This is the second of two episodes with Katie of Ponderosa & Thyme! In this episode, Katie and I pick up where we left off in Part 1 talking about teamwork and accountability in the studio. We’re discussing how to be an introvert in the floral industry while also being brave in reaching out and doing life with other flower professionals. We are also talking about creativity and how to nurture a greater sense of creativity in your life and your work.
This is the first of two episodes with Katie of Ponderosa & Thyme. In this episode, Katie shares how her heart for flowers began and how blooms have shaped her life through the years. We are discussing the beauty and simplicity of kindness, why it is essential in the floral industry, and how to create a culture of kindness and self care in your environment to avoid burnout.
I’m Phoebe, and my ethical floral events company is called Pollendine’s. I’m based in Cumbria, in the North West of the UK, and I am entirely freelance. I work as a copywriter alongside my floristry and also look after my two-year-old.
Watch as Kelly puts together a simple two ingredient arrangement. Poppies and Solomon's Seal are a sweet late-spring pair. This design is perfect for dressing up a windowsill at home, wedding bar or guestbook table on the fly!
Transcript
Hey, I'm back, excited to share an arrangement with you that this time only has two ingredients. I have Solomon's seal and poppies. I also have a message for you on the upper side of my camera. And it is that you are awesome. OK, have a flower frog in my container. This is also [INAUDIBLE] decor, if you're looking for one. Have my pieces of Solomon's seal are arranged by size. I have one that's long, and then two that are more of a smaller/medium size.
Gonna start with this one. We're going to go straight up. Going to be fun. And I'm going to clip it down just a little bit. Got a frog in here that's raising my levels. Whenever you're not using a lot of flowers, mention frogs are great, because they're just kind of pretty to look at. I think they look nice in an arrangement.
So I have to be as conscious about covering-- kind of the point is to show negative space in the arrangement. We're using the principle of design of radiation in this arrangement. Everything is going to-- all the lines are going to come out from one point with this base material that we're working with.
And for balance, I'm wanting to keep this as my center point, and then same amount both to the right and left. And what I'm doing with these pieces, I'm kind of moving around in this circle a bit, and I'm creating a little house for the poppies to live, making room for them.
So this is where we are. This is the front side of the arrangement, and my poppies are going to live in this area here. So we created the general shape, the general size, that goal of level one. We're not going to worry about covering the base. And this sort of is just another part of that. And then we're going to use the poppies as both level two and level three. We're going to have them work together to create a resting point for the eye. But then we're also going to use them to create movement through line.
Now, a lot of the times I like to use gradation in size whenever I'm arranging, but my smallest poppy has the shortest stem, so we're going to reverse that. This is probably technically-- let's see here. One third, it looks a little bit-- yeah, the poppy is a little bit too high proportion wise. So I'm going to let him come down a little bit.
I was reading somewhere that poppies like to drink through the little hairs on their stems. So getting them this way, you singe the ends to seal off that little wound, and then put them in deep water till they're properly hydrated as these ones are.
OK, so those are going to be my bottom two. With poppies, too, I think they're really pretty if you could just have their faces pointing in different ways as you work. They're all looking straight at you, staring you down, making you feel a little bit uncomfortable. Poppy etiquette.
So this is something that would be fantastic for a guest book table or bars, anywhere to add a little extra thing, only 10 stems, 10 stems, two ingredients. Big, the whole way down to small. We're doing this kind of trickle, faces up, faces out, moving in and out throughout the arrangement. OK. Be back with another one for you.
On this episode of the Team Flower Podcast, we’re talking with Deanna Kitchen of Twig & Vine. Deanna is telling us all about the Growing Kindness project and how conducting random acts of kindness has impacted her, her family, and her community. We’re talking about the importance of genuinely connecting people whilst living in such a technologically heavy world—as well as the benefits that come with giving over receiving. Deanna is also sharing a few simple dahlia growing tips for those who want to try their hand at growing!
With an ever-increasing installation trend in weddings and event work, as well as the emphasis on foam-free floral designs, I was eager to figure out a way to create a ground installation, or living meadow, with foam-free mechanics that offered flexibility in multiple installation scenarios. There are so many options for foam-free installation mechanics out there, but this is the method that worked well for me. Hopefully, you will find it useful—or maybe it will provide you with a starting point for additional foam-free floral designs!
