free lesson in flower arranging with Chrissie Harten and floralartmall.com

Floral Design magazine, gives you a free lesson for a festive flower arrangement for flower arrangers, floral artists, florists, gardeners and beginners.

The teacher in this lesson is Chrissie Harten, who lives in Redditch, Worcestershire, England. She has loved plants for as long as she can remember - in fact one of her earliest memories is of hiding at the back of the border in her father's garden, with delphiniums, lupins, phlox and all manner of other plants towering above her head, and loving it! It was inevitable, then, that she would eventually become the gardener that she is today.

When she's not in the garden, she teaches flower arranging and she also plays the saxophone (but not at the same time!).For many years, she's been a member of Bromsgrove and District Flower Arrangement Society, which is affiliated to NAFAS - the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies

Chrissie is also a member of the floral design team with a regular step by step lesson in the floral design magazine. Subscriptions and more information about floral design available here

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This design is a table centrepiece, with three candles, made to be viewed all round. Click on the picture for a larger view

I have used a shallow blue glass bowl for the container, and a red, orange and blue colour scheme. You could choose any other colour scheme to match your decor.

I have used a flower ball as the container for one of the candles, and the others are inserted into plastic candle holders, straight into the floral foam. All the flowers and foliage have been used in groups, which creates more impact. Once the flowers and foliage are in position, I have used looped Liriope foliage to produce a "caged" effect.

To make this design, you will need the following:
Mechanics:-

A shallow bowl for the container.

A block of green floral foam.

A 9cm diameter green foam sphere.

Three candles.

Three candle holders (optional).

Spray paint suitable for floral art.

Stub wires, preferably green annealed, 0.46mm or 0.56mm for the flowers and foliage.

Stub wires, preferably green annealed, 0.90mm or 1.00mm thickness for the candles, if you're not using candle holders.

Anchor tape for the candles, if you're not using candle holders.

Plastic pin holders ("frogs") for anchoring the floral foam (optional).

Floral fix (a sticky putty, usually green) to anchor the pin holders, if used.

The flowers and foliage I have used are:-
Flowers:-

Orange Zantedeschias (Calla Lily)

Orange Lilies

Heliconia stricta

Orange Dendranthemas (syn. Chrysanthemum)

Foliage:-

Liriope(Lily Turf) (An alternative could be Miscanthus, Typha or Leymus species).

Viburnum rhytidophyllum.

Fatsia japonica variegata (False Castor Oil Plant).

Hedera hibernica (Irish Ivy) arboreal form. (Arboreal forms of Hedera colchica or H. helix could also be used)

Corylus avellana 'Contorta' branches sprayed blue (Contorted Hazel). (An alternative could be Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa' - Twisted Willow).

Cut the block of foam to the correct size to fit your bowl. Make sure the top of the foam sits around 2 - 3 cm above the rim of the container. To soak the foam, place it in a bowl of water and allow it to sink until the top surface of the foam is level with the surface of the water. (This usually takes around 20 seconds.) Take the foam out straight away, as oversoaking can lead to the foam breaking up. Don't be tempted to run the foam under the tap to soak it, as this can result in dry spots inside the foam which will cause some of your flowers to quickly wilt! Place the foam into your container. It should be quite stable, but if you wish, you could anchor it with a couple of plastic foam pin holders ("frogs") stuck to the container with Oasis® fix. Don't use anchor tape, as this will be difficult to hide, and you need to leave the rim of the container showing as part of the design.
Take the foam sphere, and cut a slice from the bottom, so that it sits flat. Insert three wooden cocktail or barbecue sticks into the flat area to anchor it to the block of foam in the container. (*TIP* - Wooden sticks are better than plastic or wire for this purpose, as the wood expands when wet, and grips the foam more securely.) Insert the plastic candle holder into the opposite end of the sphere, so that only a small part of the rim of it protrudes. This will make it easier to hide with the flowers. Soak the sphere (as described above, for the foam block).
	If you prefer not to use, or can't obtain, plastic candle holders, then you could anchor your candles by taking two pieces of stub wire, 0.90mm or 1.00mm thickness, around 24cms long, and bend them to form a hairpin shape. Place the pins either side of the base of the candle, so that the rounded end is around 3cms up from the base, and tape them on with anchor tape. This will form four wire legs which can then be inserted into the foam. (See picture on the left.) You could also use four cocktail sticks instead of the wire pins, but unless your candle is straight at the base, the sticks will not be at the correct angle, which should be slightly splayed. The wire legs can be bent into the right position, whatever the shape of the candle.
Next, make the flower ball. Take the Dendranthemas, and cut the flowers off, with around 3cms of stem. Beginning at the top of the sphere, around the candle holder, insert a row of flowers. Continue adding the flowers in rows, until you reach almost to the base of the sphere. Keep the flowers close together so that no foam is showing between them. Don't cover the base of the sphere as this will need to sit on top of the foam block in your container, and make contact with it so as to draw water up from it. (*TIP* - If the stems of the flowers are weak, take some short lengths of stub wire (.46mm or .56mm thickness is best) and insert them into the stems of the flowers, making sure you don't come out through the top of the flower! This will strengthen the stems enough to make them easy to insert into the foam, and will not affect the life of the flowers.) I used 8 stems of flowers for this size sphere, but you may need more, or less, depending on how many flowers there are to each stem, and what size sphere you are using. Insert the candle into the holder, and place the flower ball onto the block of foam in your container, using the barbecue sticks to anchor it into position. The picture on the right shows a closeup of the flower ball inside the cage of Liriope leaves.
Once you have positioned the flower ball, you can continue to place your other plant materials. Begin by positioning your other two candles first, and then add the rest of the materials. I have sprayed the Corylus avellana 'Contorta' stems blue, to match the container and the candles, and this forms the height of the design. I have used the Ivy leaves rolled and grouped (see detail in the picture of the flower ball, above). To do this, it is best to use the arboreal form of Ivy, as the leaves only have one point, and give a better effect. The arboreal form of Ivy is the growth which Ivy produces when it has reached the stage when it is ready to flower. Roll the leaf into a cone shape, and insert a stub wire (.46mm or .56mm green annealed wire works best) through the leaf about .5cm up from the base of the leaf, and wind the wire around and down the stem to anchor the leaf into position (see picture on the right). I used around 10 rolled leaves for this group. You can wire them all together and insert them as one if you wish, or insert them singly to form a group. (The finished effect can be seen in the picture of the flower ball above.)
I have also used the Viburnum rhytidophyllum leaves (on the right of the design) folded, so that the white undersides can be seen. Once you have placed all your flowers and foliage, produce the "caged" effect by taking groups of three or four of the Liriope leaves, and wire each end of the group, using 0.46mm or 0.56mm thickness stub wires. Loop the groups of leaves across and around the base of the design, inserting each wired end of the leaves into the foam. Finally, fill the container half full with water which has had flower food added, and remember to replenish the water daily.