ers, where to find spe­cif­ic flow­ers and plants and how to find that per­fect vase!

If you want to learn more on how to force flow­er­ing branch­es at home, we wrote a tuto­r­i­al a few years back in a pre­vi­ous post. Enjoy some recent pho­tos of what is at the mart includ­ing local­ly grown Wax flower that is sim­ply gor­geous in its magnitude!

Camellia Flower Arrangements

By Kit Wertz

Camel­lias are gor­geous flow­er­ing shrubs that are ever­green, drought tol­er­ant once estab­lished and bloom from late fall through ear­ly spring. Pri­mar­i­ly used in home gar­den design as opposed to the cut flo­ral trade, camel­lias are avail­able in many shapes, sizes and colors.

Camel­lia foliage is often avail­able at the flower mart and makes a won­der­ful accent to all types of flo­ral designs year round.

Most designs using gar­den-cut camel­lias won’t last more than a day or two in a vase, so enjoy them while you can. After the bloom has fad­ed, save the green­ery and add it to anoth­er flo­ral design!

My moth­er-in-law has many beau­ti­ful bush­es so I thought I would make a love­ly design for her table out of a few dif­fer­ent types of camel­lias. The design I cre­at­ed fea­tured branch­es from three dif­fer­ent camel­lia bush­es. The red Camel­lia japon­i­ca ‘Cher­ries Jubilee’ has been bloom­ing all month. The pink Camel­lia japon­i­ca ‘Debu­tante’ is in full bloom right now and a white Camel­lia japon­i­ca ‘Alba Ple­na’ is still wait­ing to bloom but had gor­geous greenery.

Waxing Camellia Blooms to Preserve the Flower

Many gar­den club grow­ers use a method called “wax­ing” to pre­serve blooms for shows.

Here is one tuto­r­i­al I found that might be handy if you want to pre­serve a per­fect bloom.

How to Wax Camel­lia blooms.

Magazine Recommendation:
Flirty Fleurs

By Flower Duet

The flo­ral design­er behind the won­der­ful flo­ral design web­site flirtyfleurs.com came out with a dig­i­tal and print mag­a­zine last year. If you have not seen it, it’s time to check it out!

In this issue, Ali­cia Schwede, the edi­tor-in-chief, shares a selec­tion of sen­sa­tion­al bridal bou­quets,  the pow­er of the  Farmer/Florist move­ment, why teach­ing class­es can be great for your busi­ness, and takes a trip to the Lon­don gem that is Neill Strain Flo­ral Couture.

On the cov­er and inside offers pho­tos of an amaryl­lis-inspired styled shoot by Nan­cy Teasley of Oak and the Owl. And since rose stud­ies are one of Flir­ty Fleurs’ sig­na­ture fea­tures, they fea­ture a study of David Austin gar­den roses.

The pur­pose of Flir­ty Fleurs is to encour­age and inspire flo­ral design­ers. You should also add this blog to your feed to learn more about what is going on in the flower world!

The edi­tor of Flir­ty Fleurs inter­viewed us a few years ago. Here is where you can read our pro­file on her site: Fab­u­lous Florist:: Flower Duet, Los Ange­les, CA on Flir­ty Fleurs.

Floral Design Tool:
Crowning Glory Hydration and Protection Spray

By Flower Duet

Crown­ing Glo­ry® solu­tion spray keeps arrange­ments fresh­er and cus­tomers sat­is­fied. This easy to apply liq­uid shield holds in mois­ture which reduces water loss, keep­ing flow­ers more vibrant. We use it on all our bou­ton­nieres, cor­sages, hair wreaths and bou­quets to seal in mois­ture and keep flow­ers fresh.

Often used in del­i­cate tra­di­tion­al wed­ding flow­ers, such as gar­de­nias, stephan­otis, ros­es, and lilies, where the arrange­ments are in no or lit­tle water, it’s the final hydrat­ing step. Crown­ing Glo­ry® is used by all lev­els of the flo­ral indus­try includ­ing grow­ers, whole­salers, and florists.

Order from Ama­zon or your local whole­sale flo­ral supplier.

Crown­ing Glo­ry® is ready to use; no mix­ing or dilut­ing required. Spray dries to a clear fin­ish with no residue.

• Ready to use prod­uct, no mix­ing or dilut­ing required.
• Spray dries to a clear fin­ish with no residue.
• Slows dete­ri­o­ra­tion and brown­ing of fresh flow­ers, plants and greens.
• Can be used with either vase or designed flo­ral foam arrangements.
• Per­fect for cor­sages, bou­ton­nieres, and wed­ding work.
• Safe to use on all flower types.

Crown­ing Glo­ry — How to Use PDF