Burnout in the floral industry is something we’ve all either heard about or felt ourselves, and it can be caused by a variety of different things—one of which is physical pain or exhaustion. This video clip from the Team Flower Business Growth class gives you practical tips for body mindfulness and a self-scan.
You’ll hear how Frank’s father started the business and in what ways the Hofland family continues to serve the floral industry. The couple is sharing the core values that drive the business as well as giving us a behind-the-scenes look into their sourcing and production of items.
We’re talking about what it looks like to “do the right thing” as we serve our communities and how this impacts the industry in a positive way.
Working with flowers is a wonderful career and a great privilege - we live surrounded by beauty, and we get the honor of accompanying our customers as they celebrate many happy occasions. But what happens when the florist herself is going through difficult times? How do we find joy, beauty, and creativity to spread around when we are in pain?
If we're honest, we used to be pretty intimidated by color. It can be so hard to work with color, especially highly contrasting colors. When designing with these types of colors together, such as yellow and purple, it can be hard not to make the designs seem kitschy or too "holiday." Color can quickly cross the line between creative and fun to cheesy and mediocre very fast.
In this video Kelly will show you all the beautiful blooms that commonly open in the summertime. Learn how to become a florist and take floral design classes online with Team Flower. Here you can even learn tips on flower gardening for beginners. We'll show you how to do flower arrangements in flower arranging videos.
Transcript
Stretching yourself is a good thing. Today, I decided to take some things that I had in the studio and create an arrangement that was a different shape, and definitely a different color palette than what I normally work with. This arrangement I have been waiting-- I've been waiting really all year for these turk cap's lilies to bloom. And this is one of the photos that I have in our living room here at home. And it has one of those beautiful lilies right here, and I always anticipate that coming out in July each year.
Something that's native to the southeast United States, so if you're in one of those states, keep your eyes peeled in woodland areas for these beautiful things to pop up. And if you aren't, still keep your eyes open. Some might have come and blown your way.
So this is a turk cap's lily. And I just wanted to use this opportunity to show you a few of the different ingredients that you might like to use for something that you have coming up in your future. So let's go through all of the different things that we have in here.
So of course, the lilies, which have inspired it all. And then we have some umbrella fern. And this is so great if you're trying to get a lot of volume in an arrangement, but maybe working on a lower budget. This spreads out so beautifully. You can use it as the big umbrella shape, or you could break it off into smaller pieces and use it in boutonnieres or something smaller if you wanted, as well.
We also have some really beautiful velvety geranium leaves here. Love them. They come in all different sizes.
And right below this here, with these sweet little pink berries, after they flower, but this is pokeweed, one of my favorite things to use in the summer time. It grows on a lot of hillsides. And you'll probably find some near you. So that's something that I really love to use in the summer time.
And here we have some basil, some flowering basil. And some lisianthus. And this kind has a pretty purple and white stripe in it. And if you dig closely and look back here in the arrangement, we're using some sweet orange spray roses.
And this beautiful reaching flower right here is called crocosmia. Hopefully I'm pronouncing that correctly. That's how they say it here. Sometimes I've found that, in different regions, they call the flowers different things, like for example I have some clematis is how I grew up calling it, but in the south they call it clematis. So that's one of the flowers we've got down in there.
I have some beautiful sphinx gold spray roses from Peterkort. Here, we have some liatris. And let's see. This dark foliage that you see is called ninebark. And this is a great thing to have in your garden. Grows up nice and bushy, and you can keep cutting on it.
I have some foxglove here. This is the light lavender purple. I have a piece of oak leaf hydrangea foliage. So that's fun to break off of the hydrangea and just use the foliage. I have a piece of hellebore leaf here, as well. A little bit of ivy, and some milk weed. And then right here, this is called gomphrena. It's a fun little textural piece here.
And then lastly, I have some orange ranunculus that I had left from a wedding last weekend that wasn't quite the right shade. So here it is. It works beautifully with this Dutch-inspired arrangement.
