Hello Fall Florals

Flower Duet will teach it’s Octo­ber 14th Flo­ral work­shop stu­dents how to cre­ate this amaz­ing flower pump­kin! Flow­ers and pho­to by Kit Wertz of Flower Duet.

The fall offers a won­der­ful array of flo­ral design oppor­tu­ni­ties from suc­cu­lent pump­kins to rich jew­el-toned flower arrangements.

Here is a selec­tion of inspi­ra­tions for you to spur your own cre­ative spir­it for the fall season!

If you are local to Los Ange­les, please join us for some fun fall flo­ral instruc­tion and enjoy this mon­th’s flo­ral news from Flower Duet!

XOXO — Kit & Casey

Succulent Pumpkins

Sure…you can see how to cre­ate these on YouTube, but if you want to learn from the experts so your pump­kins last through the sea­son and for up to 6 months…then come to a class with Flower Duet! Pump­kins and pho­to by Kit Wertz of Flower Duet.

An ele­gant white pump­kin offers a won­der­ful sur­face for this love­ly suc­cu­lent cen­ter­piece. Pump­kin design and pho­to by Kit Wertz of Flower Duet.

Floral Pumpkins

In 2016, we intro­duced the flo­ral topped pump­kin, (see below in yel­low) with no-carv­ing required! This year, we are show­ing a long-last­ing flo­ral pump­kin that is lit­er­al­ly burst­ing out from the mid­dle full of gor­geous fresh flowers.

This Octo­ber pink pump­kin is a fun twist on the usu­al fall col­or theme. Find out how to make this with Flower Duet on Octo­ber 14th in our class! Pump­kin and pho­to by Kit Wertz of Flower Duet.

This is not a carved pump­kin as a vase! The trick will be revealed in our class on Octo­ber 14th! NOTE: Carved out pump­kin vas­es only last a few days before they start to smell and harm the flow­ers. Flower Duet Flow­ers. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Gilded Seedpods, Mini Pumpkins & Branches

Metallics are still quite pop­u­lar for the hol­i­days start­ing now! So gild away! Flower Duet Flow­ers. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Design Mas­ter paint does a great job of gild­ing small branch­es like these seed­pods. Flower Duet Flow­ers. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Gild­ed wal­nuts offer a fun con­trast in a tra­di­tion­al fall flower design. Flower Duet Flow­ers. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Fall Flower Ideas

Fall jew­el tones fall right in line with a Dia De Los Muer­tos theme par­ty. Flower Duet Flow­ers. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

A pret­ty Mex­i­can skull vase is the per­fect ves­sel for flow­ers for a Flower Duet Día de los Muer­tos par­ty. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

What’s not to love in this design fea­tur­ing saf­fron, Cof­fee Break Ros­es, pur­ple hydrangea and a suc­cu­lent? Flower Duet Flow­ers. PHo­to by Kit Wertz.

It’s not too late to make a suc­cu­lent wreath to hang on your door for the hol­i­days. It does need about a month to root before it’s safe to hang. This was tak­en at our class at The Hunt­ing­ton Library last month. Suc­cu­lent wreaths by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Sun­flow­ers are the per­fect fall flower. Flower Duet flow­ers. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Peach is a fun col­or to high­light the deep reds of autumn. Flower Duet flow­ers. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Working with Antiqued Hydrangea in the Fifth Season

Pur­ple antique hydrangea from the South­ern Cal­i­for­nia Flower Mar­ket. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

What is the Fifth Season?

Accord­ing to a great arti­cle on the John­ny Seeds web­site, the Fifth Sea­son is the time of late sum­mer and ear­ly fall when flow­ers are giv­ing their last hur­rah from the gar­den and we start to see the influ­ence of warm autumn tones of gold and brown from the chang­ing foliages.

What is Antiqued Hydrangea?

In the front of the pho­to shows fresh hydrangea and the back shows antique hydrangea. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Antique Hydrangea blooms are flow­ers that stay on the plant after they would nor­mal­ly be har­vest­ed for the trade. These blooms of mop­heads stay on the plant up to four weeks after a nor­mal har­vest month.

In late sum­mer and ear­ly fall, the hydrangea blos­soms start to fade and mar­ble. Farm­ers keep water­ing, prun­ing and car­ing for their hydrangeas as if it were a month or two earlier.

The bush is still giv­ing nutri­ents to the blos­som, and the col­ors are fad­ing due to sun bleach and oth­er atmos­pher­ic con­di­tions.  As the nights get cold­er and the days get short­er the hydrangea will antique at a faster rate.

