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Your tutor Chrissie Harten
Chrissie Harten 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.
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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).
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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). |
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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. |
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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.) |
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| 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. |
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