Coastal Living

Every year when summer and the first wave of heat comes I seem to turn to 'Cooling" hues. I notice my floral cart at the trade center filled with light blues, purple, bright greens....yes I am the odd winter duckling in the sunny pond. 

And yes I am aware that most florist's pages in the summer fill up with yellow and bright sunflowers but hey, I have warned you of my uniqueness :)

Some of my favorite blooms for this season  are Vanda Orchids , Irises, light and dark blue Delphinium, Thistles for that extra textural touch of fun. 

I do love hydrangeas in general, I think they help creating full arrangements and they create a perfect building base for other blooms while hiding the mechanics of the arrangement, and even these seem to change from white to greens to the gorgeous baby blue ones from Holland.

"Sea Glass" 

This arrangement is called " Sea Glass" .

I chose white, green and blue/purple as my color palette which was inspired by the La Jolla shore, up past the pier by the tide pools, I love how dark the water gets and how it stands in strong contrast with the bright moss covering the rocks by the cliffs. I spent many hours on those rocks tuning out the world, it is such a calming place especially earlier in the morning before the "tourist Invasion" .

 I used "Supergreen" roses, I love that they are full of petals and rounder in shape resembling almost a garden rose I even love the hits of red they randomly get on the tups of their petals. 

I used a couple of white hydrangeas to serve as eddying for the Vanda Orchids and to really make the greens pop and keep the arrangement fresh and light. 

Green Tric Dianthus added the secondary green element adding a fuzzy moss like texture  that softened the more architectural element brought by the rigid and tall dark Blue Irises. 

As you have noticed probably by now I generally don't use many greens or fillers, but I did add just a small touch of Italian discus that gifted the arrangement shade of green and of course some movement. 

I wrapped the vase with a couple of Aspidistra leaves to hide the stems which would have made the composition too busy. 

he Moody Blues

With This arrangement called " The Moody Blues" I played more with the different shades of purple and blues and gave the vase more of a garden feel playing a bit more with different textures and heights. 

The blue delphinium always give a vase a more organic and garden look  and the silvery dusty miller played along those lines. 

For roses i used " Ocean Song" which are smaller heads but very cool toned lavender shade, and " Purple Haze" roses which are a bit larger but also a warmer tone with the outer petals in an almost fuchsia tone. 

To the dusty miller I added Just a hint of eucalyptus stems and eucalyptus pods which add a lovely underlying minty scent to the vase that is light enough to add to the design without  overpowering the natural scent of the roses . For spray roses I chose " Sterling Sensation" which are a pale shade of lavender that almost resembles a  silver. 

The vase is wrapped in  bi-color tea leaves to cover the stem work. 

Joga

This design is one of my favorite and definitely one of my most modern and clean design. 

We sell quite a bit of them for offices because they are clean and modern but most importantly they are super long lasting.  I have made this design for my living room plenty of times and it lasts easily over two weeks. 

I wanted a simple "relaxing" design that was full and textural but also very simple and clean. Green Tric Dianthus created the lush grassy field effect and folded aspidistra leaves lent a more sculptural and architectural look. I added a little bear grass to add movement and dimension to the vase. 

We offer this design in both black or white glass cylinder vases.