Floral Design of the Hudson Valley

Had a great time a bridal expo yesterday. Met a lot of future brides and their grooms. The bridal bouquet shown here is one of the ones that gets the most questions and creates the most excitement. The brides love the more traditional look shown in the other photos but this is something different and they love how elegant it is as well as how light it is.

I was the guest presenter at the Clematis Garden Club's spring tea earlier this month and had a great time. Eight flower arrangements in just over an hour meant a lot of up-front preparation and arranging quickly during the presentation. I've attached some pictures that show the arrangements that I did at the tea. The first one shows several of the arrangements. The one in front looks like a woodland garden and contains mixed greens, moss, and some spectacular ranunculus.... To the left is an arrangement of pink sweet peas and miniature pink calla lilies. To the right is a small part of the basket arrangement shown in the second picture. The second picture also has a silver florist bucket with flowering peach (from our yard!) and some pink lisiantus. The third picture is of French tulip circled with umbrella fern and tied with silver wire. Although you can't see it, the bouquet is sitting in a glass vase with silver-colored stones. See more

Busy holiday season but here are the pictures of the arrangements that I took to a bridal expo in November. I prefer to do mostly European style deign and all of the bridal designs here are in that style. I absolutely love the white one with Phalaenopsis orchids attached to silver wires. It moves beautifully as you walk and the boutonniere is such fun The green Cymbidium orchids are on a wire collar that I made myself and it is extremely lightweight. The other arrangements are a little more traditional but still have a European influence.

This is the season to look for flowers in your garden for a weekly flower arrangement. Garden flowers last very well if cut in the morning and allowed to sit in water for a few hours before arranging them. Don't forget to look at some of the smaller flowers or the flowers in your herb garden. They look great in smaller arrangements. This arrangement is simple: black-eyed susans (rudbeckai) and nasturtiums. (Nasturtiums are edible and the flowers add a wonderful splash of color to salad.)

Here are pictures of the two more modern arrangements I did for the Festival of the Voice. The tall white one is constructed of mitsumata branches held in place with candle wax. The flowers are either in glass tubes or in water at the base of the wax disc. Both arrangements lasted well in the heat so I brought them home and they look pretty good in a home setting. Not quite sure, though, what Bill's Great-aunt Marry would have made of the arrangement.