There are many occasions where hospital flowers are the gift of choice. The birth of a baby, a friend’s surgery, or perhaps a loved one’s near passing create the desire to send flowers to a local hospital. With many rules and regulations to protect patient safety, there are several things that your florist must know before your flowers can be delivered.

When a baby has been delivered, many list the name of the family member that they know the best. In the event that this person is the father, remember that the mother is the one listed on the room rather than the baby or the father. If you do not know the mother’s name, ask someone if possible as this will make delivery go much smoother.

Another very helpful piece of information is the room number. If you received a text or call from the doting father or mother with “come visit us in room X”, use this to your advantage. Florists delivering new baby flowers to a hospital will need this information in the event that the occupant’s last name is not known. It also makes it easier on hospital staff who are juggling patients in many rooms. Once you have these helpful tidbits lined out, your flower delivery will be as smooth as the new baby’s bottom.

The room number is helpful when delivering flowers to a hospital for any occasion, not just the birth of a child. The room number is not generally given out by the hospital nor is any other patient information. They can give the delivering florist a hard time if they do not have this information which leaves your gift without a recipient. If you are sending flowers to someone in a hospital across the country, it is helpful to have as much information about the patient as possible. Room number and patient’s name will help your florist deliver your gift with efficiency and a smile.

For more flower sending tips when buying flowers online from a local florist, visit Flower Shop Network.

It’s time to kick off the football season this year. Tailgating at football games is an ultimate American pasttime. It’s something most Americans are born knowing how to do properly. What flower lovers want to know, though, is a great way to mix their favorite fresh decorations and football season hobby.

It may seem kind of anti-tailgating to bring along flowers. After all, it’s a male-dominated hobby where brewskies fly through the air and bratwurst is consumed by the yard. Don’t let that deter you. There are still ways to work tailgating and fresh flowers into one great afternoon. Ask your local florist to create fresh flowers in the team colors then:

• If you’re attending a high school football game, present flowers to the coach after an afternoon of tailgating. This is an especially good idea if the team wins (though you’ll have to wait a little longer for that answer).
• If it’s just you and the girls (wives of players, mothers of players, fans), have each woman wear a lapel corsage or a wrist corsage in the team colors.
• Go “Hawaiian” with the tailgate party theme. This way, you’ll have a reason to sport a lei in the team colors.
• If you’re the only woman, don’t make the men forget that YOU are the coolest thing there, bar none. Overwhelming estrogen can be a downer but a flower in your hair that happens to be the team’s main color is a way to maintain your femininity while acting like one of the guys.

Don’t forget to return to Flower Shop Network with pictures and stories of your fun tailgate parties!

Ask the Expert: I live in the mountains of Western North Carolina
How can I winter-over/indoors my duranta erecta–little tree in a big pot/about 3-4 feet tall.

It’s beautiful & I’d like to be able to bring it in (should it be in the house/sunny room?) or just in the garage over the winter? Gloria

Plant Expert Reply:

Hopefully the pot isn’t so big that you can’t move the plant and all into the house. I would not recommend trying to put the plant in a smaller pot just to get it in the house.

The optimum place for your duranta would be a sunroom that stays above freezing.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be heated but it can’t drop below 30 degrees.  A garage will work but only if it stays above freezing and has many windows that will contribute good light.  Any room in your house will work as long as it has a good light source.

When you bring the duranta indoors for the winter reduce your watering.  The plant will not need as much water as it did outside.  You can also cut back on the fertilizer.  Watch for spidemites, mealybugs and whiteflies when you take it indoors. If these pests due occur, you can spray it with a houseplant spray that controls those insects.

Good Luck and Keep Me Posted.

Back to school parties are the highlight of the summer. They set the tone for the rest of the school year. After a long summer’s vacation (or a short one for year-round schools), it’s always nice to throw a little celebration that welcomes in the new school year and says goodbye to summer vacation. It’s not a time to mope though! Back to school parties are fun, exciting, refreshing gettogethers with friends. Where’s a cause for sadness in that??

So now that we’re up to speed on the tone of a back to school party it’s time to talk about decorating. Fresh flowers are, as with any party, the best way to bring life and vitality to the celebration. Streamers, balloons, and party utensils are all well and good. What really gets the party decorations bumping though–why, that’s flowers of course!

