Find Your Local Florist:Everything you want to know about flowers!
Ask the Expert: Lucky Bamboo Plants
Roots were coming out of small container. I moved the plant into next size. Filled with black river rocks and pebbles as suggested. Leaves are now turning a little yellow at the bottom. I am using distilled water but within 2 days, the water on the rocks is stagnate, slippery, and has a smell.
Please Help!
Ask The Expert
I have a bit of an emergency. I don’t have a green thumb. My wife is out of the country for a month and she has several lucky bamboo plants in vases. There’s one in particular (the twisted set) that needs intensive care due to leaf discolorations and the plants itself doesn’t look healthy. I change water everyday because it smells (stinks) and the roots easily come off when I put the plant under the taps. The water don’t get changed much and is probably the reason why. I want to know if I can bring this to a florist who can help (some kind of plant hospital would be swell). Or I can treat it at home. I’m in Central LA. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Ask the Expert: Peace lily question
I made a big mistake when feeding my peace lily. I used full strength Miracle-Gro liquid all purpose plant food watering can type without diluting it and three days later the leaves are starting to shrivel up and dry out. The plant has wilted, even watering it didn’t seem to help. Any suggestions on bringing it back to life?
I thought it might be interesting to discuss floral design terms every so often. Today I thought we would discuss the term Tussie-Mussie or Tussy-Mussy.
A Tussie Mussie is a style of bouquet often associated with the Victorian Era. This bouquet is composed of a small compact cluster of flowers or herbs. The stems are bound to create a round bouquet. When fashioned this way the bouquet can be hand held as a bridal bouquets or as an easy way to give flowers to someone who can then drop the bouquet in a vase they already have.
The flowers and herbs used in a tusssie mussie are often very fragrant. In fact this bouquet is sometimes referred to as a nose gay.
Yesterday my neighbor called to ask me what I thought about sending a fireside basket to a funeral. She explained that an old high school friend passed away recently and she and some other friends sent sympathy flowers to the service held in another state. She explained that one of the ladies in her group handled all the arrangements. My neighbor received a thank you card for the fireside basket that was sent. She was concerned because she didn’t know what a fireside basket was and that it might not be appropriate for a funeral service.
Fireside baskets are floral arrangements created in a broad, low-sided, oval handled basket. Many times this type of flower arrangement is used as an appropriate alternative to a standing spray. In fact many families prefer a fireside basket to a standing spray.
While helping my sister-in-law at her flower shop, I have seen many funeral arrangements. I find that the fireside baskets were some of the most appropriate floral tributes. I remember a couple of fireside baskets that really represented the personality of the deceased. One basket was arranged so the flowers looked like they had been picked from someone’s flower garden and placed in the basket. This fireside basket was for an avid gardener. The second basket was for a man who loved fishing and the flowers were arranged in the basket with a fisherman figurine. It looked like the fisherman was walking through a wildflower field to his fishing hole.
So to make a long story short. It is appropriate to send a fireside basket to a funeral
Yesterday was my birthday and I received many lovely flowers and gifts over the course of the weekend. I have one friend in particular who believes every birthday present should truly represent the day. One year she got me a birthday newspaper — a copy of the New York Times on the day I was born. This year she gave me a beautiful larkspur flower arrangement. Larkspur (Consolida ajacis) is the birth month flower for July.
Larkspur is a beautiful annual flower and a cousin of delphinium. This flower has been cultivated as a fresh cut flower. It also makes a great dried flower or garden plant. The mid to dark foliage is feathery, soft and downy. The upright blooms are similar to the blooms of delphinium. The flowers are densely packed on the larkspur bloom spikes. The color palette for larkspur contains pastels shades of pinks and rich tones of pink, white and violet blue.
If you have family or friends with a birthday this month try sending them a flower arrangement containing larkspur.
How do you celebrate July? Have you ever used larkspur the birth month flower as a way to celebrate the month?
July is the month of my birth. As my birthday approaches, I think back to when I was a kid and how enthralled I was with astrology. My birthday is July 22nd and is what they call on the cusp — meaning the changing from one astrological sign to another. My zodiac sign is Cancer and the day after my birthday the zodiac sign is Leo. I thought it would be interesting to see what flowers are associated with my astrological sign.
I found these astrological flowers for Cancer birthdays (June 22 to July 22): cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), Ammi (Queen Anne’s lace), delphinium, ferns, plumbago, hydrangea and iris. So if you know someone with a birthday during this time frame have your florist incorporate one of these astrological flowers in their birthday bouquet.
Make a Leo (July 23-August 22) happy with one of these flowers; marigold, gerbera, dahlia or sunflower.
My friend in Colorado emailed me today about her hiking trip. She described all the beautiful wild flowers she saw. It seems wild flowers are on everyone’s mind. The past week every newscast mentioned the passing of Lady Bird Johnson. Of course when you mention Lady Bird you must also mention her passion for wild flowers and the wild flower center that bears her name. We must also credit Lady Bird Johnson with the initiation of the wild flower highway program.
It made me realize how flowers are a part of our lives and how we need them. Whether cut flowers or wild flowers the positive energy that comes from flowers is amazing. Flowers can celebrate a birthday, an achievement, a milestone, comfort the grieving or lonely, but most of all flowers can make us smile.
As someone once told me “You can give people many things and get many reactions but when you give flowers you can be sure that the reaction will always be a smile”.
Here are a few flower arrangements to get those smiles going.
Once again, Flower Shop Network was in attendence at the 2007 Texas State Florist Association Convention. The convention was held at the Palmer Event Center in Austin, Texas on July 13-15, 2007. We saw many new faces this year as both current Flower Shop Network members and other retail florists visited the FSN booth to find out about the floral industry products and services provided by Flower Shop Network. Florists registered for the drawings by leaving a business card at the FSN booth or by filling out a registration card. The convention drawing was held after Flower Shop Network staff returned to the office after the Texas State convention – here are your winners:
Grand Prize – Florist Listing + eCommerce Website
Congratulations to Colonial Flowers in McCamey, Texas as the grand prize winner! The grand prize consists of a premium florist listing in the Flower Shop Network online florist directory as well as one of our fully eCommerce enabled flower shop websites. The complimentary listing and website will run for a full year on Flower Shop Network. Located in Rankin, TX Colonial Flowers also provides floral delivery service to the following areas:
Colonial Flowers
601 S Burlison
McCamey, Texas 79752
(432) 652-3275 – Local
Flower Shop Network welcomes you as a new member. Congratulations to Vernon, Janice and the rest of the staff at JD’s Colonial Flowers.
First Prize – Florist Listing
Congratulations to Twisted Willow Floral Shop in Sealy, TX as the winner of our First Prize package. The first prize package includes a premium florist listing in the Flower Shop Network online florist directory for one full year. Located in Sealy, Texas, Twisted Willow Floral Shop also provides floral delivery service to the following areas:
Twisted Willow Floral Shop
128 Main
Sealy, TX 77474
(979) 885-2299 – Local
(866) 735-2299 – TollfreeSealy, Texas
Brookshire, Texas
San Felipe, Texas
Frydek, Texas
Wallis, Texas
Bellville, Texas
Flower Shop Network welcomes you as a new member. Congratulations to Lynette and the rest of the staff at Twisted Willow Floral Shop.
Flower Shop Network would like to extend special thanks to the Texas State Florists Association for allowing us to participate in the convention. Thanks also goes out to all of the FSN members and non-member retail florists that stopped by the booth to visit with us. We look forward to seeing everyone next year in League City, Texas for the 2008 Texas State Florist Association Convention.
