Buying Long-Stem Rose Tips: Difference in Length

I'm Julie Klingaman with Grohe Florist. And June is National Rose Month, so I thought what better day than today to tell you about the difference of rose lengths. The typical length of a long-stem rose is 50 centimeter, which is this white rose right here. The next step up is a 60 centimeter rose which is called an "extra-fancy rose." Then there's the 70 centimeter rose which is called an "elite-rose length," Most florists will use a 60 or 70 for the dozen roses that they send out, which is a reason why you pay more when you go to a florist to get your dozen roses.

When you see the 50 centimeter and 40 centimeters tend to be less expensive. The rose heads also tend to be a little bit smaller. Now, this is not necessarily always true, because domestically grown roses don't always have as big of a rose head as some of the imported roses. But you should really think about how you're helping your local economy when you buy a domestic rose over a imported rose.

Another factor to consider when you're purchasing roses is that, just because a rose looks open, doesn't mean that it's necessarily old. Sometimes, the way that they grow roses is for them to give that open show, but they'll hold and last for a long time. So the best thing to do when you're shopping for roses, and if you're really there to be hands on, is to feel the bud and to feel how firm it feels. Make sure that it doesn't squish when you do it. So like you can see on this rose, I don't know if you can see on camera, how when I squeeze it, my thumb kinda imprints in it, this rose is not going to last as long as these three up here, and these three were all a lot more firm.

I hope that this information will help you when you're selecting roses the next time you're shopping at your local florist. Thank you, and have a great day.

Cut Flower Care For Roses

I'm Julie Klingaman with Grohe Florist, and June is National Rose Month. So today I'm going to talk to you about the care of your roses. You've received roses and you want them to last as long as possible, so I'm going to give you some ideas of how to keep the flowers lasting. First of all, you want your water to be clean, so you're going to need to change the water about every other day. You either will need to have two people there, somebody to hold the arrangement while you change the water, or you're going to need two vases. I have two vases with me. I have some clean water, and I'm lucky because I have floral preservative to put in the water already.

At home, if you don't have floral preservative, just make sure you have nice clean water in a clean vase. The other alternative to floral preservative is Sprite or Sierra Mist. I've tried a few experiments and that one seemed to work the best from the old wives tale of what you put in your water to make your roses last. What you're going to need to do is take your arrangement out of the vase, and you want to strip down any of the leaves that are in there, 'cause that will help create bacteria growth, so you want to strip down any leaves.

If you're going to take some scissors, or if you have pruners from your garden, you want to trim about a half an inch off of each rose, and that's going to help them have a nice fresh cut, so that they can start drinking up the clean water. You don't want to trim too much 'cause you want to be able to keep doing this about every other day so you don't want the flowers to get too short. So, like I said, about a half an inch is enough. This is where sometimes having a second hand is helpful. You want to stick it back down into the vase, and you gotta get all the stems together and bring it down in. And now you have a nice, fresh arrangement again, with clean water.

I hope this helps you keep your roses lasting as long as possible. Have a great day.

How To Make A Carnation Lei - DIY

Hi. I'm Julie Klingaman with Grohe Florist and it is graduation season, which also means lei season for florists and for all you graduates out there. Today, I'm going to demonstrate making a carnation lei. The reason I'm choosing carnations is because they're hardy, and hold up, and because they come in an array of colors. What you will need is ribbon, a long needle, and carnations. You need about 40 to 45 carnations. The bunches usually come up 25, so when you call your local florist to purchase the carnations, give them a couple days to get the colors that you're interested in, and they can get you bunches and you can just buy them by the bunch.

What you're going to do first is you're going to take all the carnations off of their stems. And you can use scissors or clippers if you happen to have them, and you just clip it right at the base and clip it right off. And then you're going to just take your carnation and string it through the base, and you can use a table to help you get it through and pull it right on. And you can decide if you want to do a pattern. You can do one solid color if you want to. When choosing your colors, you can choose colors that match your school colors, or you can choose a favorite color, or you can just do a mixture of colors like I am doing today. I picked three colors. It's what I had in my cooler, so that's what we're using. As you're pushing them down, you can see how the carnations will sit within each other. So, you don't want to leave a lot of space between them. You want to let them go. They open up in the center and you let them sit within each other. If you're going to have a party the next day or two days later, you can just put it in your fridge and it will hold up so that you can wear a carnation lei a couple days later. With orchid leis, you can do that as well. The problem with orchid leis is they break a little easier. So, with all the hugging that you're doing with people, sometimes the orchid leis begin to... The orchids begin to break off of the lei.

