By Kit Wertz

An arrange­ment of fresh flow­ers and leaves adorns the top of a real ghost-white pump­kin for a beau­ti­ful fall flo­ral design. Kit made this one with black & white daisy mums, Gre­vil­lea, orange ger­beras, leu­ca­den­dron, blue­ber­ry ros­es, marigolds, and pur­ple sta­t­ice. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Fall is here!!! We received our first rain storm of the sea­son and the kids are fig­ur­ing out Hal­loween cos­tumes and so nat­u­ral­ly, our fall col­or palette changes into warmer tones.

Pump­kins are plen­ti­ful on patch­es and at stores, but once the can­dy bowl is emp­tied on the 31st, so will the orange globes dis­ap­pear! Start col­lect­ing your real pump­kins for those Novem­ber cen­ter­pieces and store them in a cool place.

In case you miss out on fresh pump­kins, the crafty kind of carv­able pump­kin is becom­ing more real­is­tic look­ing (almost too per­fect).  And, there are new options (see tools below) with pre-cut pump­kins to make your own fall dioramas.

Kit cut a craft pump­kin in half and place a block of soaked flo­ral foam in the mid­dle. Then she added black and white daisy mums, Gre­vil­lea, tree fern, pur­ple sta­t­ice, and eryn­gium. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

This new dio­ra­ma pump­kin has a large open­ing on one side and is a fun way to add a blast of flow­ers to a face of a pump­kin! Add a block of flo­ral foam and then design away! This pump­kin fea­tures daisy mums, Com­bo ros­es, Mini Green Hydrangea and an Aeo­ni­um suc­cu­lent flo­ret. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Side view of Dio­ra­ma flo­ral pump­kin. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

This design is a straight pick­up from the Michael’s web­site. We just hap­pened to have all the ele­ments we need­ed to make it in the stu­dio! Moss for a nest, red oak leaves for fall, two love­birds from the flo­ral sup­ply ware­house (San Diego Flo­ral Sup­ply) and a fresh red Ger­ber Daisy bloom in a vial with water so it will stay fresh!. Fin­ish with fairy lights so folks can see the lit­tle birdies. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

It’s fun to cre­ate vignettes for fall too. Here is a spooky one with black can­dle­sticks, gold can­dles (bat­tery oper­at­ed), dried grass­es in a tall black-foot­ed vase and a dusty green pump­kin topped with an extra large suc­cu­lent. Our fall flo­ral poman­der com­pletes the col­or play with a few orange cym­bid­i­um orchids. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Pink Dahlia

Breast can­cer aware­ness month is an annu­al cam­paign that intends to edu­cate peo­ple about the impor­tance of ear­ly screen­ing, test­ing, and more. This cam­paign starts on Octo­ber 1st and ends on Octo­ber 31st every year.

You’ll often see ath­letes wear­ing pink socks on the foot­ball field or pink shoes in com­pe­ti­tion to aid in aware­ness. You can help in your own way by mak­ing a pink flo­ral design and send­ing to some­one you know to show them how much you care.

Get Screened

Accord­ing to the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol (CDC), a US Gov­ern­ment Orga­ni­za­tion, “oth­er than skin can­cer, breast can­cer is the most com­mon can­cer among Amer­i­can women. Get­ting mam­mo­grams reg­u­lar­ly can low­er the risk of dying from breast can­cer. The Unit­ed States Pre­ven­tive Ser­vices Task Force rec­om­mends that if you are 50 to 74 years old, be sure to have a screen­ing mam­mo­gram every two years. If you are 40 to 49 years old, talk to your doc­tor about when to start and how often to get a screen­ing mammogram.”

Make flo­ral arrange­ments in pink this month to hon­or some­one you know who is affect­ed by Breast Can­cer and show them how much you love them and sup­port them. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Sim­ple is best. Choose one type of flower like these pink Ger­ber Daisies and let them shine in a con­tain­er made from a gift box.

Free Class of the Month — Fall Pomander

Floral pomanders are versatile in their uses…from flower girls to aisle decor to all types of hanging ideas!

Kit offers you tips on esti­mat­ing stems need­ed for dif­fer­ent sized poman­ders, how to add a rib­bon and how to keep it from get­ting crushed after it’s finished

What you’ll receive in this mini-les­son from Flower Duet:

- 7 Videos

- Mul­ti­ple ideas on poman­der looks & best types of flow­ers to use for this look

- Sup­plies list you can download

- Step-by-Step video instructions

- Fun, Fun and more Fun!!!

A Full Bouquet of Lessons one Stem-At-A-Time

Our Flower Arrang­ing Fri­days series is a per­fect­ly-sized approach to learn­ing the art of flo­ral design. With each mini-class, we’ll show you a tru­ly use­ful flo­ral design tech­nique in a cur­rent event flo­ral design style. This class series will keep you won­der­ing what we’ll show you next!

As part of each class, you’ll receive: 
1. A down­load­able PDF list of sup­plies includ­ing the flower recipe.