So that's your little tour of Boone here in July. I hope that you enjoyed it. And I hope it inspires you to go create some beautiful things with whatever is blooming in your neck of the woods. Keep moving forward, one step at a time.
I’m answering five questions on one of the most complex topics in the floral industry: pricing. No matter what realm of the floral industry you’re a part of, this subject has likely caused you a bit of a headache in one way or another. We all want to charge a fair rate, but we also need to pay ourselves. Where’s the balance? This clip from the Team Flower Pricing and Ordering class will shed some light on a few of the most asked pricing and ordering questions.
Offering a flower crown bar or DIY floral jewelry station is a great way to deliver flowers to your clients and creates an excellent opportunity for a fun add-on to any event. In this article, we’ll cover reasons you should include flower crown stations or floral jewelry bars in your flower business offerings, types of events these stations work well for, how to price, and more.
There are so many avenues to learn and grow as a floral professional, but getting out of your comfort zone and attending an educational event could be a life-changing experience for you and your business.
In this bouquet tutorial video, Kelly will show you the mechanics needed for a garden-style look. Learn how to become a florist and take floral design classes online with Team Flower. Here you can even learn tips on flower gardening for beginners. We'll show you how to do flower arrangements in flower arranging videos.
Transcript
Hi. I wanted to take you on a little flower tour of what's happening here in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina in May. We're working with some hydrangea foliage. And this will be really beautiful later this summer, with lots of blossoms and blooms. And in the fall, it turns the beautiful. It has little speckles of burgundy in it.
We have weigela here. One of my favorite flowers to work with because it can act both as a green and as a little punch of color. We have lupine here.
This is something that is really well known here in the mountains. We have a lot of this. A lot of this in the area is what you'll find growing sometimes at grocery stores. And of course, in backyards and things like that.
I have some lady's mantle here today as well. I have a few ranunculus that I had left from-- that I just decided I didn't like with what I was doing for an event last week. So I have a few of those that I might incorporate. Some ranunculus, I have some beautiful tree peonies from the garden out front.
And then we have some poppies. And we actually still have tulips up in the mountains since our season starts a little bit later than other people's. And then I have some pretty fun little apples from my apple tree out here in the backyard.
So there's the ingredients that we're going to be working with today. And I'm just going to show you a little technique for doing a simple hand-tied bouquet. But I also wanted to talk a little bit about efficiency as we go through it.
So whenever you've got your studio set up, and you're working on an event or a wedding, a lot of times with the bouquets, if you just jump into making it without having a plan in place before you go ahead with it, they can get really cumbersome. Because you're trying to strip a leaf here, and trying to hold your bundle of flowers here.
So something that I really love to do is have someone help me strip all of the leaves down to-- I'll just give them a little tutorial on where I'd like the leaves to be stripped to. And then, I-- especially if I'm doing several bouquets-- rather than having it all laid out on the table like this-- which is just so that you can see what we're working with today-- I just have it in little vases.
The ingredients for each bouquet would be in a vase. And they would just go through, and whatever my instructions were-- three stems of the hydrangea and three stems of the weigela and five stems of lupine. It would just will be all arranged there.
So then that makes actually putting the bouquet together really, really easy. And you can have another bucket on the side of just an extra thing. Sp sometimes, these underrate pieces to all work together. So you can trade out some pieces from maybe an extras bucket or something like that, if you arrange.
Just a little thought to get you set up and going. But I like to hold my bouquets, is just with a really open, loose grip here, like a C. And I'm going to layer these hydrangea pieces in and a little bit of just a triangular, tripod shape.
So you just have two on one side, one on the other side. So this is normally my long piece. And then I have a medium piece and a shorter piece. It's how I start them.
And then, I was a little gun shy to cut my weigela just because I wanted to see how the pieces could form in my hand real quick. So that's one thing that I did not prep in advance. But I think I'm just going to work with this hear. And we might adjust it as we go along. But I'm going to go for that one there.
And then, I'm going to clip this one. This is really one long piece. And I'm going to clip it into two pieces. So there is a little bit of a shorter piece. Just strip a few off of this to do a long piece.
Now I just strip these off of here. This would make a really sweet boutonniere or corsage ingredients. So you could put a little vase there to collect those pieces as you move along throughout your arrangements.