If you are grow­ing your own hydrangea and want the blooms to become antiqued, don’t let just looks deceive you.  The key is how they feel.

Accord­ing to Sun Val­ley grow­ers: “Does the blos­som feel soft, like a nor­mal flower petal?  If so, it’s not ready yet.  The bloom should feel rigid and spring back a lit­tle when you rub your hand across it.  If your hand just smoosh­es into the bloom with no resis­tance, it’s not ready.  A nice firm head means the hydrangea is ready to harvest.”

How do You Dry Antique Hydrangea?

Dried Antique Hydrangea mop­head. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Once you have some Antique Hydrangea in an arrange­ment, the best way to dry it and pre­serve the blooms is to just let it drink all the water in the vase! This will take about a week. Don’t refill the vase because over the week and into the next cou­ple weeks the hydrangea will dry out thor­ough­ly.  This will leave you with a “dried hydrangea” which will last indefinitely.

What is the Best Way to Design with Antiqued Hydrangea?

This is a mass of Antique Hydrangea in a rus­tic con­tain­er that has start­ed to dry out. It’s pos­si­ble to arrange with Antique Hydrangea in the same way you would arrange new­er growth Hydrangea. Paint­ing by Kit’s hus­band, Greg. Check out his work at GregWertz.com. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Really…there is not a dif­fer­ence of how to work with antiqued hydrangea vs. younger hydrangea. It’s a large head­ed flo­ral stem that takes up a lot of real estate in a design. It offers a won­der­ful fall look to your designs. Works well with rus­tic themes.

If you want to dry the hydrangea, though, keep it as a sin­gle type of massed flower in a vase and let all the water be absorbed by the blooms.

Detail of gaze­bo flow­ers for Hotel Bel Air wed­ding fea­tur­ing antique Hydrangea and lots of ros­es! Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Types of Antique Hydrangea

Ore­gon Coastal Flow­ers offers a vari­ety of Antique Hydrangea for the wed­ding flo­ral indus­try. Here is a snap­shot from their web­site of some beau­ti­ful colors!

Here are some of the names of Antique Hydrangea:

Green Antique Antique Hydrangea

Jum­bo Kiwi Antique Hydrangea

Red Antique Hydrangea

Rose Antique Hydrangea

Hulk Antique Hydrangea (yes…as in the Incred­i­ble Hulk since it’s Blue-Green in color!)

Team Building with Flower Duet

Flower Duet’s stu­dio is ready for a pri­vate group from Mat­tel for a team build­ing event! Pho­to by Casey Schwartz

Guest Speaking and Private Group Floral Instruction

Last month, Flower Duet was invit­ed to be guest speak­ers and guest instruc­tors for some local pri­vate groups.

We host­ed a large group from Mat­tel in our stu­dio to cre­ate a fall flower arrange­ment each team mem­ber could take home or dis­play on his or her desk. What we find inter­est­ing is that many co-work­ers find out each oth­er’s hid­den tal­ents. For exam­ple, one mem­ber of the team worked for an orchid grow­er when he was in col­lege. He had hid­den flo­ral skills that showed dur­ing the workshop!

Palos Verdes Peninsula Garden Club Appearance

Here are some of the auc­tion items that Kit made for the PV Penin­su­la Gar­den Club. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

For its first fall meet­ing, Kit spoke to the Palos Verdes Penin­su­la Gar­den Club. She demon­strat­ed five dif­fer­ent flo­ral designs which were all auc­tioned off to the group at the end of the meeting.

It’s a fun expe­ri­ence to share flo­ral designs with such a knowl­edge­able group but can be a lit­tle intim­i­dat­ing! We know that these ladies have been work­ing close­ly with flow­ers and plants for a long time and are tick­led when we find out we’ve taught them more than a few new tips and tricks! The most pop­u­lar flow­ers and green­ery Kit brought were the Grev­el­lia and Gom­phre­na. More than one mem­ber of the club asked about where they could pur­chase plants to grow in their garden.

We always try to work with flow­ers and plants that Gar­den Club mem­bers can grow in their gar­dens, and Kit chose a vari­ety of drought-tol­er­ant green­ery and flow­ers for the demonstrations.

The main piece from the lec­ture that Kit cre­at­ed for the Penin­su­la Gar­den Club.

Focus on Floral Artist: Ivan Butorac

Rose Man­dala by artist Ivan Butorac. Copy­right — Ivan Butorac.