2. Easy-to-fol­low mini video lessons so you’ll nev­er have to rewind the video to see a step again.

3. Tips and florist secrets to help you be a suc­cess­ful flo­ral arranger!

Fall col­ors appear when the leaves on decid­u­ous trees turn shades of yel­low, orange, red and then brown. We love see­ing the fall Chrysan­the­mums pour into the flower mar­ket this time of year. Bronze spi­der mums, brown cush­ion mums and all sorts of oranges abound in fall. We don’t see these col­ors any oth­er time of year!

Sun­flow­ers are wel­come any time of year but look espe­cial­ly at home in Octo­ber flo­ral designs. We are still see­ing lots of gold in trees so it’s appro­pri­ate to keep the bright yel­low in our flo­ral designs.

Here is a col­or­ful col­lec­tion of some flow­ers we saw this week at the Los Ange­les Flower District.

Fall col­ors abound from top left- clock­wise: Sun­flow­ers, Cush­ion Mums, Dahlia, Bronze Spi­der Mum, Mixed yel­low and brown Daisy Mums, Bur­gundy Cremona.

Flower Design Classes & MORE!

Flower Duet’s South­bay Studio
Reg­is­ter for these class­es online. *LA Flower Mart Tours avail­able some dates also.

• Novem­ber 17, 2018 — Autumn Branch­es and Berries Flo­ral Workshop*
• Decem­ber 8, 2018 — Hand-Made Wreaths and Gar­lands Class*
• Jan­u­ary 12, 2019 — The Ele­gant Calla Lily
• Feb­ru­ary 9, 2019 – Organ­ic Containers
• March 9, 2019 – Eccen­tric Emer­ald Flowers
• April 20, 2019 – A Mod­ern Take on the Bas­ket of Flowers
• May 11, 2019 – Tulips for Mother’s Day
• June 15, 2019 – A Pock­et Full of Posies
• July 20, 2019 – Large-Scale Flo­ral Design with Roses
• August 17, 2019 – Too Hot Trop­i­cal Flow­ers with Orchids
• Sep­tem­ber 14, 2019 – Suc­cu­lents & Flowers
• Octo­ber 12, 2019 – Fall, Tall & Ter­rif­ic Flowers
• Novem­ber 23, 2019 – Flo­rals On the Table Workshop
• Decem­ber 14, 2019 – Ever­greens & Flowers

Wednes­day Night Wed­ding Series Workshops:

• Octo­ber 24, 2018 — Wed­ding Cen­ter­pieces & Table Accents
• Jan­u­ary 30, 2019 – Bou­quet & Boutonnière
• Feb­ru­ary 27, 2019 – Cen­ter­piece & Table Accents
• May 22, 2019 – Bou­quet & Boutonnière
• June 26, 2019 – Cen­ter­piece & Table Accents
• Sep­tem­ber 25, 2019 – Bou­quet & Boutonnière
• Octo­ber 23, 2019 – Cen­ter­piece & Table Accents

Hunt­ing­ton Library
Reg­is­ter for these class­es through brownpapertickets.com.

• Novem­ber 3, 2018 — Flow­ers For Entertaining
• Decem­ber 1, 2018 — Ever­green Wreaths and Garlands
• Jan­u­ary 19, 2019 — Herb Gar­den Flowers
• March 2, 2019 — Bulb Spring Flowers
• May 4, 2019 — Cin­co de Mayo Bright Flowers
• June 1, 2019 — Roses

Autry Muse­um
Novem­ber 18, 2018 — Thanks­giv­ing Centerpiece

Laura Dowling: Wreaths: With How-to Tutorials

In this mon­th’s Florists’ Review mag­a­zine, Ms. Dowl­ing shares three wreath tuto­ri­als from her forth­com­ing book, Wreaths: With How-To Tuto­ri­als avail­able Novem­ber 30, 2018. These exam­ples are won­der­ful and I can­not wait to see the book!

Fun Facts:

- Ms. Dowl­ing was the White House Florist for Pres­i­dent Obama.

- She is known for cov­er­ing vas­es in organ­ic mate­ri­als like moss­es and twigs in the French Style to add to the dra­ma of her florals.

- Our own mom attend­ed a demon­stra­tion from her years ago in Vir­ginia and she gave away all of her designs to the attendees.

From the publisher:

“By the author of Flo­ral Diplo­ma­cy at the White House (ISBN: 9789058565587) and A White House Christ­mas (ISBN: 9789058565754). As an accom­plished speak­er, Lau­ra lec­tures and con­ducts work­shops around the USA through­out the year. Each design offers instruc­tions using every­day mate­ri­als, as well as more dif­fi­cult ele­ments for those inter­est­ed in greater chal­lenges. Illus­trat­ed through­out in lav­ish col­or. Per­fect to keep or as a gift for DIY friends.”

Flower Tool :: Carvable Craft Pumpkins

Michaels Fall Dio­ra­ma craft idea includes instruc­tions. Kit mim­ic­ked this look with moss, real oak leaves and a live Ger­ber Daisy. Pho­to: Michaels.com

Michaels Ashcraft Pumpkins

Click to see a full selec­tion of Fall Craft Pump­kins from Michaels

Joann Fun-kins

Click to see a selec­tion of Fun-kins — the craft pump­kins from Joann Crafts