Florist News

Hi,

I made a hand-tied for a get well bouquet last night. It is only my second ever hand tied, and I will discuss it with my tutor on Wednesday night, however I wondered if anyone fancied giving me some advice?

I found that all my flowers were a little jam-packed together. I thought about loosening my grip on the binding point, but when I did this all the flowers moved when I turned the bouquet. Are there any tips or is it simply a matter of practice?

I also wondered about Eucalyptus blue gum. The leafs are so sticky that it gets all over my fingers (worth it because it is so aromatic and pretty). I wondered if there is a eucalyptus stripper similar to a rose stripper?

Thanks!

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Newbee

i personally, use lots of foliage and try to minipulate the flowers to do what i want,like wiring gerberas, so that you can bend them slightly into position, i think it took me a fair few go's before i made a hand tied that i was proud of and that i thought looked good, it really is practice and one day it will just click into place, just keep making as many as you can, as for a eucalyptus stripper i cant say ive seen one, but i know what you mean about the stickiness, i havent found a solution for that one

Add a piece of foliage each time you add a flower it locks the stem in position and no haven't heard of anything for the euca but also love the smell

I think you are right. I really wanted to make a nice bouquet so I may have gone too overboard on the flowers and not enough foliage. I think I'll have another pop at it with my left-overs tonight.

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Newbee

good idea my first handtie was at college and brought back to shop next day boss liked it and asked me to open it and remake I had tied it so tight I had slieced through the gerbera stems now that she is tutor she always tells this story when she gets to the handties I spent the following day remaking that same bouquet taking it apart and redoing at home time boss said now you are confident and can make handties and yes she was right even though I was pixxx of with her making do the same thing so many times but practise makes perfect

Oasis have brought out a foliage stripper they are bright yellow plastic shaped like a flat flower with spike bits. There are three in a pack and I got mine for £3. Might work though I haven't tried them yet.

Oasis yellow stem stripper round plastic thing..i retail at 3.99 inc vat
haven't tried them yet as we use the dearer metal ones.
think it would be a struggle to strip eucalyptus with these tools as the stems are very woody, especially 'baby blue'. I suspect you will have to stick to scissors/secaturs/chain saw.

Hi Draggonfly,

I saw the stripper you are talking about at SFE (another florist showed it to me) but I couldn't find the stand it was on. I've since looked on the internet but haven't found any.

Fly2hi, could I send you a cheque for you to pop one in the post to me? Let me know how much to add for postage.

Cheers

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Newbee

Of course you can.
Postage is free to forum members...

They are good have used it on roses with thorns like nails cleaned them perfectly and no damage to stem of rose didn't try it on euca but will if I'm go in tomorrow and let you know