Thanksgiving Flowers

Flower Duet’s Ideas for Home Entertaining

By Flower Duet

Orchids add to an already ele­gant flo­ral design for Thanks­giv­ing. Flow­ers and pho­to by Flower Duet.

This month, we offer three dif­fer­ent Thanks­giv­ing Flo­ral Design class­es for stu­dents of all abil­i­ties to cre­ate a love­ly cen­ter­piece from suc­cu­lent-topped pump­kins to a tra­di­tion­al long flo­ral design. If you can­not make a class, here are some flower ideas for your Thanks­giv­ing Day celebration!

• Novem­ber 14 — Hunt­ing­ton Library — Make Your Own Suc­cu­lent Pump­kin Centerpiece
• Novem­ber 21 — Flower Duet’s Pro­duc­tion Stu­dio — Make Your Own Thanks­giv­ing Cen­ter­piece fea­tur­ing Berries and Nuts
• Novem­ber 24 — South Coast Botan­ic Gar­den — Make a Cen­ter­piece that will be per­fect for Thanks­giv­ing Dinner

Gilding gourds, nuts & leaves

Gild­ing nuts like these wal­nuts adds the trendy metal­lic look to your tra­di­tion­al Thanks­giv­ing flo­ral cen­ter­piece. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

Gild­ing nuts like wal­nuts offers a great metal­lic accent to any flo­ral design!

The eas­i­est way to achieve a scratch-proof gild­ed look is to use Rub ‘n Buff Wax Metal­lic Fin­ish liq­uid. Just a lit­tle tiny dab is all you need to cov­er a wal­nut. For cov­er­ing small nuts and gourds, this offers a scratch-proof method. If you choose to use a metal­lic spray paint like Design Mas­ter 24K Gold, (Flower Duet rec­om­mends this brand since we use it all the time!) items can be eas­i­ly scratched when moved. Spray paints offer a fast way to cov­er larg­er sur­faces like leaves, wreaths and garlands.

Anoth­er way to gild is to use gold leaf but this can be a bit messy.

Choose Rich & Vibrant Colors

Deep oranges pair well with the reds and yel­lows of fall. Think of turn­ing leaves and you have your col­or palette. Many decid­u­ous trees turn from green, to red to yel­low to brown. So, that’s a per­fect com­bi­na­tion to fit into a Thanks­giv­ing cen­ter­piece as shown here.

Burnt oranges pair well with soft peach­es and greens in this design fea­tur­ing three types of mums, Hyper­icum berries and Cym­bid­i­um orchids. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

This Thanks­giv­ing arrange­ment would look great on a front stoop, porch or buf­fet table. We used orange Marigolds, red Ger­ber Daisies, Smoke Bush and Broom corn in a hol­lowed out nat­ur­al pump­kin. After hol­low­ing out the pump­kin, spray the inside with bleach to keep it fresh a bit longer. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Alternative Color Combinations for Thanksgiving Centerpieces

You could step away from tra­di­tion­al oranges and reds and try a new soft­er palette in peach­es and creams. Start with some soft-col­ored gourds and pair with peach ros­es and hyper­icum berries.

Peach Finesse ros­es pair well with gourds, bright green flow­ers and green­ery and dried pods for an alter­nate look for Thanks­giv­ing. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

Green & White for Thanksgiving

For an even soft­er col­or feel­ing for an ele­gant for­mal din­ner, choose white and mut­ed greens in the form of fun geo­met­ric shapes of pump­kins and suc­cu­lent plants.

A row of mini white pump­kins topped with an assort­ment of green suc­cu­lents is a per­fect fresh take on fall enter­tain­ing. Design by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

This green pump­kin real­ly shows off the grey and sil­ver hues of the suc­cu­lent flo­rets on top. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

Flower Duet To Appear at Club MomMe’s Fall Family Fest

On Sun­day, Novem­ber 8, 2015 at the South Coast Botan­ic Gar­den, Flower Duet will appear at the 3rd Annu­al Club MomMe Fam­i­ly Fest.  Our flow­ers will be fea­tured through­out the fes­ti­val as well as a flo­ral hair wreath sta­tion for VIP lounge for Plat­inum and Gold Tick­et holders.

From the Club­MomMe Web­site: “Fall Fest is the biggest event of the year for Club MomMe fans includ­ing mod­ern moms, moms-to-be and fam­i­lies.  Imag­ine con­nect­ing with moms, laugh­ing, let­ting go of your every­day wor­ries.  Indulge in a fam­i­ly-friend­ly par­adise cre­at­ed just for you, the busy mod­ern mom who wants to be all things to all peo­ple, and rarely gets enough “me time.”  Con­nect with oth­er moms, moms-to-be, dads, fam­i­lies, local resources & brands.”

