As with roses, the dark red carnation signifies deep love and affection.

White carnations are said to represent purity and pure love, as well as thank you and good luck. This makes them a great choice for wedding arrangements as well as a special bouquet for somebody going on a trip or perhaps moving away. They’re also a great choice to use if you want to create an arrangement to say thank you to somebody.

Pink Carnations are traditionally given on Mother’s Day as they symbolize a mother’s or sister’s love.

Purple carnations are not as readily available as their red and white counterparts and symbolize a sense of whimsy or capriciousness.

Yellow carnations, unlike their rose counterparts that mean friendship, are actually a flower that means rejection or disdain. And like the purple carnation, are not as easy to find.

Pink Roses–The pink rose has been around maybe even longer than the red rose. Pink was and still is the dominate color for wild roses so naturally it appeared first as roses began to be cultivated. Pink Roses have a couple of different meanings. Love of course, but giving somebody pink roses can also mean gratitude and appreciation.

Yellow Roses–These lovely beauties have not been around as long as their red and pink counterparts and owe a great deal to cross breeding which gave this lovely rose it’s fabulous scent. Yellow roses are most popularly associated with Friendship, but they also mean Joy and are the perfect flower to send to somebody when you want to express Get Well wishes.

White Roses–What better flower to represent Purity and Innocence than the white rose. White roses are also known as the bridal rose and is classified as a traditional wedding flower because they also mean Unity, Virtue and the bond of New Love.

Orange Roses–This vibrantly colored rose is fast becoming a big contender against the Red Rose for Valentine’s Day. Orange Roses represent Desire, Enthusiasm and Passion, making them an excellent choice to give your sweetheart. They range in color from the palest peach to the deepest coral.

Lavender Roses–This rare bloom has a long history dating back to the Old Garden Roses. Modern hybridization has created additional varieties of lavender roses with the long stemmed rose being the one most used in arrangements. Lavender roses represent enchantment, Majesty and Love at First Sight.

10 Creative Wedding Sites–Beverly Harris of Beverly Harris Wedding and Events
When discussing wedding sites with your fiance’, consider the approximate number of guests, activities (dancing, eating–buffet, finger food or sit-down meal?), budget limitations and proximity to your home. Below are 10 creative wedding sites that you may not have thought about.

Yacht or Yacht Club
Art Studio or Gallery
Mansion or Historical Landmark Building
Ski Lodge
Theater
Fire Station
Lighthouse
Mountaintop
Botanical Garden
Sports Arena

When considering outdoor-sites, see below.

Accessibility
Parking space
Privacy
Facilities
Presence of traffic
Permits, fees
Inclement weather (rent a tent or having alternate site)
Noise levels

When creating a floral arrangement, you need to make sure that you use flowers that have a similar ‘Vase life’ so that you don’t have uneven aging in your arrangement.

Carnations and Chrysanthemums have a vase life of between one and 2 weeks. Lisianthus also have a good vase life, between 7 and 10 days. One of the greens that you could couple these with would be Bells of Ireland which also last between 7-10 days.

Iris however tend to be short lived, only 3-5 days of vase life. They usually arrive in tight buds and quickly open. Combining them with lilies or tulips will give you a good balanced arrangement. Make sure that the vase stays full and bacteria free. Amemone is another short vase life flower, generally lasting vrom 3-5 days. These lovely delicate flowers should be handled very carefully when being recut.

Some flowers, such as Callas, Alstroemeria and Dasies are particulary thirst flowers so the you will need to make sure to keep the water levels in these vases high at all times.

And all cut flowers will do well with floral food which maintains the beauty of the arrangements and can sometimes help add an extra day or so to some of the more short vase life flowers. Floral food is just one of the many products I will be offering for sale here at Flower Arranging 101 in just a few short weeks. So check back often as we expand our product line to provide you with all the tools you could possible need to create the lovely arrangements I am sharing with you here.

Today I am showcasing this adorable little arrangement that fits the bill if you are looking for something small and dainty. I used a lovely little floral tin instead of a vase. You can find these tins in any local craft show or flea market and I think they make wonderful containers. They come in all sorts of sizes, shapes and colors and are really fun to work with. Not to mention that they can be re-used afterwards, giving your recipient a special keepsake. For this arrangement, I used white roses, red spray roses, iris, gebera daisies and wax flower. The greenery came from my own yard. Check out this preview video or better still head over to our products page and purchase the full length video that tells you step by step how to create this precious little keepsake for that somebody special in your life.

