A lesson on Bouquet Making

This morning I visited my favorite Boulder florist, Sturtz & Copeland. My mission was to look at the different flowers and make a game plan for building my own bouquet. I watched several videos on YouTube explaining how to make a bridal bouquet. There are two main types. Hand tied bouquets are made by taping all of the stems of the bouquet together and then wrapping a ribbon around the bottom as a handle. The second involves a product called Oasis. This is flower foam on a handle that you soak in water. Then you push the stems of the bouquet into the foam and it prolongs the blooms. I want to be able to make both of them so I am not limited.

There is also a technique called wiring, where you insert a wire into the center of the flower and it acts as a stem. Flowers like orchids have very short stems, so without wiring you can't use them in a bouquet. Because of the abundance of orchids in costa rice, I am fairly sure that I will be using them in our flower arrangements. So I went to Sturtz to check them out and get an idea of what I will be working with.

Sturtz has a great selection of orchids, but I didn't see a pink cattleya on display. I poked around the whole store and then saw a huge pink cattleya orchid. But it was in an employee work area. I walked over and got as close as I could when a woman who worked at the store came up behind me and asked me if I needed help. So I started chatting her up and eventually asked her if she made wedding bouquets. She said she didn't, but she found someone who did. The second woman took me in back and showed me the best way to wire an orchid and then tape it with flower tape. She even let me keep the practice orchid.

My second stop of the day was Joanne's fabrics. I was picking out fabric to make my sister a ringbearer's pillow. I bought flower tape and wire, an oasis handle and some boutonniere pins. My next plan is to buy flowers from the supermarket and practice making a bouquet. After I got home I made the flower that will attach to my sister's ringbearer pillow, using pearls from one

of Mama Dot's necklaces.