So I've got this one coming out to the side, this one here. And this one I'm going to put in the back and up high so that I keep everything balanced. Because I need to have room in here as well to place some flowers. And next, I'm going to move from this-- the weigela has a really bright, punchy pink that goes and fades to more of a light pink.
And I'm going to eventually get into incorporating a little bit of yellow in here. So I'm going to start with my darkest lupine that just a hint of yellow in it. Just hints of yellow, tiny little bit. I'm going find a spot to layer that in. We'll go just about there.
And next, I'm going to put in a piece of lupine that is even just a shade brighter than the one that I just put in. And it also has a hint of yellow in it, but a little bit more than the one before. So we're just slowly and gently introducing this next colored to the arrangement.
Next, we're going to go for yellow. I'm going to just look and see if any of them have a slight pink hue to them. And that's how I'll be bridging this gap. This one has just a tiny little touch.
So you can see how we've moved from dark to light. And now we're going to really fill out this yellow here on the other side. And then, when I'm trying to decide where I want to put something, I'm examining which way is that naturally pointing and making the line of the arrangement go.
I've got this going here. I think it might be nice to try this to be an upswing since we've been going down on the other side. It might be nice to have this pop up.
And I'm about to add some lady's mantle that will help support this a little bit better than it is right now. So this is a little bit of a heavier ingredient. Probably should have put the lady's mantle in first to support these since they're heavier.
So we'll just carry that color back through with two pieces of loop and ruff. But I'm going to wait, and I might come back to those after I put a few more things into the arrangement.
So next, the purpose of this lady's mantle, you can see how there's different spikes. This one in particular has pretty sturdy stems. So what I like to do with this is to place it pretty low in the arrangement as a little bit of texture. But it's also adding some stability so that as I continue to layer flowers in, they have something to catch on to and to be stabilized with.
So I'm working with five stems of this. If you're working with a lower budget, you could maybe just do three stems. It just depends what the big picture of what you're looking like is.
Have some in the front, and then working it back in this way. Again, going to fade this one little piece that I have just in case if coming back, I decide I want to add some more in. These ranunculus, I think these are going to act as a little bit of an accent flower.
So again, I'm looking through and I'm seeing out of all other ranunculus that I have, which one would be the best fit for the pallet in that particular spot. Because you can see, some of these are real dark, and then some are lighter. So what I would like to do is add a little grouping of three of them here.
Paying attention to the size a little bit as well. Putting the things that are the smallest at the top. This one has a little bit more purple as opposed to pink. And this one has a little bit more pink. So I'm going to swap that out.
And you want to have some void back there behind your flowers so that they can really pop out and shine. So you don't want to put it here, how that's on the same level. Put that up just a step above that.
Next, I'm going to go, and I'm going to pop one back in here. And this is not acting so much as a beautiful element of the bouquet as much of it stability element. I can feel that there's a little bit of movement back in there. So I'm just putting that there to hold some things in place. I'll turn around, and we'll work on the backside of it a little bit.
You can see, this is a great place for this ranunculus that was darker, and just a little bit too much for this area of the arrangement. Back here, that's a great little spot for that. It fits right in there with that weigela. And then this one's slightly darker. Brings your eye up and a little bit of depth.
And this one just a space filler as opposed to a [INAUDIBLE]. You just want to think about what's the purpose of the flower that you're putting in there. And you use the really beautiful flowers, the stars of the shows higher in the arrangement. And then some of these other ones that aren't as beautiful, you use lower in the arrangement.
Now back here, I feel like I'm lacking some ingredients in this area. So it's great to save-- like I said, we saved this one piece of lady's mantle. And that fills that in and takes care of that problem. I also feel like this one piece of hydrangea greenery is in the way of where am I might like to put a focal flower in the future. So I'm just going to tug that out, and add that back in here to bridge the gap between the lady's mantle and the end of this.
So I have these other ranunculus that are a little bit darker. But I think I'm going to pause on putting those in for now. And I want to experiment and see what these focal flowers could look like in here, and how I want those to be presented. Now that's going to happen too, where something's going to slide out of place. You can just gently coax it back in.
