First Come Flowers

Flowers Are Always On My Mind

 I've been very busy with flowers in April.That's a good thing. Especially when you co-own a boutique flower shop in this economy.

Image:  Trent Bailey

 

This amazing image by photographer,Trent Bailey, explains exactly how I've been feeling. Followed by flowers wherever I go. Even when I am at rest.

Don't get me wrong. I really love flowers. I am blessed to be able to work with flowers as my life's work. But they're almost always on my mind. Always in my shadow. 

Always looking at them, buying them, coordinating them, conditioning them and arranging them.

 

Image: via Hvitur Lakkris

But, I'm not complaining. I can't imagine anything I'd rather be doing. Well, sitting on a beautiful beach reading my favorite magazines is a close contender.

But you know what I mean. Sort of like having a job making boards for Pinterest. I wouldn't mind that at all.

I've been getting such nice messages from women saying how much they love my pinboards. I'm so grateful for that. Lot's of flowers there of course, but tons of elegant stuff too.

 

Image: lassalltumblr

The moral of the story? Find one something you love doing and do it. It doesn't have to be your life's work, but it should at least be on your Top 10 list of things you like to do. Life is short. Go for it! You've got my permission.

What good things in your life are always on your mind?

Mimi

 

 

The Glamelia Project

Gorgeous Glamelias! Perhaps that's what I should have named this series of posts on this unusual handmade flower.

The Glamelia Series 

Anyway, this is Part 4 on my series on Glamelias. In Part 1 you learned about the origin of the glamelia. Part 2 was a gallery of glorious glamelias. And Part 3 focused on the experiences of floral designers who've made glamelias.

 

Image:  via Studio Blomst

 

Glamelias Aren't Only Hard To Make

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series on glamelias, I was actually learning as I was writing. I don't usually do that. When I write a series of posts on one topic, I generally have them all researched, planned and written mostly written before one post is published. 

I've been pretty busy here at the shop. So once I decided to write the series I just jumped right in.

Problem was, that unlike the other series I've written, it was pretty difficult finding info on glamelias. Nearly all the articles I found  pointed back to the same 3 posts. Beautiful pictures, but not much info.

 

Image:via The Wedding Bee

The Glamelia Project

Though I don't think I'll ever make a glamelia, I'd like to help further the available information on this subject. So I figured  I'd start small, by continuing to build on my glamelia pinboard, which I just renamed "The Glamelia Project" on Pinterest.

The Goal of The Glamelia Project

To increase the accessibility to information about the glamelia for those interested in buying, making or simply learning about this magnificent floral creation.

 

Image:  International Floral Blogs

  Please Help Me Collect Information About Glamelias

I was hoping to make The Glamelia Project pinboard open to the public, but my understanding is that I can only add select contributors to the page.

 

 You Can Contribute To The Glamelia Project By:

1. Leaving me comments with links to glamelia information and pictures

2. Emailing me at  firstcomeflowers.typepad.com

• links to good information and great pictures 
• links to pinboards with great images of glamelias

 

I'd greatly appreciate your help with this project.

 

Image: Black Orchid Floral Design

 

Search Beyond the United States

I got a significant amount of information on glamelias from florists and floral designers in other countries.  I also had to wade past a lot of junk that used the word glamelia, but had nothing at all to do it.

Remember, you can also search for these other terms for glamelias: composite bouquets, rose duchesse and malmaison.

 

Image: Flora Verde 

I'm going to make every effort to keep the board attractive and informative. Please send me links to great new pictures whenever you can

Looking forward to your help with this!

What do you think of this idea? Have any suggestions for keeping it simple?

Mimi

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part 3: How To Make A Glamelia

This is Part 3 of a 4 Part series on Glamelias.To find out what a glamelia is read Part 1.To view different kinds of glamelias read Part 2. 

By the way, I neglected to mention that there are a few other names for glamelias you should know:

• composite bouquet 
• rose duchesse (if made of roses)
• malmaison

 

Glamelia Tutorials 

 

Image: via Bridal Guide

I had a hard time finding one source for making a glamelia that had a step by step process with pictures to guide you along the way. I hope someone will create one soon.

I did find a good deal of info on how to make glamelias out of artificial flowers and paper. I can appreciate that. But for this post on How To Make A Glamelia, I chose to focus on the art, and believe me it is an art, of making glamelias from fresh flowers.

