Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Helianthus anuus
Nature's Treasures, A Floral Art Exhibition at D'Ville Shopping Center Durbanville Floral Carpet with the members of the Durbanville Flower Club. For the mid section I used roses, sunflower heads, bark, potting soil and foliage.
Common name
Sunflower
Origin
America especially the Southern and Western regions.
Varieties
You will find both large (20-35 cm) and miniature (10cm) sunflowers. Most varieties cultivated for the cut flower market sheds less pollen than those grown for the seeds.
Colors
most popular sunflowers are the “moonlight” variety with its dark center and sunny yellow petals but you will also find brown, orange, rusty red and a striking dark red purple
Vase life
Sunflowers are thirsty and if you keep them well hydrated it will last for a week. They also dry well.
Scent
If you are familiar with sunflower oil you will recognize it by the scent
Uses
Sunflowers are very dominant and definitely attract attention. It has become fashionable in contemporary design to remove the bright flower petals and work with the dark center of the flower
Conditioning
Give the stems a fresh cut at an angle and hydrate in warm water with dissolved flower food for a few hours before designing. To air dry the flower heads need to be supported. You can either slip it into a paper tube and stand till its dry or hang the flower upside down.
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Related Designs
A tiny adjustment in a stem wedged into a vase mechanic to give you even more control over the placement of design details.
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Knot horizontal palm fronts in place to create a support for heavy flowers.
Adding more to an autumn design... but leaving everything out that you don't need.
An old trick... but still a great one to support thin stems in the needles of a Kenzan.
It's the little sun-washed coloured hints that makes you look again to see if you really saw what you thought you saw... yes! There really are signs of autumn everywhere!
Using the disk floret of a sunflower to support your floral details.
Pick away the ray floret so that the disk floret of a sunflower can be used as a flat surface to display your design on.
Use the heart of a sunflower as a platform to place your autumn floral details on.
Adding tension to a design with a grass frame and collar.
The trick to any freestanding design is to get your first three stems standing stable and secure in the water. Once you have that you can build the design around it.
Making a truss out of sunflower stems for a free standing design
Durbanville Flower Club: Nature's Treasures, A Floral Art Exhibition at D'Ville Shopping Center Durbanville, Western Cape, South Africa