Here Are Some Clever Fresh Flower Decorating Tips for A Back To School Party

• Match the color of the flower arrangement to the decorations. If the team colors are black and gold, live it up with black and gold flowers! (Yes, it CAN be done!) If they are red and white, use red and white. And so on and so forth.
• Use your child’s favorite color(s) as the theme of the flower arrangements. This will help your child feel like they had a special hand in the party and that it really is something to celebrate part of their life.
• Ask each child to bring one fresh flower to the party. Use these to create a bouquet or two. Place these at the center of the room so that each child will be able to view their contribution. If an outdoor party, create a centerpiece for the picnic table or food table using the same idea.
• Decorate the main table with fresh flowers then give each child one as they leave. Stems of flowers are excellent gifts for young middle school children and older children. Young children are easily amused and glad to receive any gift. Older children recognize the significance and may choose to preserve the flowers, especially if it’s the Back To School Party for their senior year.

Have any other ideas? Send them our way by placing them in the comments box below. Who knows? Your idea may make it THE Back To School Party of the new millenium!

Summer is the time of weddings and babies. Both special occasions seem to center around this time of year which is why I’ve decided to include baby shower decorations in the fresh flower decorating tip this month. Whether celebrating Mommy’s first child or fourth, you can use fresh flowers to create the perfect occasion. Here’s how!

Tips For Decorating Baby Showers With Fresh Flowers

• Use fresh flower petals of tulips or roses to decorate the gift table. This adds color and uniqueness.
• Put a New Baby flower arrangement on a pedestal in the middle of the gift table or food table. (Gift table is probably best.)
• Present each guest with a rose boutonniere. The “can’t say baby” game is so much more fun with rose petals! Plus, the remaining rose petals or a spare rose is (when dried) a great addition to the baby book.
• Have each guest bring a single flower stem. Use these as a fresh flower bouquet during the party. When the baby shower has ended, have the flowers preserved or dry them old-school style (inside a thick book) for use in the baby book.

Fresh flowers are a quick and simple way to cheer up everyone in the room. Preserving these flowers helps Mommy remember the kindness of her friends when she needed them most. Whether they’ll be a memento or just a way to liven up the room, decorating with fresh flowers will take your baby shower up a notch–but you’re planning it so it will already be great!

How did you use flowers to decorate for a baby shower? Are you planning a baby shower in the future? Let us know what you think is a great idea! Just place your comments in the comment section below.

Note:  The title is a play off of the “blah blah blah for dummies” books and not an actual reference to dummies or a quote from the books.

Great Idea For Outdoor Parties!

Okay. So we’re firmly embedded in Spring and summer is just around the corner. That means that party time is here! It’s time to step outside and enjoy barbecues and pool parties with friends. It’s time for frisbee, soccer, spirited basketball games, flag football, tennis and other outdoor sports. It’s also the season for relaxing in lawn chairs and enjoying the scent of freshly mowed grass and blooming flowers. Ahhhh.

If you’re looking for a way to decorate for these occasions, I suggest fresh flowers. No shock to anyone, I’m sure. However biased my love of fresh flowers makes me, this is still a great way to up the level of decor at your outdoor parties. Here are a few ideas for making your garden party, backyard party, or outdoor evening a little more beautiful…naturally.

Decorate the patio table with fresh flower centerpieces. Depending on the specific season, there are many options of flowers that can be used here. As shown in the picture at left, potted plants make a fine showing as well! Your local florist will be happy to discuss them with you. If you want to make it yourself, pick up a few stems from your florist and go from there. This is a quick and simple technique. Stems can be picked up in just a few minutes on the way home. Creating the picnic table centerpiece takes just a few moments also. This is ten or fifteen minutes of prepping for hours and hours of floral joy.

Loving The Table Centerpieces!

Line steps with small flower arrangements, outdoor lights, and perhaps a topiary at the base of each side of the steps. This one is a bit more complicated but delivers an exciting punch during outdoor parties. This is also a very elegant way to decorate backyard parties, outdoor cocktail parties, and other patio parties. If guests are going to enter/exit the home via the steps, this is likely the first impression of the party decorations that each will have. Make it a doozy!

Place “floating flower” arrangements on poolside tables. This is a great idea for pool parties where many poolside tables will need decoration. Giving flowers that “floating” look can be done in a few ways. Your local florist will have great ideas for how to accomplish this.

There are so many other great ideas for how to decorate with fresh flowers outside. If you’re looking for more inspiration, contact your local florist or check back and see what other readers are saying about these ideas! Feel free to submit your own ideas here as well!

Don’t let your flowers get snuffed out by the silent flower killer!!!

Perhaps that level of melodrama is a bit much, but I take sending beautiful flowers seriously. I recently learned the impact of ethylene gas on flowers. I admit that I learned it the hard way and was very upset by the results. *In my best Bugsy Malone voice* Here’s the scoop, see?

The most attractive, adorable, handsome man in the world gave me flowers for Valentines Day this year. He had purchased a bouquet of daisies and pink carnations. For those who do not know–which can’t be many by now–my favorite flowers are pink carnations. He bought that particular bouquet just because it was the only one available with carnations! But I digress.

