Rose Notes

Arranging a Pair of Large Bouquets on a Budget

Wanted–

• Two large bouquets for a stage
• One night only
• Small budget

Trader Joe's supplied the fleurs. I didn't even pay for the pink one's because of a little mold on a few stems. Here waiting in the garage sink–

• 4 (3)  bunches (ten stems each) chrysanthmums $12.00
  
• 1 bunch mini white carnations  $4.00
  
• 7 daffodil bunches 8.75

Grand Total– $24.75

It wasn't a lot of flowers, but the 16-inch height of the glass cylinders offers heft, and a generous look. Blooming solanum (potato) vines, stripped of their leaves, will add a crucial garden feel.

I wasn't sure what my approach would be, because I knew the mums would sink in those tall vases. I decided to hand-gather the mums and minis, and then I shoved half of the solanum beneath the blooms, before putting them in the vase. Sure enough they were sinking and needed the daffs to save them. I tried to hold the flowers up, like I would a loose waistband, and added half of the daffs, until gradually they bulked up the bouquet for a nice tight fit in the vase.

One down, one more to go. Notice, in the picture above this one, that I divide all the flowers into two buckets, so I know how many I have for each bouquet. I then like to spread them out on the counter as I work.

PHOTOGS

I wanted a plain background to show off the finished bouquets, and Artist Husband handily helped me prop up a 4-foot wide piece of foam core. I'm always lamenting that it isn't 8-feet and think that I don't have storage space for an 8-footer. Suddenly a thought came that I just might have room. We'll see next time.

Below, I cropped out the unwanted kitchen. Not bad I guess. I didn't do any macro play this time, because the rainy morning offered me little light. Even so, digital cameras are pretty amazing light grabbers.

HAPPY SATURDAY !

A Heart the Day After

All I wanted was a tin heart from Florali– Artist Husband had other ideas. The roses are 'Darcey' by David Austin. Yes, Mr. A does florist roses too!

Florali's gift wrap is the best– it goes right into the vase.

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Susan, who owns Florali, has a beautiful blog. Have you seen it?

Inspired By a Box (roses & photography)

Near the end of the first rose bloom of 2009, I gathered these roses with plans to do a mixed bouquet showcasing orlaya. I became so mesmerized by the roses– their delicacy, diversity, sheer beauty that my plans changed, partly because a friend had just given me a simple white ceramic cube. It seemed such a perfect container for all that gorgeousness. After the shoot, I gathered the same blooms with orlaya, nigella, a few sweet peas, and one California poppy (can you find it?), and put them in this blown glass vase.

Photography Sill-life Set-up- Seamless Horizon

Who knows when make-do photo set-ups might become professional? Professional or amateur, the still-life photographer is constantly making do- solving little (fun) challenges. The only exotic piece of equipment here is the 18 x 24" white plexiglass sheet. I have two of them and they were cut to order at a plastics shop. It's not easy to see in the photo that the 4-ft high piece of foamcore (which comes in 4 x 8' sheets) extends to the top of the backdrop. The stool keeps the foamcore from falling forward. The plexiglass makes a generous table surface where there is no table. The pushpins keep the paper in place, and the vase holds the paper's horizontal curve.

With these handy materials, you can make set-ups all over the house!

Isn't this the prettiest rose hip?

Bonus Bouquet (Roses)

Christmas was just around the corner, so the wishful rose arranger, thought she'd make a centerpiece bouquet with a dash of glitz. Who wouldn't want this on their holiday table? 

The lone sweet pea in the garden got top billing, but the bouquet looked pretty hot from all sides. Why you wonder? Well, the flower arranger had gorgeous components, and didn't have to harvest a single stem.

Leftovers

Some of you might remember that big bouquet I did for the choral event. The next morning I got the whole thing back kerplunked into a five-gallon bucket. Loads of good stuff for a "Christmas in November" rose bouquet.

The fake mercury glass pot needed a liner– thank you yogurt container.

For You Photogs

Rose kisses !

Monsieur Tillier- Rose of the Month

'Monsieur Tillier's' spectacular fall bloom span earned him a few special blog posts, including Rose of the Month. It's December 2009 and this Tea rose thinks it is spring or mid-summer.

Vitis vinifera 'Purpurea' glows red from the rising sun as a fitting backdrop for a rose that Gregg Lowery says, "blooms in quantity and surprises the gardener over and over again." My shrub is only three-years old, planted from a 1-gallon plant on its own roots.

Many blooms make arranging a pleasure. Nice long branching canes were harvested for the bouquets shown below.

I often think I'm working on a puzzle as I place branches, one-at-a-time, to fit nicely up against one another. It's really a go-with-the-flow, don't-stress process.

I've always thought that the similar colorings of 'Madame Antoine Rebe', 'Mutabalis', and 'Monsieur Tillier' would look gorgeous planted together in the garden. It turns out they look pretty good together in a vase (below). The photo, above, gives you an idea of what the branching stems looked like. It is imperative, in bouquets like these, to remove lower leaves and thorns.

This is a Leroy Parker (artist husband) raku pot with an Italian hill town design. The pot has a wide neck, which would be difficult for arranging, because the stems would scatter. It would also be way too heavy, if filled with water.

So I opted to use an insert. I have to apologize for this picture - it's supposed to amaze you, that I got all those roses in a narrow gardening bucket. I know I took better pictures of the two containers, but can't find them (oh my filing). Hopefully, you can get the idea that the bucket is really small to hold such a big bouquet. That's the beauty of cylindrical containers- they are the easiest to work with. The fairly narrow stems on these roses were also a help.

This shot is a friendly reminder of how food containers (olive oil here) sometimes make nice vases. 'M. Tillier' blooms in clusters as well as one-to-a-stem, as shown here.

