Boutonniere-workshop participants get wired on floral design tips

NORFOLK

Several brides-to-be and others  with an interest in wedding flowers  attended a Norfolk Botanical Garden workshop recently to learn  the ins and outs of making boutonnieres, corsages and bouquets.

Starting  with a white carnation, floral designer Frances Thrash  taught participants how to individually wire and wrap flowers and leaves to make a  professional-looking boutonniere. She then explained how to create a corsage by doubling a boutonniere and adding extra flourishes.

 Participants learned to make bridal and attendant bouquets in the second day of the workshop a week later.

Though Thrash made it look easy, she warned that creating wedding flowers  is a time-consuming undertaking – and that a bride might not want to take on the chore  for her own wedding.

Leave that to friends and relatives, she advised.

On the other hand, learning what goes into the process helps a bride to know what she wants for her wedding and to communicate with others about what she wants . Thrash said. Knowing what goes into creating wedding flowers also is  helpful  for evaluat ing a professional’s work and  understanding the costs.

As Thrash began her boutonniere demonstration, she stressed that practice makes perfect in making a corsage. The basic step of wiring and taping a flower  or leaf to make it ready for a boutonniere or corsage takes more rehearsal than the wedding itself.

She began by cutting the carnation stem so that it was about 2 inches long and stripping  little leaves off the stem.

Cut pieces of fairly thick floral wire in half, so you are working with 9-inch pieces. Poke a piece of wire through the middle of the flower’s fleshy base and pull both ends of wire down to “make a new stem,” Thrash said.

Then, beginning at the base of the flower, tape the real stem and both wires together with floral tape. Floral tape is not sticky until you stretch it out as you work with it.

“Go around the flower, and keep pulling,” Trash said, “twirling the flower as you go. The tape gets sticky as you pull.”

Always twirl the flower as you wrap, she emphasized, and spread the tape out so that it overlaps only slightly to reduce the thickness of the new stem. When the stem is wrapped, just rip off the tape.

With the centerpiece carnation ready to go, Thrash wired five camellia leaves as filler. Ivy leaves also make attractive filler, she said. Take four pieces of the 9-inch wire and fold each in half.

Hold a leaf with the stem facing you and stick the wire ends into the leaf on either side of the main vein close to the stem and pull the wire through the leaf and down, making a new long stem for the leaf. Again, wrap the wire and tiny stem with tape half way down, twirling the leaf as you wrap.

Wire and wrap all five leaves.

“When you get done with all this,” Thrash said, “you will appreciate how much florists charge.”

Thrash  distributed small rosettes of variegated pittisporum to each participant.

Put the carnation in the middle of the rosette, she said. Add two green leaves to the back and front, hold all the stems together and start taping. Add more leaves, and start taping again. The green leaves will be in an unequal arrangement.

“Avoid a  five-pointed star,” Thrash said. “Beginners should do more taping, but as you learn, you can tape more stems at once.”

Lastly, add one piece of something different for texture. Thrash taped a feathery piece of yew into the boutonniere for contrast. Rosemary also would be a good addition, she said.

Cut all wires off at an angle, and put a dab of tape over the wire ends. Curve the wire stem a bit so the boutonniere fits into the curve of the shoulder.

Spritz with water. Let the flowers dry, and put in a corsage box or plastic bag with two corsage pins, ready for the big day. The flowers will keep for three days in the refrigerator as long as there is no ripening fruit in the fridge.

A corsage, Thrash went on to demonstrate, is made by combining two boutonnieres with a bit of tulle and a bow.

If you know the basic principle of wiring and taping, you have a good start on the ABCs of creating wedding flowers. 

 Mary Reid Barrow,  barrow1@cox.net