I stayed in the home of a freight-train-chain smoker that night. Not a puff or two per day, but rather an all-encompassing fog of smoke. Picture Pigpen from Charlie Brown only surrounded by a cloud of smoke. That’s the level of ethylene gas that was in the house.

I am not a smoker. My flowers are not fond of the habit either. I had placed them in water with flower preservative, taking great care to trim the stems properly. Everything seemed normal when I fell asleep. However, I woke up the next morning to find my flowers droopy and almost dead! Frantically I questioned who you call when you want 9-1-1 for flowers.

What I did not know at the time was that the silent flower killer that nearly snuffed out MY flowers was ethylene gas. After researching the symptoms that my flowers had, I learned that ethylene gas present near flowers causes earlier disruption of life. This is not to say that smokers kill flowers. Not at all. The ethylene gas in the smoke however does combine with the naturally occurring ethylene gas production in the flowers. This combination is lethal in vast doses only. In smaller amounts, the results are much like what I experienced.

How Ethylene Gas Affects Fresh Flowers

Ethylene gas is a colorless and odorless gas so it’s almost impossible to detect. The symptoms of ethylene gas poisoning in flowers are much like those of overwatering or a lack of moisture. They are:

• Wilted flowers
• Petal drop
• Leaf drop
• Leaf browning
• Failure to open

We all want to receive healthy, lively flowers. There are many things that florists can do to prevent these symptoms from occurring in their flower arrangements. First, avoid exposing flowers to these producers of ethylene gas:

• Ripening fruit – keep lunch bags containing fresh fruit in a separate cooler;
• Cigarette smoke – ask patrons and employees to step outside for a puff
• Combustible engine exhaust – load delivery vans from the side or with the engine off if from back
• Excessive vibration during shipping – make sure arrangements are securely placed in delivery van

There are also many things that flower recipients can do to keep ethylene gas from ruining their morning like it did mine.

• Ripening fruit - do not keep flowers near an open bowl of fresh fruit.
• Cigarette smoke - while a few cigarettes a day will not kill flowers overnight, avoid smoking near the bouquet.
• Combustible engine exhaust - avoid holding flowers near the back of a running engine

Have a story about the first time this happened to you? Know other ways to prevent ethylene exposure from killing flowers? Feel free to share! We welcome your conversation.

Ask the Expert: why don’t some oriental lilies open even after proper conditioning? colette

Reply:

A few things can keep the lilies from opening:

• Temperature - Oriental lilies prefer temperatures above 45degrees. If your oriental lilies won’t open place them in an area where the temperature is 45degrees or higher.  The warm air will encourage them to open.  Do not place them in direct sun or under an air vent.
• Ethylene Gas - Oriental lilies are extremely sensitive to ethylene gas.  Over exposure to ethylene gas can cause bloom failure.  Avoid exposure to fruits that give off ethylene gas like apples, bananas, pears etc. or other gas producers like cigarette smoke or exhaust fumes.
• Once Is Not Enough - Oriental lilies often need to be re-cut more than once to encourage the buds to open.  So if you are only re-cutting them when you prep them, this may be the reason they are not opening.  Re-cutting lilies every couple of days will encourage the buds to open.

Hopefully, the answer to your question is one of the suggestions above.  Good luck and keep me posted.

You see it all of the time in books and magazines, so why aren’t more people decorating their mantlepieces with flowers? The truth is that many people don’t consider it or put other items there. There is nothing wrong with family photos and mementos on the mantlepiece. However, decorating a mantlepiece with flowers is a great idea for those needing a flower decorating tip for spring and summer months.

Photo Credit: Petals A Florist in Atlanta Georgia

I know that it seems odd to think about the mantlepiece during the spring and summer. After all, it’s definitely a winter fixture in the home. But you know, who wants to look at a boring empty mantlepiece all spring? Spice it up!! Add flare to it with flowers from your local florist. From a home decor perspective, here are two reasons why you will be glad that you chose flowers to enhance your mantlepiece.

Decorating the mantlepiece with flowers adds color to the room. Colorful flower arrangements are eye-catching no matter where they are placed. Setting them on the mantle surrounded by votive candles, family portraits or unique mementos will quickly draw the eye in this direction.

Flowers help draw attention to the fireplace and that side of the room. If the theme of the room centers around that fireplace, why not play it up all year round? Decorating it with flowers will help during the spring and summer months.

You can’t go wrong when you decorate with flowers. The beauty of decorating your mantlepiece with flowers is that you get to enjoy their beauty while giving life to the fireplace for more than just three or four months out of the year. When it’s time to put out the fire, light up the room with flowers from your local florist.