 

In the meantime, here are some posts about how to make a glamelia:

Image: via Victoria B.C. Wedding Tips

 Throw Back - Part 2 - The Composite, Glamelia, Duchesse, Malmaison, um what? - A delightful and informative post on what you need to know before you decide to choose a glamelia for your wedding from the blog, Victoria B.C.Wedding Tips

Image: A Stunning Affair

Glamelia Bouquet by Sky Flowers - via A Stunning Affair's Blog

 

Bridal Bouquet:  Glamelia - How to Make Floral Art  - Slideshow via Expat Guide

 

Image: Natural Beauties Floral

How To Make a Glamelia Bridal Bouquet - Natural Beauties Floral blog by Jan and Jillian Yuhas. It gives step by step instructions, but unfortunately doesn't have accompanying images.

Image:  Flowers By Aileen

Glamelia Rose - Experience of a floral designer making a glamelia with her insights and suggestions at a blog called, Flowers By Aileen.

Image: Young Blooms Florist

It's The Taking Part That Counts - U.K.florist tries her hand at making a glamelia for an upcoming competition. Read her story at Young Blooms Blog.

 

Image: Sprout Flowers

Composite Flower Corsage or Turducken On Your Shoulder - A floral designer talks about a glamelia corsage she made to wear at a floral competition she attended. The name of her blog is Sprout:The Power Of Flowers.

 

Hope you've been enjoying the series on glamelia:

Part 1:     What In the World Is A Glamelia?

Part 2:     Glamelia Gallery

Part 3:     How To Make A Glamelia

Part 4:    A Glamelia Project

 

What have you learned about glamelias that you didn't know before?

Mimi  

 

 

Part 2: Glamelia Gallery

Now that you know what a glamelia is from Part 1 of this series,you may be interested in looking at the boutique Glamelia Gallery I've assembled below.

The images of the glamelias are from across the web. Visiting the links will give you an opportunity to see a few more. 

1.  Image:  Project Wedding 

This is one of my favorites.  I love its "ruffled pink skirt."

 

2. Image: via Project Wedding

3.  Image: via With This Ring Weddings

 

4.  Image:  Neil Whittaker

Visit The Design Element, the flower shop of award winning  U.K. florist, Neil Whittaker. You can see some of his unique bridal bouquets as well as a few more of his glamelias here.

 

5.  Image:  Project Wedding

A glamelia of lily petals.

 

6.  Image:  Creavea

 

 

7.  Image:  Perfect Moment Weddings

 

8.  Image:   Svetlana Lunin

Learn some interesting facts about glamelias here in this post called, "Hand-Made Miracle" over at Svetlana Floralart. It' s translated from Russian so there may be a few rough patches, but it's well worth the read.

 

9.  Image:  Brides

Glamelia comprised of dozens of pale pink gladiola petals.

 

Michael George                                    Mindy Weiss
 

10. Image:  Wedding Bells

 

Don't forget to read the entire series on glamelias:

Part 1:  What In The World Is a Glamelia?

Part 2:  Glamelia Gallery

Part 3:  How to Make A Glamelia

Part 4: A Glamelia Project

 

Which one of these glamelias do you like best?

Mimi

 

Part 1: What In The World Is A Glamelia?

This is part one of a series on Glamelias. Parts 2 and 3 will offer a glamelia gallery and some tutorials. 

But first things first. What is a glamelia?

 

Image:  via The Knot

Glamelia

A glamelia is a composite bouquet. It's made from the petals of many different flowers to form one large one. Nowadays, any handmade flower comprised of parts of several flowers or plants is called a glamelia.

 
A Real Camelia

Image:  Growing Up With Plants

 

But the name glamelia really goes back to the 1940's and 50's. During the war,camelia blooms were very expensive. So people took the petals of the less expensive gladiolas and made them into what looked like a more expensive flower.

 

Gladiola Glamelia 

 Image: via Blossom Floral Design

 

The petals of the gladiolus were combined to make a camelia-like flowers. So the gla from gladiolus and melia from the camelia were joined to form the term glamelia.

 

 Further Reading:

"Glamorous Glamelia Bouquets" - Blossom Floral Design blog (no longer updated)

"Glamelia: The Glorified Flower" - Rhonda Patton Weddings and Events

"Composite Bridal Bouquets Make Comeback"  - About Flowers Blog

 

Glamelia Adventure

I confess. Up until about 9 months ago I had never seen or heard of a glamelia. I would love to master this technique and place it on the Fly Me To The Moon Florists website. But somehow, I don't think that will be happening. Well not any time soon anyway.

