2012

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The Flower Council of Holland launched their My Favourite Flower campaign with the biggest bouquet in Britain.  The enormous bouquet was made at Potters Fields in front of London’s Tower Bridge.  The Flower council tweeted that people could come and take a bunch of their favourite flowers away.

Passers-by were encouraged to give the flowers to give away to loved ones.  As research carried out by the Flower Council revealed that half of British adults have never been given flowers,  64% of men have never received flowers and 31% of women only receive their favourite flowers once a year.

The colossal bouquet stood 6 metres high and 5 metres wide, it took a team of 6 florists, 18 hours to construct.  It contained 12,000 stems of cut flowers, highlighting the UK’s top ten favourite flowers, rose, tulip, lily, orchid, freesia, calla, carnation, sunflower, delphinium and amaryllis.

My Favourite Flower camaign has a rather clever website where you can pick your favourite flowers and have the chance to win a bouquet of them.  It’s presented by more lovely boys like the ones here, who whizz round selecting the flowers you choose.   The campaign has been extended until the end of the month, so you still have some time to take part and win some flowers.

 

Images:

funnyhowflowersdothat.co.uk – FlowerCouncil of Holland

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Holly Valance tied the knot last week with English millionaire Nick Candy.  Their fairy tale wedding is said to have cost £3 million in total.  The couple celebrated with 300 friends and family including Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli, Elton John, Simon Cowell, Tracy Emin as well as royal guests Sarah Ferguson and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

The bride wore a £35,000 wedding dress made with fine silk, hand dyed with silver and grey detail, with a full skirt and revealing bodice.  It was made by Australian designers Jacob Juppino and Anthony Pittorino of J’Aton.  Holly has received some rather unflattering comments about her gown.  The Daily Mail said the bride wore a “Barbie-meets-Miss-Havisham frock with cascades of pigeon-coloured frou-frou about the hem.”

The telegraph were even more critical saying “This dress had more going on than a fortnight at Butlins – and about as much class” they  added the “rag-taggle skirt which looked like it had been concocted from endlessly layered lettuce leaves faithfully reproduced in singed white silk.”

Designers Juppino and Pittorino have said the dress was largely Holly’s design and that she wanted to create a modern day heirloom piece.  For me there are too many different aspects competing on the dress, and the grey edges unfortunately just make the dress look dirty.  What do you think about the dress?

I am obviously more interested in the flowers, although we can’t see many in the image Holly and Nick released.  The couple are said to have spent £60,000 on wedding flowers and from what I’ve seen they were beautiful.  Although they all appear very contemporary and don’t really tie-in with the style of the wedding dress.

Holly carried a simple hand tied bouquet of black calla lilies.  She walked down a petal strewn aisle and said her vows under a large canopy of twigs adorned with clusters of trailing amaranthus, black callas and purple orchids.  Guests said there were towers of cream coloured flowers dotted around as well.

I often find brides are so excited about their wedding, they see lots of things they love and they want them all, but you can’t mix a hundred and one things together and expect it to still look tasteful.  You need to consider what colours and textures will work together for the look you want to achieve.

Images:

1 Holly Valance via media.whosay.com

2 FlowerCouncil of Holland

3 Holly Valance via media.whosay.com

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Top florist Björn Kroner created these impressive floral skulls using thousands of chrysanthemums.  The skulls were designed by fashion designer Michael Michalsky for his Style Nite at Berlin Fashion Week 2012.

Björn and his talented team used over 5600 chrysanthemums to make the skulls.  The heads were individually pinned onto the base.

The team used several types of chrysanthemum to make the skulls including single and double varieties.

Michalsky said “I think chrysanthemum is one of the most interesting flowers.  It’s not so traditional and not as burdened by meaning as other flowers are, so it’s really capable of surprising you.  I was stunned to see how many varieties are available.”

Images:

michalsky.com

FlowerCouncil of Holland

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Common name:  Kangaroo Paw

Botanical Names: Anigozanthos

Origin: Western Australia

Colours: from green to yellow, bronze to red and pink.

This unusual looking plant gets it’s name from the furry paw-shaped flowers it produces.  The Latin name anigozanthos is pronounced ANNY-goz-an-thos. Kangaroo Paws have tall sturdy stems that branch out, the flowers are perched at the top of each branch, each flower tip opens into a tubular flower.  The brightly coloured flowers are covered in tiny hairs which give the flowers a velvety feel.

They are grown as house plants, but more commonly seen as cut flowers. As a plant they like full sun and well-drained soil, they should be kept inside your house or conservatory, you can put them outside in the summer.

The attractive flowers can last several weeks in a vase if the stem ends are regularly trimmed.  Kangaroo Paw is available in lots of colours, but in particular many autumn shades like burnt oranges, reds and browns.

 

Images:

Flowercouncil of Holland

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Carmen Rose Bouquet

This style of bouquet is also known as glamelia or composite rose bouquet, they were very popular in the 40s and 50s.  The bouquet is essentially one large flower assembled from the petals of around 20 roses.  It is a labour intensive method and is definitely a task for a skilled florist.  Hundreds of petals are painstakingly attached one by one.

The bouquet above was made using Red Naomi roses, which have lovely large petals in a deep velvety red.  Red roses look very dramatic in a carmen rose bouquet and would suit a 50s theme perfectly.

This lilac bouquet below contains lovely Dolcetto roses in a collar. Smaller versions can be made for bridesmaid bouquets, but they may be more expensive than normal bouquets.

These bouquets have been made into wedding centrepieces.  The soft pink rose used in them is called Malu.

The technique can be used with other flowers like lilies or gladioli; this bouquet is made with longiflorum lilies.

Carmen bouquets may not last as long as a regular bouquet, but they will stay in perfect condition for your wedding day.  If you are thinking of  having something a little different to a hand tied bouquet, a carmen rose bouquet could be the ideal choice.

 

Images:

Red Naomi bouquet – Schreurs Roses & Gerbera by Robert Koene

Pink Malu bouquets – Schreurs Roses & Gerbera by Robert Koene

Dolcetto  bouquet - Schreurs Roses & Gerbera

Lily bouquet - viggo-joergensen.dk

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