Learn How To Arrange Flowers

Have you attended at flower show recently? If not, you’re due for a shocker!

Gone are the neat row upon row of specimens at one time the only means of displaying the products of our gardening efforts. Along with the never failing display of good specimen blooms you’ll note the sections devoted to actual flower arranging. One fine specimen is used with another to enhance the beauty of themselves and of the show. Competition is fully as keen here as it has been and will remain in the horticultural sections.

It’s catching and if you think flower arranging is not for you, be careful not to sit in on a session of arranging with the “guys” lest you find yourself secretly “placing” your favorite blooms in a tumbler on your workbench in the garage. The urge to create might be only a flicker, but it’s as certain to be inside as a desire to have our front lawn look as nice as our neighbors.

The day comes to every gardener when they cut prize blooms and brings them into the house only to find they have lost something. If he has been “exposed” to arranging he is quick to realize that nature has a planned design in the garden and in order equally to enhance the bloom he too must plan a design. He finds that by combining a variety of forms and textures according to the principles of design, it is possible to create a picture equal to and many times better than that which appeared in the garden.

In arranging flowers as in any other hobby one thing leads to another. It is a perpetual challenge to better yourself so that your next “masterpiece,” whether it be for the home, for a show or for some special occasion, will be an improvement over any previously made.

On the show level there is a specific aim… to fulfill the requirements as presented in the schedule. To do this requires not only the use of your hands but also imagination, originality, ingenuity and the applied know-how of the arranger. To accomplish successfully the combining of these abilities is a real challenge.

When the holidays come and the little woman is bustling around the kitchen fully occupied with food preparation, you’ll realize the ultimate in enjoyment in just seeing the look of gratefulness she bestows upon you when you take over the floral decorations.

And finally, after having considered the personal challenge, the urge to create and the rewards, we’ve left the most compelling reason until last. The reason so many men are entering the field of arranging is it’s just plain fun! It’s fun to collect and devise a decorative plant containers, it’s fun to learn how to use color and designing containers, and it’s fun to increase your horticultural knowledge while searching for new and unusual materials for varied effects.

A creative mind is an active mind… an active mind leaves no room for tired brain cells. Although we still are and always will be avid gardeners, we’ve found this new hobby a wonderful formula for staying young.