Flower Duet will bring our pop­u­lar flower crown build­ing sta­tion to the Fam­i­ly Fest!

Moms + Dads

• Find­ing your Inner Mom Confidence
• Car Seat Safe­ty & FAQ by Diono
• Sleep help by age of your child
• How to cook health­i­er & bet­ter meals for you and your kids. Dis­cov­er new products.
• Lac­ta­tion & Wean­ing Tips & Help
• And of course, Gear, Prod­ucts & Toys

Moms-to-Be

• Birth With­out Fear
• Sleep Train­ing
• Car Seat Safety
• Breast­feed­ing Tips & Tricks
• Dia­per Chang­ing Secrets & Intro to Cloth Diapering
• Dis­cov­er the Must Haves Prod­ucts & Gear

Tick­et Infor­ma­tion:  Tick­et prices vary for the event based on extras that can be added to the day’s activ­i­ties. Tick­ets avail­able on the Club­Mom­Me’s website.

Event Date: Sun­day Novem­ber 8th 2015

Event Time: 10:30 am — 3 pm

Loca­tion: South Coast Botan­ic Gar­den, 26300 Cren­shaw Blvd, Palos Verdes Penin­su­la, CA 90274

Hash­tags: #Best­DayEv­er #Fam­i­lyFest

On Location Winter Holiday Styling Workshop

South Coast Botanic Garden Workshops Series Continues on December 2nd, 2015

Flower Duet will con­tin­ue its exclu­sive on-loca­tion flo­ral styling class­es at the South Coast Botan­ic Garden.

For our win­ter hol­i­day-themed class, we will show you how cre­ate your own win­ter won­der­land indoors and out­side for hol­i­day par­ties, wed­dings and how to apply pro­fes­sion­al florist tech­niques to even your own home decorations.

Winter Holiday Floral Arranging Demos will include:

• How-to-cre­ate a flo­ral snow­ball poman­der & how to hang it (we will make these as a team dur­ing the class)
• Tips and tricks on flock­ing (mak­ing green­ery and branch­es look like they are cov­ered in snow)
• 2015 Hol­i­day Trends
• Gar­land design tech­niques includ­ing hands-on cre­ation and hanging
• Hol­i­day Bow Mak­ing — Every­one will make a pro­fes­sion­al hol­i­day bow they can keep!
• And more!!!!!

So make your reser­va­tion to attend. Whether you are a pro­fes­sion­al florist, flower enthu­si­ast or event plan­ner, we promise you will learn at least one new tip and prob­a­bly more to make your hol­i­day events super spe­cial and unique!

Event: Win­ter Hol­i­day Flo­ral Styling Work­shop at the South Coast Botan­ic Garden

Date: Wednes­day, Decem­ber 2, 2015

Time: 10 a.m. to Noon

Cost: $25 members/$35 non-members

Reser­va­tions: Con­tact the Gar­den’s Guest Ser­vices 310–544-1948

Garden Club Lectures, Weddings, Author Events with Flower Duet

Here is a selec­tion of images from events we did in Octo­ber. We were all over the area with wed­dings on the West Side in Bel Air and San­ta Mon­i­ca, then up to Mal­ibu at Calami­gos Ranch. We went down­town to the Los Ange­les Library for its Lit­er­ary Feasts and  enjoyed a love­ly lun­cheon lec­ture demon­stra­tion at the San Mari­no Gar­den Club.

Per­sian Sofreh in San­ta Mon­i­ca. Flow­ers and pho­to by Flower Duet.

Sofreh Flo­rals by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Wed­ding flow­ers for La Ven­ta Inn in Palos Verdes Estates. White Hydrangea gets nice­ly accent­ed with pink spray ros­es, green stan­dard ros­es and fluffy Bupleu­rum. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Demon­stra­tion flow­ers from a lun­cheon and lec­ture by Flower Duet at the San Mari­no Gar­den Club. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Greet­ing table flo­ral piece by Flower Duet for a recent event for the Los Ange­les Library. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Bride before first look at Calami­gos Ranch in Mal­ibu. Wed­ding bou­quet by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny at Calami­gos Ranch in Mal­ibu. Casey of Flower Duet placed all the blooms indi­vid­u­al­ly into the ivy in front of the bride and groom. Pho­to by Gary Coelho.

