Browse by Categories


Latest Blogs

A Fresh Flower Demonstration

Posted by Ophelia Harry on 5th Jun 2018

After attending the demonstration as Tracy's assistant, I was delighted at what I learnt and the designs that Tracy and Alison produced. Not coming from a florist background it was really interesting to watch and surprisingly easy to follow what was going on. I hope everyone there enjoyed it as much as I did. In Tracy's own words, she describes the demonstration and some techniques used.

I recently had the opportunity to do a fresh flower demonstration alongside Alison Penno of Flower Scene, Cornwall at our local fresh flower wholesaler and I jumped at the chance.

We were working with gorgeous garden roses grown in Kenya and Columbia, what a treat! We had a huge range of rose varieties, colours and sizes to work whilst totally immersed in that glorious rose sent.

Garden roses do make florists nervous; they are most often chosen for wedding work and yet can be unpredictable and fragile, so I was very interested to see how the varieties have developed and how they perform. Some of the more blousy varieties were still a little delicate but on the whole the majority had many petals with a firm dense middle so were robust and able to withstand the rigours of a very special day. I was interested to note that these roses actually need to be well conditioned and then take two to three days to open and develop to their full potential.

Structure and form is important to me but I really like to use techniques that are fast and cost effective and so I chose to demonstrate a range of designs that use the structure to support and protect the flower material and add visual impact.

All of the designs can be prepped quickly in advance of the event and the actual addition of fresh materials at the last moment is simple and means minimum handling of flower and plant material. I used bases constructed from vines, woven raffia and cane, handmade paper and wire but by far the technique that got the most interest was the use of melted wax both to decorate and add a finish to materials and containers but also to seal foam to use on hanging installations. This is a quick technique that I picked up at a workshop with Pim Van Den Akker and involves heating a pan of wax to a fairly low temperature (just hot enough to melt but still cool enough to dip in your finger) and then you dip in your container/foam. It will take up to five coats to seal foam adequately but you can add more or dip into other materials such as bark chips to create a more interesting finish.

My love of demonstrating at florist events is because not only do I return to my roots a bit but I meet up with new friends and old and get the opportunity to re-connect with the industry. I was delighted to see my college tutor in the audience, Jean Owen who taught me floristry at Bath College when I was 17 (I am not going to tell you how long ago that was!) alongside florists I have taught myself, colleagues I have demonstrated alongside and people I have worked with.

I enjoyed developing designs using lots of products including sundries, vine, raffia, cane, medolina, tapes, wire, glassware and combining with fresh flowers. I will definitely recreate my favourites in silks.

Many thanks to Andrew Jones at Flower Vision Bristol for inviting me along to do this demonstration.

Short video capturing a snippet of the demonstration and the techniques and skills Tracy used.

Check out our YouTube Channel for more inspirational videos, or our website to get creative right now!

Latest Blogs