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!

People with a birthday in June lucked out where birth month flowers are concerned. The birth month flower of June is the rose! It's a pretty traditional, easy to find, popular, easy to love flower. To connect the dots–the perfect birthday gift!

So why send the birth month flower of June? Why is a rose such a special birthday gift in June? Well for starters, sending a unique birthday gift shows that you put extra thought into the recipient, what they would like, and put more effort into getting just the right gift. That deserves major props! After the birthday boy or girl calms down from having the spotlight aimed on them all day, they're going to remember who went the extra mile and who barely got off the starting line.

The Perfect Birthday Gift This June!

Racing analogies aside, the rose is one of the most beautiful birth month flowers. It's easy to find at any local flower shop. Florists have worked with roses since the dawn of the floral industry. They know how to treat roses with special care. They know how to make traditional rose arrangements stand out as a fabulous birthday gift. This is a perk for you because it makes it fast and simple to find what you need and get a unique birthday gift all at the same time.

Want to give birth month flowers as a birthday gift this June? Give your bouquet even more meaning by applying the traditional flower colors of this birth month flower. Look for white or cream roses when sending June birth month flowers. These carry with them a meaning of love and devoted affection. Whether a mother, girlfriend, brother, best friend or new friend, "love and devoted affection" helps keep a happy relationship blooming.

Salvia x sylvestris 'May Knight'

Ask the Expert: What is this?
This flowering plant is currently planted in central Pennsylvania and is about 18-20' tall. What is it?
Thanks,
~Karen

Reply:

You have a beautiful specimen of a perennial from the salvia family.  The plants name is Salvia x slyvestris 'May Knight' or May Knight Salvia.  It is a wonderful plant and the butterflies and bees love it.  Although I have a pretty one in my garden, it is not nearly as beautiful as yours.

Ask the Expert: plant identification
Hi.  I purchased a plant a few years back at a flea market.  The proprietor told me it was a sugar maple plant.  The leaves grow on forked branches and overlap.  I am forever pulling leaves off.  It flowers with upside down orang/red "pods"  that have a stamen (??) hanging out.  I would like to prune it to shape it better but I am not sure how.  Pinching back just causes more forked growth and the plants looks crowded.  When I google it I get entries for trees.  This is more like a miniture bush.  Can you help? sandras

Reply:

The only sugar maple I know of is a tree.  So, that is why when you search for sugar maple all of your results will be for a tree.  However, common names are often confused as they are passed along.  So the original owner probably mis-communicated the name of the plant.

With plant identification it helps to have a picture.  Since you didn't send one, I have included a few to help with the identification.  Do any of these look like what you have?

Abutilon Pictum - Flowering Maple

The first picture is a Abutilon pictum (Flowering maple, Indian Mallow). (Photo is from © 2006 Luigi Rignanese). If this is your plant you can trim as necessary.  You can give a good pruning in the mid or late spring.

There are several different kinds of Abutilon.  The flowers and leaf color will all be a little different but the general shape and leaf structure will be the same.

Ricinus Communis - Caster Bean

The second picture is a Ricinus Communis or Caster Bean.  (picture is from MissouriPlants.com).   This can also be pruned as need.  It is generally pruned once a year in mid to late spring.

Just a little side note:  This plant is poisonous.

If neither of these plants looks like yours, please send me a picture.  Then I give it another shot.

Someone asked a really good question on Wedding And Party Network about wedding flower etiquette. I knew when I read it that many of the Bloomin' Blog readers could benefit from this info so here goes! Here's some wedding etiquette to break things up. (Read the question and more on Wedding And Party Network's wedding flower etiquette–who pays? blog.)

The Question: My parents want to help pay for the wedding so that my fiancee and I can have a nicer ceremony. We really appreciate the help but aren't sure what to ask them to pay. We don't want to step on toes or ask too much to we thought about asking them to buy the wedding flowers. Is that appropriate? ~ Jesse J. from Fountain, Colorado.

Brynn's Answer: Great question! The short answer is that it is traditionally the responsibility of the bride or bride's family to pay for the wedding flowers. –BUT– Today's society sees so many weddings being paid for by people other than the bride's family. For instance, it is often the role of the bride to pay for the wedding while the groom pays for the honeymoon. Some couples go in together. Many times the groom's parents take on part of the payments while the bride's family picks up the other. The simplest answer is that yes, it is acceptable to ask your parents to pay for the wedding flowers.

A Reminder To Florists: If you are a florist, here is a small tidbit to keep in mind when working with the bride. If her mother or mother-in-law is paying for the wedding flowers there could be potential conflict. She may passively opt for something smaller or of less value so as to appease her mother. Her mother may passively encourage this. Then again, both could be rather blunt women. Either way, keep in mind that some mediation may be required to make sure that the bride gets exactly what she wants for her wedding.