One other thing I forgot to mention was sometimes when you get your carnations, they may be a little bit tight. Some of these yellow ones are a little bit tighter and what you can do is you can just take the flower and with your fingers just push it open a little bit more just to open it up a little bit. This is going to be the 40th carnation I've put on here. So you can see when I put it together what length you would get with 40. Then, when I can cut this other end off of this, the ribbons, the spool, and tie them together, and it just slides right in. This is with 40 carnations. You can see this is a tight one. So, if it's for somebody smaller, 40's okay. If it's for somebody taller, bigger, I would go with at least 45, and if they're really tall, 50. You're going to get 50 if you buy two bunches anyway. You might as well use them. But that is how to make a carnation lei. So, have fun and happy graduation.

Difference Between A Single And Double Lei

 

Hi, I'm Julie Klingaman with Grohe Florist. It is graduation season which means for us on the West Coast it's also lei season. And we get a lot of phone calls this time of year people wanting to order leis and they're not really sure what we mean when we ask, "Do you want a single or a double?" So today I want to show you the difference between a single lei and a double orchid lei. This here is a single Mokara orchid lei. This one comes in a variety of colors all on one lei. They're a little bit shorter than the doubles and they're strung differently than the doubles are strung.

 

These also comes in white Dendrobium orchid leis or purple Dendrobiums. This is a double orchid lei. These are made with Dendrobium orchids, they're strung differently than the singles. They're strung by the backs of them so you can see the flowers on each side, where the singles are strung through the center of the flower.

This kind of shows you the difference in sizes. The doubles come also in white or purple Dendrobiums. They also come in one that's called a color block where you'll see a chunk of white, a chunk of purple, a chunk of white. Lastly, are carnation leis. We make the carnation leis ourselves so if you give us a couple days we can make Carnation leis in any color that you choose. I hope that this gives you enough information so when you're making your lei orders you know the difference between single or double or carnation. I hope you have a great day, and happy graduation.

 

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.

Easter Lilies, Some History From Grohe

Hi, I'm Julie Klingaman with Grohe Florist in Rohnert Park. For many of us, Easter evokes memories of egg decorating, gift baskets, chocolate bunnies, local church services, family gatherings, and the Easter lily. I began wondering how and why the Easter lily is associated with this holiday. I'm going to share with you what I found out about this beautiful trumpet-shaped fragrant blossom.

They symbolize purity, hope, and life, and the spiritual essence of Easter and all the promises of spring. Easter lilies are given along with Easter gifts, and they happen to be one of America's largest potted plant crops, and one of America's favorite blooming plants. The Easter lily is found in history, mythology and art, with stories and images that speak of the beauty and majesty of these elegant white flowers.

They're often called the white-robed apostles of hope. Lilies are said to have been found growing in the garden of Gethsemane after Christ's agony. At Easter time, churches bank their altars and surround their crosses with masses of Easter lilies to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and hope of life everlasting. The pure white lily has long been associated with womanhood too. In early paintings, the Angel Gabriel is depicted extending a branch of pure white lilies to the Virgin Mary announcing that she was chosen to be the mother of the Christ child. In other paintings, saints are pictured bringing vases full of white lilies to Mary and the baby Jesus. Tradition has it that when Eve left the garden of Eden, she shed real tears of repentance, and from those remorseful tears sprung up lilies.

The Easter lily has been a mark of purity and grace throughout the ages. The regal white lily is a fitting symbol of greater meaning of Easter. Gracing millions of homes and churches, the flowers embody joy, hope, and life. Whether given as a gift or to be enjoyed in your own home, the Easter lily serves as a beautiful reminder that Easter is a time for rejoicing and celebrating. So when you give Easter baskets to your family, don't stop with the decorated eggs and chocolate rabbits, include a few Easter lilies.