Florist News

I was taught to make bouquets for weddings using a moss ball. We always cleaned the moss first so there were no bugs or creepy crawlies. My own bouquet was about the size of Victorias, maybe a bit larger with flowers and ivy trails and it was not heavy at all. I found mossed ball bouquets easier to make than ones that had every flower wired.They made my hands ache as I was told never to put a bouquet down once I had started to assemble it. With a moss ball we balanced it on top of a milk bottle for stability while we were making the bouquet. It was much better as we could stand back from our designs and also if we needed to answer the phone or serve a customer we could.

__________________
Life is not measured by the breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away....

Saw a piece at a wedding fayre...was a handbag style, but made from a block of oasis hidden by pinned on ivy leaves and that DID weigh a ton...probably one reason why that person's stall was dead all day!

__________________
ME SO FAUN-Y...!!!

Oh Gembar....you must be nearly as old as me! And do you remember spool wire for keeping it all together? Each iddy-diddy-little bit had to be wired and taped..........HOURS they took!

Hi everyone

Just to say I'm loving hearing how things used to be done, I find it really interesting. I bet you guys that learnt to wire everything move your fingers really fast and can whip up a buttonhole in a few seconds. When I moan to the older generation about how slow I am at wire work, I'm told to move my fingers faster ! Simple really.

I always feel when I'm doing wired bouquet that it is true floristry using all our skills and training although I'm glad there are alternatives these days.

Flowerfool

We must be, Kar.( But shall that be our secret! )and yes I do remember the spool wire. One of my first jobs in wedding work was to wire each piece of asparagas fern so the senoir florist had it all ready for when she needed it. Were you showed how to wire small pieces of wet cotton wool into the centre of freesia flowers too?; it was so fiddlely!!!

__________________
Life is not measured by the breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away....

I got my first job in a florist in 1986 but bridal holders were invented then and dont remember moss ball etc. Every single bride had peach bridesmaids with very few exceptions in fact for about 2 years they were all peach, peach spray cars and peach roses oh and piles of gyp For rose b/h and corsages we use to hairpin wire the roses which seems a bit weird and pointless now. I was on the understanding that it was to prevent the rose from opening, but it wouldnt open much more for a buttonhole anyway would it. Oh how we murdered them roses, you got a piece of wire, bent it in half and pushed it through the green bit (dont know name of that bit) that is round the rose and through into the rose to keep it in bud. The poor rose looked like it had been stapled to death when it was done

I think Ive posted this in the wrong thread....oops, meant to post in the vintage florist one I think, but im not sure so dont quote me on that, hehehehehe, I have no idea what im waffling about

I still do that on b/h and further down a shower bouquet when I want stages of a rose opening. I bend reel wire into tiny weeny hairpins then pierce the green bits up and into the petal, it is almost unnoticeable and stops the rose blowing like you said.

__________________

oh no jake I would never hurt me poor roses like that now, if I wanted them smaller I would take off some outer leaves but not force them shut, poor poor roses

You can buy petal pins for such jobs

__________________

Can you jake, maybe its not an old practice at all then, Im probably just not with the programme on that count. Just havent felt the need to stab me rose with wires of late......in which case please ignore my post cause as usual i was talking a load of waffle