Prepare fair entry with basics of flower arranging

  Now that the Yuma County Fair is drawing near, March 31 through April 5, it’s time to sharpen our arranging skills. The Yuma County Federated Garden Club Flower Show will be held in the big tin building at the fairgrounds.

  You don’t have to be a garden club member to enter several categories of arrangements and you can enter specimens of your plants to be judged, too.

  Martha Stewart’s idea of an arrangement is to crowd a mound of flowers into a vase, with the arrangement resembling an ice cream cone in shape. This is fine for a dinner party, but not for the flower show. Arrangements for the flower show need to have a bit more design.

  The arrangement also needs to match the title you have chosen. For example, “Second Time Around” is open to anyone wishing to enter, and you can use fresh and/or dried material. “Think Junk” is a title for anyone who has never won a blue ribbon at a flower show. It is a fresh and/or dried arrangement. “Can Do Creative” is a title open to all types of floral arranging to create a floral wreath, swag, corsage, topiary, or decorated gift box.

  You can also make a pot-et-fleur design, which combines rooted plants and cut flowers in one container. “Trash to Treasure” has three categories for arrangements eight inches or less. All the information is in this year's fair book, available at the Yuma County Fair Office located at the fairgrounds.

  Once you have chosen a title, decide on a basic shape for your arrangement, based on the type of container you plan to use. By choosing one of the basic design shapes below, you can create an arrangement with interest and beauty which will be perfect to enter in the flower show.

  • Vertical - a tall container with flowers creating a vertical line.

  • Crescent - a tall or shallow container with flowers arranged in a half-moon shape.

 • Horizontal - a shallow container with flowers arranged horizontally, often seen as centerpieces on tables.

  • Triangular - a tall or shallow vase with flowers arranged in a triangle shape, having a tall point in the middle of the arrangement, leading down to two points of equal distance from the container on each side.

  • Hogarth’s Curve - an S-shaped arrangement using a tall vase.

  • Right Angle - an asymmetrical arrangement, using a tall or shallow vase, with the flowers forming an L-shape.

  • Asymmetrical Triangle - a tall or shallow vase with flowers arranged to the left or right of the tallest point of the arrangement, usually forming half a triangle.

  • Circular - a shallow vase containing flowers arranged in a fan shape.

 • Abstract, or Non-traditional - floral materials used in an abstract design.

  Once you have chosen a shape for your floral arrangement based on the container you will use, choose an appropriate floral material. You need to keep in mind the basics of a good arrangement: design, scale, proportion, balance and harmony.

  Your flowers need to be in correct scale with the vase. Large sunflowers in a small vase would not look right because the scale is wrong. Small pansies in a tall, vertical vase would not look correct either because the proportion of flower size to vase size is also wrong.

  Your eye will usually tell you if your flowers are the correct scale and proportion for the container you have chosen. The general rule is to have your vase take up one-third of the arrangement’s height, and the arrangement take up the other two-thirds. Therefore, if your arrangement was 24 inches tall, the vase would be about eight inches tall.

  The theme for this year’s flower show is “Recycle! Junk to Gems.” This theme will give you an opportunity to use all sorts of interesting recycled containers and materials in your arrangements. It’s going to be fun thinking “outside the box” for arrangement ideas.

  If you are using your own flowers, cut them the night before and let them sit in a plastic bucket of lukewarm water overnight. Be sure to add preservative and a little bleach to the water. They will be ready to arrange the next morning.

  If you are ordering flowers from a florist, place your order a week or two in advance so they will arrive on time. You should make a new cut, underwater, on each stem and place the flowers in a bucket of lukewarm water overnight before arranging. Artificial flowers are not allowed in the arrangements.

  To hold your flowers properly in the vase, use floral foam, which comes in green, rectangular blocks. Be careful not to buy foam for artificial flowers, as it will not absorb water and is not the type of foam needed for fresh flowers.

  Place the foam in a bucket of water with preservative added. Don’t submerge the foam, as this will create air pockets resulting in poor water retention; let it float, and by morning the foam will have absorbed water and will be ready for arranging.

  Tape the wet foam in your vase using green floral tape. This is a water-resistant tape which will not come loose from the edges of the vase.

  Another method of preparing your vase for arranging is to create a grid system over the top of the vase using floral tape. Your flowers will then be placed into the openings in the grid. This works well for tall vases, but not for shallow ones.

  Before floral foam arrived on the scene, metal pin holders, or frogs, were used to hold flowers in arrangements. These are still available at floral supply shops and are held in place with a ring of floral clay.

  The pin holder, with clay around the bottom edge, is pushed down onto the bottom of the vase and turned just a bit to help seal the holder to the vase. If you don’t have a good seal, the weight of your arrangement will cause the holder to loosen and spill your arrangement out on the table.

  These holders cost more than foam but can be reused year after year. Crumpled chicken wire pushed down inside a vase works well as a holder, too.

  What are some hardy flowers that will withstand the heat inside the tin building? Some flowers I have used with success are Iris, carnations, daisy, chrysanthemums, bird of paradise, calendulas, gladiolus, zinnias, sweet peas and sunflowers. Baby’s breath, Queen Anne’s Lace, broom stem, statice, boxwood, leather fern, citrus branches, dried eucalyptus branches, wax flower and ivy are all good materials to use as filler in your arrangement.

  Often, a dried branch, or other dried material, is used to create your design’s line. Think of something recycled which could take the place of this dried material to complement the theme this year.

  When creating your design, fill the vase with water and add floral preservative. Next, place the materials in the vase which will create the line. This may be foliage, dried material or something recycled.

  Once the basic line is achieved, your larger flowers will be placed along
that line, emphasizing the line you wish to make. It’s good to use an odd number of the larger flowers in your design.

  Try to evenly balance your flowers throughout the arrangement so that one area does not have too many blooms, while another has too few. You need balance and harmony when you look at the finished arrangement.

  Next, place smaller flowers and foliage along the same line to fill in the shape. Do not crowd your arrangement; leave room for butterflies to rest. Last, add filler material to fill any spaces in the design and to cover any floral foam still showing. Arrangements for the fair are seen from only the front, so don’t worry about having a back to your arrangement.

  Have fun creating your floral design, using your creativity and imagination to come up with an arrangement expressing your own style. Don’t be intimidated by all the information I have given; just enjoy the opportunity to create an arrangement which expresses your ideas for the floral title you have chosen. I hope to see you and your beautiful arrangements at the fair!

---
Georgia Bolton is a member of Yuma Garden Club. She can be reached at bowenkaren@ymail.com.