Monday, April 13, 2015

Flowers For Funeral Service



Hi, my name is Julie Klingaman from Grohe Florist in Rohnert Park, CA. The purpose of today's video is to help grieving families choose flowers for funeral services. This is often a very stressful time for families planning an important event in such a short amount of time, so hopefully, these following tips can make it a little less daunting.

The first tip is to find out if your loved one had a favorite flower or color. Ask your florist if these flowers are available and can be incorporated into the arrangements. If they're not available, perhaps there's something similar that your florist can suggest. If there wasn't a favorite color or flower, you can never go wrong by choosing seasonal flowers.

The second tip is to think about the room where you'll be holding the service. Is there a casket? Is it going to be open or closed? It's important to let your florist know that, 'cause that will help determine the size of the arrangement that you'll be needing. Is it a cremation? Then think about if you'd like flowers to be sitting next to the urn.

Families can coordinate the arrangements together, matching colors and different styles. In front of me is a casket piece that can sit on the casket. There's pedestal arrangements, like the one to my right-hand side here. Then over here, there's standing sprays, which are flowers on easels, or basket arrangements, as well as plants. All of these can help decorate the room and make it feel warm and inviting.

Lastly, figure out a budget you're trying to stay within. If you have no idea of the price of flowers, most florists have websites, and you can get a good idea that can help you set a realistic budget.

I hope this video will assist you in choosing the perfect arrangements to commemorate your loved ones.

How To Make a Boutonniere For Prom


Hi, my name is Julie Klingaman from Grohe Florist in Rohnert Park, CA.

Today, I'm going to demonstrate how to make a boutonniere. First, there's a few things that you need to make sure you have. The first is floral stem tape, a pair of clippers for cutting, wire... I like to use 22 gauge wire and pins, so when the boutonniere is complete, you have it for pinning.

Today, I chose a rose to use because they're sturdy and they hold for an evening, when you pin it onto a jacket. What you do is you cut the rose, you leave a little bit of a stem on it, just maybe about a half an inch or so. You can kind of pick the rose, the petals on the outside off that you don't like the way that they look, so that you've got a nice shape for a boutonnière.

The second step that you'll do is take your wire and you'll poke it through the base of the rose, kind of at the biggest bulb part. Now, you can decide if you like to keep these little leaves around the rose or not. I'm going to take it off today just because I don't want that to get in the way of seeing what I'm doing. And then I'm going to take the stem tape, and I'm going to start it at the base of the rose and I'm going to hold it tight, and I'm going to twist the rose. And as I'm twisting the rose, you're going to pull the tape at the same time so that it sticks. And you're just going to keep twisting until you get almost down the whole stem.

The next step will be cutting a little bit of filler flower. I chose to use baby's breath today, and it's kind of made a come back so we're going to use that for our filler. I'm just going to cut little pieces off so that I can put it around the base of the rose. The next step is you're going to just pick which part of the rose you think looks like the front or the back. So, I'm going to choose this as the front 'cause it looks the nicest from this direction, and I'm going to put the baby's breath kind of just in the front part of the rose; and I'm going to take the stem tape again just like I did that first time, and I'm going to start it around the base of it and wrap it around. You don't have to go all the way down this time, just about halfway is fine.

The next step is to pick greenery. I'm going to use Italian Ruscus because it has a nice shape and it's kind of flat to sit on the back of the rose. I'm also got some seeded eucalyptus just because it's a different type of texture and I think it's a nice accent to a boutonnière. So I'm going to do this again where I find the back of the rose. I'm going to put the Ruscus on the back side of it and when it sits up against a jacket it will have a flat back to it. So, don't worry that it's kind of leaning back on this. If you feel like it needs more greenery than this, you can add a little bit more, still. So, I'm going to just cut another piece and I'm going to stick it back here just to have it a little fuller with greens. And then I will stem tape again the rose and twirl it around. If you have too much stems down here, you can trim them and twirl all the way down.

Now, this step you have an option if you want to make it a pin-on boutonnière or there's a new thing that's a magnet. The magnet works very easy. I prefer using the magnet, but if you don't have it on hand, you can find them at your local florist or at a craft store. So this is the point where you can make that decision. If you decide you want to just do a pin on, what you can do is cut the stem of this, any length, say you want to cut it this long, and you can just leave it like that. You can use a pen to twirl it and then just simply put the pins in the side before you pin on. If you decide you want to use the magnet, all you have to do is take the magnet right here, put it on the back of it, like we did the greenery and then just twist, making the magnet on the back of this look really nice. And then you have a magnetic boutonnière, and it's really easy to put on.

I hope that this video was informational and you can make one at home yourself. Thank you. Have a good day.