Flow­ers for recep­tion at Calami­gos Ranch. Design by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

Cer­e­mo­ny design for a recent wed­ding at the Hotel Bel Air. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Casey Schwartz.

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

FlowerHouse

Flow­er­House was an art project com­plet­ed in Octo­ber 2015 in Detroit, MI. Florists from around the region cre­at­ed a liv­ing flo­ral art instal­la­tion inside a fore­closed home in Detroit. Pho­to by theflower.house.

Lisa Waud, flo­ral own­er of Pot & Box, is the cre­ator of Flower House. In Octo­ber 2015, along with the help from florist friends both local and from across the US and Cana­da, she filled the inte­ri­or walls and ceil­ings of an aban­doned house with Amer­i­can-grown fresh flow­ers and liv­ing plants.

Fund­ed in part by a cam­paign on Indiegogo.com, Waud pur­chased two fore­closed homes to com­plete this art instal­la­tion. After the flo­ral art instal­la­tion, her project part­ners, Reclaim Detroit, will respon­si­bly decon­struct the hous­es, divert­ing as much as 75% of the mate­ri­als in the build­ing from the landfill.

When the struc­tures are gone, she plans to con­vert the plot of land into Flower House Farm which will grow flow­ers for her flo­ral design busi­ness locat­ed in Ann Arbor and Hamtramck.

The FlowerHouse Mission is:

shar­ing the flower house expe­ri­ence root­ed in a love of art
build­ing an exhi­bi­tion that brings vis­i­tors awe and joy
cre­at­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty for florists to par­tic­i­pate in an inno­v­a­tive flo­ral installation
pur­su­ing a pas­sion for sus­tain­abil­i­ty and respon­si­bil­i­ty to amer­i­can-grown flower farms
show­ing respect for the city of detroit’s his­to­ry through the reuse of one aban­doned house
enrich­ing as many lives as we can

See more about how the instal­la­tion turned out and learn about the part­ners involved in this inter­est­ing project that focus­es on Amer­i­can Grown Flow­ers.

Book Recommendation: The Five Biggest Wedding Planning Myths — An Event Planner Tells All: War Stories, Warnings, and Top-notch Tips for Having the Wedding of Your Dreams

Pic­tured is Dee Gaubert of No Wor­ries Event Plan­ning and author of The Five Biggest Wed­ding Plan­ning Myths — An Event Plan­ner Tells All: War Sto­ries, Warn­ings, and Top-notch Tips for Hav­ing the Wed­ding of Your Dreams. Pho­to by Shani Barel.

Dee Gaubert, a top-notch event plan­ner based in Los Ange­les, has writ­ten a book about the biggest wed­ding plan­ning myths in an effort to help brides and grooms set the right expec­ta­tions for their wed­ding. We love work­ing with Dee and her team from No Wor­ries Event Plan­ning and want­ed to rec­om­mend this book for brides and grooms as well as an new­bie plan­ners to learn from the best!

From Amazon.com:

“DIY dis­as­ters. Blown bud­gets. Cry­ing fits. Wed­ding plan­ning is more com­pli­cat­ed, more cost­ly, and more con­fus­ing than ever. With a sharp sense of humor and com­pas­sion­ate under­stand­ing, wed­ding plan­ning expert Dee Gaubert uncov­ers five top myths about the plan­ning process, pro­vid­ing straight-to-the point advice and real-world exam­ples from her years of expe­ri­ence as one of Los Ange­les’ go-to wed­ding plan­ners. As the say­ing goes, “The truth shall set you free” — and this book will free you of cost­ly and stress­ful mis­con­cep­tions about plan­ning the biggest day of your life.”

Get the book today from Amazon.com.

Flower Tool: Spray Bottles

A plas­tic spray bot­tle seems like a log­i­cal tool…why even men­tion it? Well, because you need a lot of these around. It’s essen­tial for spray­ing cor­sages, bou­quets and oth­er wire work with Crown­ing Glo­ry. We buy Crown­ing Glo­ry in bulk, so we need spray bot­tles on hand all the time.

You’ll also need some spray bot­tles for just plain water to mist suc­cu­lent pump­kins to help them last from the end of Sep­tem­ber through Thanksgiving!

We also use spray bot­tles to mist our Tilland­sias — but you need to use min­er­al water for this type of spraying.

So, per­haps it would be good to invest in a few dif­fer­ent col­ored Sharpies so you can keep all the bot­tles straight!