Ask the Expert: any idea what this flower is? Is it child safe? I found this at a farm pond in ohio. I have never seen one like it and can't find it in any of flower identification. It was tough to get a good picture, but the pedals are wrinkled looking, and the plant is prickly and has pods on long stems. Not sure if the attachment worked please let me know. Michael

Plant Expert:

From the picture it is a little difficult to tell, but I believe you have some kind of poppy (Papaver). The blooms seems to be what they call double which are a little different from what we normally see in a poppy.  It could be a Papaver somniferum, Papaver lateritium 'Fireball' or a Papaver rupifragium.   All poppies can be toxic if ingested.  However, only the Papaver somniferum contains opium.  This plant can be poisonious for some animals as well.

If you really need a definitive identification, take a bloom, a seed pod and a leaf to your local extenstion service.  They should be able to identify it.

Geminis are fun people. Well, at least generally speaking. I have known and loved many a Gemini in my time and continue to fall in love with the unique personality each person has even though many Geminis share the same characteristics.

Born between May 21st and June 20th, Geminis are said to be talkative, energetic and intellectual. Yup, that's spot on for most of the Geminis that I know. They can also be inconsistent, inquisitive, nervous and tense. Wow…that would be a bad day. I have an idea for curing those woes around their birthday this year. Send flowers! Some examples of Gemini zodiac flowers are:

• Alstroemeria
• Solidago
• Daffodil
• Cactus
• Acacia

Truth be told, this idea was given to me last year and I liked it so much that I thought I'd share it again. (You can still view the 2008 zodiac flowers post.) I'm not much on astrology but I do see a lot of fun in sending astrological flowers for a person's birthday or special day inside the month. It's always interesting to have something unique to discuss. Bring up the type of zodiac flowers at the birthday party and see if you don't get a rapid response.

Want to send a unique birthday gift like zodiac flowers but are afraid you'll offend the recipient. Send birth month flowers instead! All the greatness, none of the guilt!

At least, that's what J M. H. Schwanke, aaf, AIFD, PFCI said about Belvedere Flowers in the flip video below. In the video, he even goes on to say, "Belvedere Flowers is one of the best places to buy flowers, ever."

Although J Schwanke and Belvedere Flowers say this is "J Schwanke's shameless promotion of Belvedere Flowers," I disagreed. I thought this was a very clever way for J to demonstrate the importance of being connected and actively participating in the flower community. And if anyone should know how important it is to be connected in the floral industry, it is J.  He has devoted his life to the floral industry, and, in particular, to educating florists.

Anyone familiar with Belvedere Flowers in Havertown, Pennsylvannia knows exactly how connected they are to their flower community. They have a blog, a facebook page and all sorts of cool videos. Like the one of Adam's Dad creating prom corsages. The music is so appropriate. Rock on, Poppy!!! It proves Belvedere Flowers really does rock!

We can all take a few pointers from this video:

1) We all need to connect with "our" flower community.
2) You never know where the next opportunity to connect will be. So be prepared.
3) Enthusiasm is a natural draw. Let people know how much you love being a florist.

Technology has given us many opportunities in which we can connect to our customers, friends and colleagues. Try embracing one or more of these fantastic platforms (facebook, blogs, videos, photos etc.) as a way to connect. I look forward to seeing how you choose to connect.

To J - Thanks for the great marketing tips, and I can't wait to check out uBloom's new flower guide.

To Adam at Belvedere Flowers - Keep up the great work. You Do ROCK!!!!

To All Flower Shop Network Florists - I would love to see your videos. Send them to me - jadams@flowershopnetwork.com. Show me how you rock!

Ask the Expert: Small leaves on my peace lilly received a peace lily as a gift leaves where large. but now that the new leaves are growing in they are very small. It has been repotted recently. Mike

Reply:

If your peace lily (Spathipyllum) leaves are small, fully-formed and healthy, you have nothing to worry about. This may be a result of the transplanting shock and larger leaves will occur later. However if the leaves are small and deformed, you have a problem and we will need to determine the cause which could be wither fungal or over-exposure to fluoride. If the leaves are deformed, send me a photos of the leaves and the plant. I will try to diagnose it and help you with a remedy.

While most people remember to include an enclosure card message with fresh flowers, some do not. Working at Flower Shop Network, I hear tons of card messages, reasons why that message was chosen, and reasons why no message was sent at all. I tend to frown on the "no message at all" senders because there are too many good reasons why one should be included. Here are some reasons why it's a great idea to include a card:

1. Enclosure cards let the recipient know whom to thank for the gift.
2. Enclosure card messages help express a sentiment that may not otherwise be comfortably conveyed.
3. Peer pressure. Everyone else is doing it. You should too.

While I figure reason #3 is the best, I don't expect it to resonate quite as well as the others. To put it simply, enclosure cards help express the feelings that flowers bring. Expressing sympathy by sending flowers? Condolence enclosure card messages relieve the burden of saying "I'm sorry for your loss" to a crying friend but still get the message of support across. Celebrating a birthday with a birthday bouquet? Nothing's better than cake but when cake fails, a "happy birthday to my favorite friend" enclosure card will come very close.

This is not your traditional flower sending tip, but including enclosure card messages with fresh flowers is definitely something that no one should overlook.

Let us know what your favorite card message is. Simply log in and comment below.