Something I'm going to do real quick is just to trim all of these because those lupine stems are thick, and they're a little bit heavy. So whenever they're rolling around down there, that can get them out of place a little bit as well. So if you just keep this trimmed periodically, that will help with that problem. And it'll also keep your hand in good shape so that it doesn't tire out too quick.
I think it's very predictable to sink things right in this area. And you can, and I think that that's pretty. And it's something that I like to do a lot. But have you ever thought about putting some beautiful focal flowers off to the side in framing the silhouette? Just another way to think about it and look at it.
So we've got this movement carrying back here the largest peony, and medium-sized peony and small peony. Oh my goodness. Look at this. [GASPS] [LAUGHS] Oh wow. We'll just let him hang out.
Now on the backside here, we can still catch the color of these two. We have this little stair step with the ranunculus that's really beautiful, and I think will frame this peony really well. Just going to pop that right down in there.
Now, I'm going just adjust this. I had it towards the outside. But I'm going to pop this right through the backside of the arrangement. And to make that just so that the orientation of the face is a little bit different.
To make that a little bit easier, you can trim the ends of your stems to be a little like a nail so you can just pierce through there. So much easier than struggling and forcing it. OK, so that again is carrying that line back that way.
A few ingredients left. Poppies, I call it a little finishing flower. And you can use them in different capacities, of course, but I like to use them as a little finish. Something to float higher in the arrangement, just to finish it off. And then I go back, and we're going to look at this base area of the arrangement as well.
Now again, I'm just noticing the colors. Some have slightly peachier tones to them, some more pink. So I'm just experimenting and seeing where would that one best be showcased.
Think we have the dark pink side over here. That loop and how you're carrying that. So I'd be privy to put over here in this area. You can wrap them in among some other flowers to get it facing how you'd like it to face.
I might come back and pop those in at the very end, but I'm going to move towards thinking about what's going on down here. So we have this exposed branch, so I'm going to adjust the hydrangea foliage a little bit. And then I'm going to add some tulips down in that area so we don't have anything that isn't really beautiful being showcased at some point while it's being carried. Just going to waterfall, I guess you could call it. I don't know, I think I just made that up, maybe.
Put those in there. And then I'm going to pop it off with one up here, higher. Let's look at it from this side. OK. So that carried the tulips further back into the arrangement, rather than having it be flat.
And the last thing I wanted to do was finish it off with some of these cute little apples down here, around the base. Hm, I don't feel like I need that one. I like to give it a little shake. These things can get heavy in your hands.
OK. I have some of these little peony leaves too left over. And these are great-- flat leaves are great for framing areas down here at the base. Just going to pop that in just down in there low.
I think I'm finished with that. What I might do at this point, if this was a bride's bouquet, is just set this aside. And I would go work on something else for a little while. Maybe I'd do like a boutonniere or two.
And then I would come back and look at it again because sometimes if you're working and you're solving all of these problems. When you're putting an arrangement together, you're solving a lot of little problems, like a little puzzle piece. And sometimes stepping away from it just for a few minutes, and coming back, get yourself some water, a little granola bar or something.
And then come back to it. You'll see things that you didn't necessarily see whenever you're doing it first. So that's what I'm going to do right now. I'm going to take a little break. Then I'll pop back in, and see if I want to switch anything up.
So I've stepped away from the arrangement. And I've come back, and I've quickly identified a few things that I wanted to switch up. So this is the backside of the arrangement. And I was noticing that I lack some color here. And I have an opportunity to carry this yellow a little bit further.
And I have these two stems of lupine left that we didn't use yet. And see how that went from being maybe not a whole lot to-- then this just being something that can pop in there and really finish that back section off so it doesn't feel so empty.
So that was one of my quick little adjustment. It carries this line with the lupine the whole way through, as opposed to just abbreviating that. And then, the other thing I noticed is that I really wanted a finishing piece back here as well. So I have this poppy that we didn't use that I'm going to incorporate back here. And I'm going to use that hydrangea leaf frame that little guy.