If you vis­it our flo­ral design stu­dio in Los Ange­les, you’ll see two beau­ti­ful pieces of flo­ral art by Los Ange­les based artist, Ivan Butorac. These cir­cu­lar designs are in the realm of a Man­dala, which accord­ing to Web­ster’ Dic­tio­nary, is “a geo­met­ric fig­ure rep­re­sent­ing the uni­verse in Hin­du and Bud­dhist symbolism.”

Each flower in the art piece was indi­vid­u­al­ly pho­tographed by the artist, then arranged dig­i­tal­ly to cre­at­ed a visu­al kalei­do­scope for the eyes.

Casey worked with Ivan direct­ly when they assist­ed celebri­ty florist Bren­ton Wolf for an install in Los Ange­les ear­li­er this year.

From his artist pro­file on his web­site: ivanbutorac.com:

“Born and raised in war-torn Yugoslavia he was wit­ness to immense suf­fer­ing. Heav­i­ly influ­enced by his artist par­ents he was always in a state of motion and exper­i­ment­ed with a lot of media. He stud­ied at an arts Acad­e­my in Bel­grade. In 2014 he had a priv­i­lege to spend a year work­ing for an artist Saint Claire Cemin in his stu­dio in Brook­lyn. See­ing what it is, and then dream­ing up and cre­at­ing a space for new real­i­ty is what Butorac was used to since he was a child. His work is char­ac­ter­ized by the repet­i­tive sym­me­try of ele­ments in his pho­tographs, by cap­tur­ing the moments of tem­po­ral and lock­ing them into abstract com­po­si­tions with the time­less res­o­nance of a pow­er­ful sign. Nature and Love are his great­est inspiration.”

Every day we walk into our stu­dio, we enjoy look­ing at our orig­i­nal piece by Mr. Butorac shown below on our wall.

Ivan Butorac Flower Man­dala on Flower Duet’s Design Stu­dio wall.

Book Recommendation: Flower Power: The Meaning of Flowers in Asian Art

Flower Pow­er Book

Last month, we high­light­ed an art exhib­it you could attend in San Fran­cis­co called Flower Pow­er. It cov­ered the hid­den mean­ings of flow­ers in Asian art. The exhib­it end­ed on Octo­ber 1st, so in case you missed it, you can read the book!

I picked up the book inspired by the art exhib­it titled: Flower Pow­er: The Mean­ing of Flow­ers in Asian Art at my local library and loved read­ing about the his­tor­i­cal sym­bol­ism of some of my favorite flowers!

Vase with “One Hun­dred Flow­ers” Motif from the book Flower Power.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

“When a Chi­nese Emper­or employs the design of one hun­dred flow­ers, the bless­ings extend over his entire empire. A pro­fu­sion of flowers—Chrysanthemum, peony, lotus, mag­no­lia, peach yel­low hibis­cus, apri­cot, morn­ing glo­ry, rose, camel­lia, daylily, pinks, nar­cis­sus, wis­te­ria and more amassed togeth­er in bloom—cover this vase.”

The book is divid­ed into five sections:

Tran­scen­dence — Lotus

Tran­sience — Plum and Cherry

Reflec­tion — Chrysanthemum

Sophis­ti­ca­tion — Tulip and Rose

Provo­ca­tion — Flow­ers in Con­tem­po­rary Art

Much of mod­ern Amer­i­can flo­ral design is influ­enced heav­i­ly by ancient flo­ral motifs and designs from Asia. This book offers won­der­ful insight about how we arrived at our cur­rent flo­ral styles of today.

Flower Mart Tours and Fall Flower Arranging Workshops Los Angeles

Flower Duet offers tours of the Los Ange­les Flo­ral Dis­trict each month. Our next tour focus­es on fall flow­ers and foliage and how to incor­po­rate these won­der­ful items into your sea­son­al flo­ral designs. You can choose to just attend a tour (we tell you where and when to meet us via email after you sign up online) or come to a class and a tour!

Find out more on our flower arrang­ing class­es page!

Flower Duet offers group tours of the LA Flower Dis­trict each month. Here is a pho­to of what is at the flower mar­ket this week!  Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Fall Dahlias are in abun­dance at the Los Ange­les Flower Dis­trict! Come to our tour on Octo­ber 14, 2017 to see it all in per­son! Pho­to by Kit Wertz

Fall is full of jew­el tones. Fun flower mart tours to be had by all with Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Fall would not be the same with­out sun­flow­ers! Local­ly grown and in full bloom at the Los Ange­les Flower Dis­trict. Pho­to by Kit Wertz