Flower Duet’s Classes for 2016

We’ve been busy putting togeth­er our sched­ule for next year with wed­dings and events as well as class­es we’ll be offer­ing. We’ll be adding ways to make reser­va­tions for all of these class­es by Decem­ber 1st so mark your cal­en­dars for more fun with flow­ers next year!

• Jan­u­ary 23 Class & Tour – Fol­low your dreams and learn how to build a show stop­ping cen­ter­piece using non-tra­di­tion­al flo­ra in play­ful col­ors and tex­tures to cre­ate an off-the-chart design. We’ll show you the basics of flo­ral design and how you can break the rules to cre­ate your own masterpieces.
• Jan­u­ary 30 – Hunt­ing­ton Library Class Loca­tion flo­ral design inspired by the his­toric Cit­rus groves and exten­sive exot­ic orchid collection.
• Feb­ru­ary 24 – Wed­ding Bou­quets – Learn our tried and true method for hand-tied bou­quets in our first wed­ding series class of 2016.
• March 2 – South Coast Botan­ic Gar­den Spring Styling Class — Learn how to cre­ate flo­ral gar­lands and fresh flo­ral sprays and how to attach them to a vari­ety of struc­tures in this hands-on loca­tion work­shop in the garden!
• March 5 – Class & Tour Flow­er­ing Branch­es – Com­bine del­i­cate flow­er­ing branch­es with light and love­ly flo­rals and greens for a fresh take on ear­ly spring.
• March 16 – Wed­ding Cen­ter­pieces — Explore a pletho­ra of ideas for wed­ding recep­tions while learn­ing the tech­nique for an exquis­ite cen­ter­piece in on-trend flow­ers that is easy to trans­port and keep fresh!
• April 2 – Hunt­ing­ton Library Class fea­tur­ing lus­cious hyacinth and freesia for an intox­i­cat­ing take on Spring.
• April 16 – Sen­sa­tion­al Suc­cu­lents & Fresh Flower Class & Tour – Suc­cu­lents offer long-last­ing focal points in liv­ing flo­ral bou­quets and you’ll learn three dif­fer­ent tech­niques for incor­po­rat­ing them into bou­quets, cen­ter­pieces and gar­lands as well has tak­ing home your own creation.
• April 27 – Wed­ding Wire Work – Get com­fort­able design­ing flow­ers for the wed­ding par­ty by learn­ing how we make flower crowns, cor­sages and bou­ton­nieres. You’ll be hands on by learn­ing how to wire flow­ers for all types of wed­ding flow­ers applications.
• May 7 – Pot et Fleur Class & Tour for Mother’s Day – Learn the clas­sic Vic­to­ri­an flower art of com­bin­ing two or more pot­ted plants grow­ing in soil or oth­er medi­um with cut flow­ers in the same con­tain­er. Per­fect for a Mother’s Day gift!
• June 4 – Hunt­ing­ton Paint­ing Class­es – Recre­ate a clas­sic flower still life with gar­den ros­es & Peonies.
• June 25 – Gar­den Style Florist Bou­quet with LA Flower Mart Tour Option
• June 29 – Wed­ding Series: Bou­quets – Learn our tried and true method for Euro­pean style hand-tied bouquets.
• July 16 – Mediter­ranean Flow­ers Class & Tour – Escape to the shores of Italy, Spain and Greece while design­ing a cre­ation inspired by botan­i­cal ele­ments of the Mediterranean.
• August 17 – Wed­ding Series: Cen­ter­pieces — Explore a pletho­ra of ideas for wed­ding recep­tions while learn­ing the tech­nique for an exquis­ite cen­ter­piece in on-trend flow­ers that is easy to trans­port and keep fresh!
• Sep­tem­ber 17 – Vibrant and Dash­ing Dahlias with LA Flower Mart Tour Option
• Octo­ber 15 – Suc­cu­lent Pump­kins with LA Flower Mart Tour Option
• Octo­ber 19 –Wed­ding Wire Work – Get com­fort­able design­ing flow­ers for the wed­ding par­ty by learn­ing how we make flower crowns, cor­sages and bou­ton­nieres. You’ll be hands on by learn­ing how to wire flow­ers for all types of wed­ding flow­ers applications.
• Novem­ber 19 – Fes­tive Har­vest Flo­ral Design with Berries and Branch­es with LA Flower Mart Tour Option
• Decem­ber 10 – Hol­i­day Ever­greens with LA Flower Mart Tour Option