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Video: Making Bouquets for Retail or Farmers’ Markets

In this video, Kelly shares how she thinks about creating bouquets for retail vs. bridal work using American Grown flowers.

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Transcript:

- - We're back in the studio to put together a quick little farmer's market bouquet. I like to work one ingredient at a time, so I'm going to use five apple mint leaves, and just like when I'm creating a bridal bouquet, the apple mint leaves are giving me the shape and the structure that I'm going to use, but since the bouquets are going to be displayed in buckets, and people are walking up to them and looking down on them, the perspective that you arrange from is a little bit different than if you're doing a bridal bouquet that's going to be held here. So, I'm focusing on working, I'm just going to spiral the whole way around, and continue that with each of the ingredients that I have, celosia, and I'm working in layers because I do still want to have a little bit of ends and outs in my bouquet, and a variety of shapes and sizes. I'm going to add a little bit of cosmos in here, next. It gives me a completely different texture, really interesting. Now rather than using five, I'm just going to use three. And then I have a couple of pieces of basil we're working here, again three. Farmer's market bouquets, a lot of times you're doing, doing 'em all and doing 'em real quick, and you have a whole bunch to make, so if you can get yourself lined up, and you've got your pattern that you're working in, it's really easy to move quickly through the placement of the flowers. Last, but not least, I have zinnias, and these are our big, these are our big focal moment, and they're great because they're flat on top, and they have that nice face that's going to look up at all the passersby. Going to put the three smaller ones in, and then my three larger ones. That little bit of basil adds nice fragrance. Something, too, about farmer's market bouquets that are a little different than bridals, I think sometimes is that they're looking for something that's very bright and cheery, so color is very important in those types of settings, something that's very eye-catching and that people can see from far away, something that draws them in and over to your table. Made a lot of bouquets on the sidewalk last week. I'm just with some leftover flowers that I had from the workshop and the number one request was I want all colors, so it's different selling on the street than it is for bridals, so perhaps you're a wedding florist and not a farmer, but you want to do a pop-up shop or something like that, it's something to consider. It's so funny, some of the first bouquets I made whenever I started work for my friend that was a flower farmer, Mary Ellen, and she said, "No, really Kelly, like the first person "who comes up and buys flowers for his wife, "like he will want a really bright bouquet," and I was like, "Really?" 'Cause I'm the lady who wants the all-white bouquet, or something that's monochromatic, and sure enough, there I was at the market, and a man comes up, and he wanted the one with all the colors , and so I'd be curious to know what your experiences are, what your experiences are in that regard, since wow. I'm just going to give this a little clip here, tough to do, tough to do that with one hand There we go. So this is just a simple butcher's paper, and you can get it that it's wax side, a little bit water resistant, which is a little bit of water resistance, which is nice, and then also having this stand that you can tear from, I think, is really helpful as well. All kinds of ways that you can wrap, you're going to find the one that works the best for you and for your business, coordinates with the look of what you're going for. I have this cute little stand with some twine that I'll take with me when I do the little popups, but if you're doing farmer's market, you might want to get some clear sleeves, or you might want to have little baggies with water that you can have them sent home in, or something like that but that is up to you, but whenever I'm doing little sidewalk bouquets, that's what I like to do . There you go! Thanks for watching, and for taking a little tour through my seed patch.