So let's explore glamelias together. I promise I'll share everything I learn.

 

Don't miss the rest of the series on glamelias:

Part 2 - Glamelia Gallery

Part 3 - How To Make A Glamelia

 

What do you think of glamelias?

Mimi

 

 Linking To:

At The Picket Fence

Chic On A Shoestring

Common Ground

French Country Cottage

Ivy and Elephants

My Romantic  Home

One Artsy Mama

Savvy Southern Style

Simply Sweet Home

Sugar and Spice

The Not So Functional Housewife

Tip Junkie

 

 

 

5 Interesting Sites You Might Like

Image:  Fly Me To The Moon Florists

Here are a few sites I like and wanted to share with you. Only one is actually about flowers. Please enjoy:

My Crafty Home Life  - Visit my friend Linda's blog for a mix of great DIY home projects and ideas. Please tell her I sent you.

Flower Magazine - Ever wonder what kind of flower you'd be? Me neither, but in case you're wondering, check out this fun quiz called, "Which Kind of Flower Are You?"

Tip Junkie -  Learn how to do almost anything here. It's a collection of tips and techniques from around the web.

Scouting New York - A blog by Nick Carr, a NYC movie location scout, who blogs about interesting places he finds while working. Did a few posts on The Titanic and New York .You can read  Part 1  here.

56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest - A great post published on Copyblogger from a couple of months ago.

 Bonus site:

Fly Me To The Moon Florists Pinboards - I confess. I love Pinterest. You can see my, ahem let's just say many boards here.

Let me know what you think about these sites and share one of your favorites in the comments.

Mimi

5 Vases Every DIY Floral Designer Must Have

  Fly Me To The Moon Florists

"Once you learn how easy it is to throw together an elegant arrangement, you'll never want to live without one again."

                                                                                   Carlos Mota

Arranging flowers the way they do in books and magazines is not always as easy as it seems. But you can learn a lot by studying them. You've got to have the right flowers, cut to the right height in the right vase.

 

 
  Image:  Fly Me To The Moon Florists

 

There are 5 basic vases every budding DIY floral designer must have. Four clear glass vases and one you can't see through in your favorite color and shape.

Vase Types

It's not easy figuring out which vase you need to get the look you want. They come in so many sizes, shapes, colors and textures.

Select The Right Vase

Knowing the correct vase to use to get the look you're going for takes 3 things:

1. training your eye for great floral design

2. practice

3).having the right vase for your flower arrangement

 

Begin With Vases You Already Own

Start by looking in your cabinets. You probably have clear glass vases in a variety of shapes and sizes. Great! Now pick out the 5 basic vases listed below and donate what you don't want or need. 

Be on the look out for the shapes you don't have at flea markets, thrift shops and the homes of friends and family.

 

 The 5 Basic Vases 

 

Image:  Crate and Barrel

1. Classic Vase - A clear glass vase that is narrow at the neck and full on the bottom. Get one with an opening of approx 4" and about 8" tall. The classic vase will give your flower arrangement a more traditional look depending on the flowers you use.This vase is good for mixed bouquets or a large bunch of the same kind of flower preferably in the same color.

Hold the flowers right in front of the vase with the flowers exactly where you want them to be in the vase. Cut them a bit longer than you want them then see how they look in the vase. If you cut them too short the first time there's no room for correction.

I like to cut flowers so that the flower heads are practically resting on the neck of the vase. This makes the flower arrangement look lush and full. If you want a taller flower arrangement, you may want to cover the stems with a nice foliage like salal (lemon leaf). You can get this from your florist.

 

Image:  Kabloom

2. Cylinder Vase - A cylinder vase is a straight column of glass. The larger the opening of the vase, the more flowers you'll need. A vase with an opening of about 3.5" and 8" tall is a good basic size.  

This vase creates a clean modern look especially for the more architectural flowers like lilies, calla lilies and exotic flowers. Roses, considered a romantic flower look ultra modern in a cylinder vase.

 

Image: Crate and Barrel

 

3. Cube Vase - A 5" x 5" square vase made of clear glass. Great for making a mixed flower arrangement of short flowers and foliage. The cube vase will give your flower arrangement a modern look.

This vase is often lined with a large Ti leaf to cover the stems and floral foam. You can place flowers uniformly into this vase without foam if you like. Use a ceramic cube vase if you don't want to see flowers stems or floral foam. 