As a Garden Shrub

For those of you with plenty of room in your garden, 'M. Tillier'* reaches colossal proportions- 8-feet and way more! You do have a choice in the matter though. The guy doesn't mind being pruned and certainly can be held in check. My friend, Carolyn Sanders, has a respectably contained 'Monsieur T' growing in the narrow side yard of her urban garden. Of all the Teas I have (something like 7 or 8), this is the only one that has almost no mildew. Bottom line- as a stunning landscape specimen, and bloom producer, this rose gets the highest marks in my book.

*In Europe, this rose goes by the name, 'Archiduc Joseph'.

One more thing

Click if you'd like to see a fancy mixed bouquet with 'Monsieur'.

Rose Whispers

My nosegays are for captives;
     Dim, long-expectant eyes,
Fingers denied the plucking,
     Patient till paradise.

To such, if they should whisper
     Of morning and the moor,
They hear no other errand,
     And I, no other prayer.
                                Emily Dickinson

November 30

Autumn Rose Bouquet

TA DA !

This arrangement greeted concert goers on a console table, outside the auditorium entrance to a choral event. The friend who asked me to make it hoped I'd have a few blooms from my garden. 'Monsieur Tillier' is the star of this show, along with a few pale pinks. It's what the garden had to offer last week. Vitis vinifera 'Pupurea', R. multiflora hips, R. roxburghii branches, 'Kathleen' blooms and hips, 'Heritage' and 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' roses, and lime-scented pelargonium leaves are also included.

But where and how to photograph it?

Not many of you will be making a big ole bouquet like this, but you might find a few useful tips from the set-up, for other subjects.

That 3-part screen in the background came from my other life as a fashion designer. It used to be a dressing room! It's indispensable for background manipulation. I usually use it, free-standing, in the living room in any number of folds, and often with other fabrics or papers pinned to it. But here in the kitchen, I needed to hide the sink. Voila! But it wasn't effortless figuring this out. I had actually ironed a bed sheet and placed it on the counter, to hide the sink. But, no thank you Carolyn, not such a good idea. It's nice to see my trusty screen spread out like this. Large (and it's not that large, less than 3-ft) bouquets take oodles of space to photograph. Usually I have to work very hard to create or fake the space. With our new addition, it's no longer an issue. There's a world of photo-opportunity, now, that I haven't explored.By the way, ALL THE PHOTOS, except for the last one, were taken with a macro lens.

There are perks in shooting a bouquet like this.  After the main shot is done –– I love to move the camera in, out, and all around, from one spot to another –– capturing intimate details –– you know –– zeroing in on flower feelings.As you can see, by the cluttered surfaces, chaos reigns during a photo shoot.

For Flower Arrangers

Everything but the roses, went in first to create nice support and an interesting textural background. I started out with many more of the deep plum grape leaves, but ended up clipping them off, however the grape branches remain part of the support.

November 24

Rose Buds and Back Light- Photography

Nature's speed-dial was already spinning by the time I started harvesting a handful of 'Mutabalis' rose buds. See how the petals have begun to loosen.

'Mutabalis' is definitely a rose that keeps giving and giving. So far there's been two posts about this rose, but I haven't done a bud story.

I wasn't sure how to proceed. The shot above definitely lacks inspiration– outside didn't seem right.

Inside looked better, against the living room window's cool morning light. It's been less than twenty minutes– look how fast those babies are opening.

At 10 a.m., the sun charges up the scenario.

By noon, the blooms are fully open.

And at 4 p.m. the light is cool again– the roses are tuckered out.

NOW, HOW ABOUT A DIFFERENT LOOK

Two curtains pulled across the window achieve the brilliant white background.

The curtain closest to the window is a cotton sheer. The arrow is pointing to a solid cotton curtain. (Sorry there isn't more to see of the curtain, I didn't plan on showing this neat trick.) For the photos above, I used both curtains, because the southern exposure was so bright.

The curtains do wonders- they soften the light for macro play, like the shot here. You can pull them back and forth, giving more, or taking away light. I don't have an example in this group, but light casts gorgeous subtle shadows when the sheer curtain is gathered in folds. Both curtains are on wooden closet type rods, and slide easily. 

BACK TO THE BUDS

Singles (5-petal roses) are by no means one-day-wonders. 'Mutabalis' was spent at 4 p.m.– because she'd been in the sun for hours. Singles often last up to two or three days inside. The delight of picking them in bud form and watching them open, or surprising someone with them in a posey, is the best.

November 18

PS by the way, the vase (votive) is a glassybaby. They make great gifts- I bought mine on a visit to Seattle.

Photo Tips- Still-Life Backgrounds (roses)

The photographer shot the roses first in the aqua room, then in the burnished yellow room. She wasn't satisfied with either. The next day, she placed a piece of white paper up against a lamp and shot the roses again.

On the third day, the roses in the small vase were bloomed out, but the photographer had another trick she just had to try.

 

How did the wall turn blue?

She push-pinned a piece of painted art paper to a sturdy foam core panel (two pieces glued togeher), and leaned it against the wall.

I thought this would be a fun way to illustrate how important it is to try new things. A vase of flowers is a pretty simple subject, and even if its just an illustration, I always want it to pop and sparkle. It's a good idea not to be satisfied. What I did yesterday doesn't apply to today.

Rosa Perle d'Or

Which background do you like the best?

November 14

Susie's Sweet Pea

That's what makes my heart flutter. Anonymous

 

I don't know if Susie's heart fluttered, but mine did when I was able to put one November sweet pea into her birthday bouquet. A wet area in the summer garden encouraged a few volunteer sweet pea seeds to get busy, ahead of time.

November 12