Flower Facts

Remember these flowers?



Well, I had originally assumed that they were a foam arrangement, since normally that is what these short arrangements are. Those of you who have not spent a few weeks working in a flower shop probably dont know what a "foam" flower arrangement is, so I will further elaborate on that.

^this is flower foam.

It is normally soaked in a bucket of water, so that it can absorb enough water to feed the arrangement for its duration of view. normally you just cut off enough to fill the bottom of a short vase or ceramic container, and then you can poke the flowers and filler into it to keep it in place, while also providing water for the flowers. Some flower foam also provides additional nutrients to the flowers, to help make them last longer. In my search for an image, I have also learned that it is pretty inexpensive! only $1.50 for a brick the size shown, which would be enough for probably at least 4 or 5 arrangements the size of mine, above.

However, upon further investigation of my arrangement, I discovered that this was NOT a Foam arrangement. You are probably thinking, "what's the big deal?" Well, instead of using foam or a

tape grid

to keep the flowers in place, they just simply left all the leaves on the roses to make them thicker and force them to stay in place. Again, you might be saying: "So WHAT?!" Well, just like leaving vegetables in a bowl of water for a week will lead to moldy rotten vegetables, keeping the leaves ON the flower INSIDE the water, will make sick, moldy, flower arrangement. Though the flowers continued to open and look pretty, they began to STINK, and I had to explain to Scarlett that they were "sick" and needed to go in the garbage. I could not save them, or prolong their life.

So the MORAL of this story, is Always remove the leaves from the stems of your flowers up to water level. Babies breath, or fillers such as leather leaf do not need to be pruned of leafage prior to arrangement, as they have a different type of leaves. If you do not wish to remove leaves, use flower foam instead, so that all you have to do is poke the base of the stems into the wet foam to provide your flowers with water and food. The last lesson: Don't buy flowers from the grocery store. We won't even discuss the price my husband paid for this (now moldy) flower arrangement from Ralph's... but it was the thought that counts, and I loved enjoying them for the short time it allowed.