]]> http://flowerarranging101.tv/tiny-treasures/feed 0 http://flowerarranging101.tv/plan-ahead-if-you-want-red http://flowerarranging101.tv/plan-ahead-if-you-want-red#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:06:46 +0000 admin http://flowerarranging101.tv/?p=2583 It’s coming up on my most favorite of holidays, Valentine’s Day. Nothing says I love you better than a big bouquet of velvety red roses, with their heavenly scent. But if you are planning to create something fabulous for somebody that you love using red or white roses, you are going to want to make sure to get with your local florist or flower supplier asap to get your name on the list. And you need to be prepared to pay more per dozen at this time of year than any other time.

Red and white roses are the crowning touch to any Valentine’s Day arrangement. So much so that starting in early January, florists have a hard time keeping the supply up with the demand. Because roses grow in a 45 day cycle. wholesalers start holding back shipping red and white roses as early as December so that they can be assure of having enough blooms to supply the deluge of requests that start coming in at the first of the year.

So what are you waiting for? Give your favorite florist a call and get your order in now. Then check out some of our great videos and create something beautiful for somebody special.

And one of the best things about using potted plants and greenery is that at the end of your event, your decor can become your party favors. Send your guests home with a great reminder of the wonderful time they had. Or consider donating the plants to a nursing home or a hospital so that they are reused and can continue to be enjoyed.

You can also donate your flower arrangements and trust me, a nursing home or hospital is very appreciative of this gesture! You’ll feel good about the donation as well.

So just do a little thinking out of the box and see what ideas you can come up with to be more eco-chic at your wedding or party. Our earth will be glad you did!

Tulips are most abundant from December through May, but today they can be found year round; possibly not every color, but white and red are pretty much guaranteed to be available all year long.

I think the most interesting thing about a tulip is that it continues to grow even after it has been cut from the bulb! They are geotropic – which means they are affected by gravity and phototropic – which means they curve towards the light. That is important to know, because when you design with tulips, you want to allow for the growth, so make sure that your arrangement is positioned directly under the main source of light in the room otherwise, your arrangement will re-arrange itself as the tulips reach towards the strongest source of light. You also will want to put them about half an inch to an inch below the other flowers as tulips continue to grow after they are cut and will grow to the height of the other flowers! If you don’t adjust for the growth, the tulips will grow and be taller than the other flowers, which isn’t an awful thing, unless you wanted all the flowers to be at the same height.

Buy tulips when they are tight and not showing much color to get the most out of them. Once the color is showing, you can expect to get 3-6 days of vase life out of them.

Everything offered in our Starter Kit is professional grade and include tools that are not readily available in the retail market.

Your starter kit comes with everything you will need to get started making your own floral arrangements. Including:

• Clippers
• Scissors
• Florist Knife
• ¼” Clear bowl tape
• 1 roll ¼” green bowl tape
• 1 roll ½” green bowl tape
• 1 roll Light Green Corsage Tape
• 1 roll Dark Green Corsage Tape
• Rose Stem Stripper
• 20 pieces each of 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 gauge wire
• 1 16 oz Quick Dip Bottle
• 1 32 oz Finishing Touch Mister
• 10 oz of Crystal Clear Fresh Flower Food
• 1 tube Floral Adhesive

And we will be adding more and more products over the next couple of months to not only help you re-create all the arrangements I’m sharing here, but to allow you to express your own creativity!

One of the oldest cultivated flowers, Carnations come in two varieties. The standard Carnations are a single flower head on one stem. The flower heads can be as big as three inch diameters. The other type of carnation is a mini carnation. Mini carnations have multiple flower heads on each stem. The flower head size on a mini carnation is about one inch in diameter.

One of the best things about carnations is the incredible assortment of colors they come in, starting with white and working through yellow, orange, pink, red, burgundy, lavender, purple, fuscia, and many bi-colors or striped variety, two colors in one flowers. They are soft tender flowers and are considered as symbol of love and fascination.  Carnations are the January Flower of the Month.  They are also the flower of choice of several fraternities and sororities.  With so many varieties in colors, the Carnation has many different meanings, from the white carnation that means innocence and purity to the dark red that means deep love and admiration.