FLORAL DESIGN WORKSHOPS
(Click on a photo to enlarge)

We are fortunate to have a National Accredited Flower Show Judge and Master Judge to conduct free floral design workshops prior to our regular meeting for interested club members. Evelyn Warrington inspires, entertains and educates participants with a great variety of floral designs.
One of her recent workshops taught us how to use bright and bold colors and flowers in a mass arrangement which she entitled, "Are You Up To It?"  For this design she started with a tall, red glass container and a bouquet of large, brightly colored blooms and trimmed the stems as she put them into the vase to create a rounded shape.

 

 
She showed us how she transports delicate tulip blooms to avoid damaging them. Each one was gently wrapped in plastic wrap in to keep the petals closed up. You can see one laying flat on the table. After putting the tulips in the container she removed the wrap. We were urged to come back after the meeting to see the tulips fully open (which did occur).

 

 
 
 
She completes the design by adding greenery around the bottom and inserting a few large tulips near the lip of the container. Her final touch was to gently lift the whole arrangement up to loosen or fluff the design for a more natural look.

 

 

In this lesson Evelyn demonstrates how to use plant material to enhance a sculptural piece. The Bird of Paradise stem and greenery came from her backyard. She encourages us to learn to look for plant materials in our own gardens for most arrangements and participants discuss the various plant materials used in their own designs. We also learn how to condition plant material prior to use in an arrangement and learn how to use a variety of floral design tools.

 

 
"Garden Rocks, Our Treasures" was great fun. Evelyn's demonstration design used a rock with a yellow hue to pick up the bright yellow of the interior of her container, the center yellow of the calla lilies and the green-gold colors of the golden euonymus and other greenery. It was beautiful and inspired quite a few members to bring in their own arrangements using a garden rock.

 

 
This next arrangement was very novel for us - a two sided floral design in one container. As you can see several large, bold leaves are used in the very center of the container to visually separate the two designs. The divider could be a piece of wood or bark or other suitable material. One side features pink iris rising to the top while delicate stems of closed buds give the arrangement height and the lavender colors of the other side peek through at the top and sides of the first side. When the back side is turned the lavender colors dominate and the pink colors peek through from the top and sides.

 

These next three arrangements were submitted by club members following Evelyn's workshop on a reflective design using water viewing in the Japanese manner. Each container used just a few delicate pieces of plant material and water to create a serene design. Evelyn told us that this type of design is usually displayed in a small alcove or in front of a small hanging screen in the home.
The tall elements represent sky, the medium height represents man and the low elements represent earth.