And then, the last thing that I noticed that I wanted to do is there's a spot right in here that I feel could lend itself to if the bouquet is being photographed from this side here. This little piece-- and I accidentally tugged off one of its petals earlier today. And I thought I probably won't use that-- but since we're tucking this down deep in here pretty low, we can actually disguise that pedal is missing altogether. So a flower that may have gone to waste otherwise can still add some beauty to the arrangement. Even if it's just the yellow center and all the petals come off, it's just a little pop of color happening down in there that I think would be valuable.
Great. So I'm going to call that finished. The only thing we didn't use were some of these were ranunculus, which were these pieces that we pulled off of the weigela would make a really sweet coordinating boutonniere to go with this. So sometimes with boutonnieres, I'll maybe order specifically one thing. But I like to use pieces from everything else that I'm doing. It helps it to all coordinate a little bit better.
I'm just taking the tape around the stems, going that way in one direction. And then I'm going to go backwards with the tape for a second. So that whenever I put my ribbon in here, I've got something to grab onto. And this little poppy just needs to be supported. So I'm going to wrap him behind the apples since he is falling down.
OK. A ribbon. This is just a simple satin ribbon from May Arts. It's great, all-purpose ribbon. And before I get that on there, let's trim this off a little bit lower. Feels like you're really trimming small. But the point of the flowers is flowers, so we don't need a lot of stems going everywhere.
So I've just folded that back, and then wrapping this around, just real gently. I'm going to go ahead and cut this free. Just want to arrange it so that it's smooth. If your stems are in the way or making it impossible for it to be smooth, just situate things a little bit. And get it so you can have a smooth stem wrap.
So right now, I'm on the backside of the bouquet. And I'm going to move over to the front because I'm going to finish this off in the front. So I'm going to put my thumb right here in the middle.
And I have this one little tail that's popping up. This is such an easy, fast way to do a nice, tailored edge quickly. This gets hidden back in here. And then right there, where your thumb is, you're just going to pop a pin in there. And that grabs both the wrapping that you've done, and that also grabs that second piece.
I might tug one more back in there, just to make sure that's really secure. And then that just drapes down like that. And you didn't have to do anything extra. It's just real fast and easy.
And now that I have this in my hand, I see where the ribbon's falling. I'm going to cut these stems even shorter to their finished length. And if I'm holding this in my hand, I just want a little bit popping down, don't need much at all. Don't want to cut it so short that it's not balanced, and that it's going to topple over on you whenever you pop it in the vase and travel with it.
It's OK to keep it pretty short. And you may, if you're traveling-- obviously, not today-- but I'm going to leave it a little bit longer. And then do this final cut once you get to the event venue so that there's a fresh cut on the flowers.
But I wanted you to see the end product as well. I'm just going to gently lay this little guy down. And just give these ribbons a final snip.
These are Joyce Chen clippers, and they're really great multi-purpose. They can go through wire. They can go through ribbon. They can go through the plants, branches. All kinds of stuff. Fabulous, fabulous scissors. If they get gunky, they're not good for ribbon.
All right. So that's it. That's our pink and yellow bouquet or tour of the mountains in May. [LAUGHS] Have a good one.
On this episode of the Team Flower Podcast, you’ll hear from Tanya Shaw of Oh Flora in Sydney, Australia. You’ll hear how she went from designing small local weddings to hosting and teaching floral design all over the world.
We’re talking about finding inspiration in art forms other than flowers as well as the beauty of finding flower friends and being connected in the floral industry in various countries worldwide. Tanya has an exciting new venture she’s pursuing, and she’s giving us a sneak peak into what she’s been working on!
Today, we are so excited to be talking about a part of our client process that we think is one of the most important: how to design florals with the client in mind and put your client first in your floral work—essentially, balancing your style with the client's vision.
Foam-free floral design installations are all the rage in the floral industry, and there are countless resources that give advice for the mechanics of these designs. But what about the flowers and greens? What if you’re unable to give them a water source?
In this excerpt from the Team Flower Centerpieces and Reception class, I demonstrate one of four different styles of floral chair decor. This design is similar to making a corsage and is perfect for the back of the bride and groom chairs at their reception. It’s so simple—you just may be inspired to surprise your next client with a little something extra!
Rachel is walking us through her journey from being an estate gardener to an independent flower farm and how her services have changed and morphed over the past 10 years. We’re talking about the various workshops offered on the farm, including the flower painting class!