Image:  Flowers and Supplies

4. Bud Vase - A vase that traditionally holds a single stem with or without foliage. If the stems are thin, you can actually put a small bunch of flowers into a bud vase.

Create a simple designer look by placing a single dramatic flower in a bud vase. Lilies are a great flower for this look.

 

Image:  decorpad

 5. Ceramic Vase -  Can be one of the shapes listed above or an entirely different one. Use this vase when you want to introduce more color into your flower arrangement. It also works well when you don't want to see flower stems. 

Be sure to change the water every other day in a ceramic vase. It's easy to forget when you can't see the water.

so those are the basic 5 vases I think every DIY floral designer should have on hand. 

What type of vase do you use for your flowers?

Mimi

 

Linking To:

At The Picket Fence

Chic On A Shoestring

Common Ground

French Country Cottage

Ivy and Elephants

My Romantic Home

One Artsy Mama

Savvy Southern Style

Simply Sweet Home

Sugar and Spice

The Not So Functional Housewife

The Tip Junkie

10 Burgundy Bridal Bouquets

Dark Bridal Bouquets in the Spring?

Burgundy bridal bouquets! I know what you're thinking. Why am I showing you such dark colors in the Spring?

Because people are still planning their weddings for the fall. And who says you can't use burgundy bridal bouquets all year round anyway?

10 Burgundy Bridal Bouquets

1)  Image:  MaryDan

Burgundy cymbidium orchids reign supreme in this stunning bridal bouquet.

 

2)  Image:   via Wedding Bee

Velvety black magic roses with dark calla lilies are an extraordinary choice for this round bridal bouquet.

 

3)  Image:   Vermont Country Flowers

A stunning burgundy dahlia bouquet with feathery accents.

 

4)  Image:   dallaspetalpusher

Striking burgundy calla lilies spell glamor in every language. 

 

5)    Image:   weddingbycolor 

Deep red roses with beautiful rhinestone brooches add to the charm of this classic bouquet.

 

6)  Image:  via The Knot

Cymbidium orchids and calla lilies comprise this exotic burgundy  bridal bouquet. 

 

7)  Image:   Flourish Designs

Deep rich peonies and calla liles collaborate to make this small and elegant bridal bouquet a big hit!.

 

8)  Image:  Chenin Boutwell

Dahlias, calla lilies, and other floral materials make a huge statement with this large burgundy bridal bouquet.

 

9)  Image:  Petalena

Exotic mix of orchids, calla, ranunculus and dahlia creates an unusual and textured  bridal bouquet.

 

10)  Image:  via The Knot

A cluster of deep red peonies tied with raffia make this bridal bouquet at once elgant and rustic.

Which one is your favorite?

Mimi

12 Purple Flowers You Should Know

Purple flowers are pretty popular at Fly Me To The Moon Florists. I wrote a post about purple flower bouquets last week  

I thought you'd like to learn the names of some of the flowers used in those bridal bouquets. So here's a list of my top 12 purple flowers used at our shop.

12 Purple Flowers 

 

Image:  Whole Blossoms

1)  Calla lily

Image: fiftyflowers

2)  Carnation

 

Image:  Perennials.com

3)  Delphinium

 

Image:  fiftyflowers

4) Freesia

 

Image: Stargazerperennialsgardenjournal

5)  Gladiola

 

Image: Floraphilia

6) Grape Hyacinth

 

Image:  Flower Picture Gallery

7) Hydrangea

 
Image:   fiftyflowers

8)  Iris

 

Image:  Floraculture Consultancy

9)  Lisianthus

 

 

Image: danisafreshflowers

10)  Rose

Image:   Whole Blossoms

11)  Statice

 

Image:   Whole Blossoms

12) Stock

 

Are there any purple flowers I've forgotten?

Mimi

 

Life Without Flowers?

 

"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us."   Iris Murdoch

 

The flower district, here in New York City, was full of the most amazing flowers this morning. 

 So many colors. So many textures. So many shades. So many scents. A dizzying array of every flower imaginable.

I walked around in circles for an hour trying to find an exquisite combination of flowers for my weekly accounts.

I 'm a very lucky lady indeed. To be immersed in flowers as my life's work at our boutique flower shop. Now that's what I call living.

Enjoy this incredible day. And don't forget the flowers. 

Mimi

 

Image:  via Maine Seasons Events