Quick…What’s the next holiday? I wouldn’t blame you if you said Christmas!!! The big home hardware stores have had their large lit Christmas tree display complete with 30′ inflatable “Christmas Sponge Bob” up since Columbus Day. Political candidate’s commercials have been replaced with jingling Christmas ads and there has even been some Holiday music seeping onto the radio air waves.   You wouldn’t know Thanksgiving is only two weeks away! Ok, well maybe you do… but you get the picture.

Of course “The Turkey” and all the trimmings are the stars of the day. The problem is there just isn’t enough room on the table for all the goodies let alone a floral centerpiece!

Here’s an alternative suggestion to relieve the “pass the (insert favorite food item)” congestion. Why not have a side board set with the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and all the rest and let all your guests help themselves buffet style. This will allow you to have a neat and beautifully set Thanksgiving table. Fill your table with a bounty of flowers your guests will enjoy throughout their meal. Instead of one centerpiece why not have three! Below you see a trio of bouquets, one larger in the center with two smaller “satellite” bouquets.

Notice they are all different. We have accented our table with mini pumpkins and some easily “dyi” place cards. “How interesting and different”….is what you’ll guest will say. As the host you will “eat-up” the praise and love that your favorite tablecloth stays cleaner than it usually does after a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.

Color Your Wedding Day With Excitement!

So much of what we see today in weddings is “matchy matchy”, meaning the color of the girls dress dictate everything!   Themes are important when planning a wedding, however planning the entire wedding   around one color; usually the attendant’s dresses can become a little boring and definitely predictable.  While the major trend has been to match the flowers with the dresses and linens and shoes and handbags and ties and……..well you get the picture.  It can become a little blah.  When it comes to the bouquets, flowers that match the colors of the dresses tend to recede.  Not very impressionable.

Why not be bold, less predictable, and definitely more interesting and use a complimentary color scheme when planning your wedding theme.  The fall “wedding season” is the perfect opportunity for bold and beautiful color.   The season is epitomized by brilliant gold’s and oranges and yellow’s accented with rich burgundies, crimson and the ever popular earth tones.  Here’s a beautiful bouquet perfect for the fall season that would be a beautiful compliment to a vibrant jewel tone or even bring to life the very trendy slate gray for the season.   

 Don’t forget about texture!  Texture is one of the most overlooked and underutilized design elements.  Texture adds interest and draws your eye into the bouquet.  Texture is how you eye “feels” the bouquet.   Below is an example of how texture adds interest and yes….even excitement to a bouquet!  Here, the smooth surfaces of the callas are contrasted and “complimented” by the prickly appearance of the pin cushion protea. 

For a truly unforgettable day be bold!  Your choice of complimentary colors will make your dresses pop!  Stand out from all the “matchy matchy” brides and color your wedding day with excitement!

If it’s a bold and striking color pallet you desire a complimentary color scheme is the one for you.  This is our second installment in our series on color and we will be exploring complimentary colors. Complimentary colors are used when you want to get noticed, stand out and draw attention.   Most often we see this color scheme used in commercial applications and most prominently with our professional sports franchises.  They can also be used in the home to highlight a desired area or brighten a smaller space.  By definition complimentary colors are colors that are opposites on the color wheel.  Let’s take a look at the color wheel we used in our first installment on color.

Let’s begin at the “core” of the matter or center of the wheel.   Primary colors are all natural compliments to each other.  Using our sports franchises as an example we see that primary blue and yellow are represented by the NFL’s St. Louis Rams or baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers.  Primary red and blue are represented by the Super Bowl Champ New York Giants as well as the Buffalo Bills and baseball’s Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox.  Lastly primary red and yellow are represented by the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

Moving outward to the secondary color ring we need to compliment a primary color with the opposite secondary color.  Starting with primary yellow we see that it is complimented by secondary purple.  Continuing with our sports team examples we see that yellow and purple are the colors of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers.  Primary blue and secondary orange are worn by the NBA’s New York Knicks.  Primary red and secondary green are the colors of the Milwaukee Bucks also of the NBA.

As we continually move outward on the color wheel to the tertiary ring of colors we need only draw a straight line to colors opposite each other to identify complimentary colors.  Keep in mind when choosing a complimentary color scheme for your home you can use the entire range of colors that are included in each of the compliments.  So if you want to be “bold and beautiful” a complimentary color scheme could be the one for you!  We have many more color schemes to explore so stay tuned.   Until then “color your world with flowers”!

June’s official flower is the “Rose”.   William Shakespeare’s famous quote form “Romeo and Juliet” where he questions… “What’s in a name?  A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  But what a beautiful name “Rose”, it aptly fits one of our most beautiful, graceful and fragrant flowers for no other flower evokes such emotion or conveys such passion and pure love than the beautiful rose.

One the world’s oldest flowers, rose fossils dating back some 35 million years have been found in Colorado.  The ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia in 2860BC wrote about roses in a system of writing called a cuneiform tablet found in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley.  In ancient China around 500BC Confucius noted that the Imperial Chinese library had volumes of books pertaining to the various wonderful qualities and varieties of roses.  In the 15^th century the English were hybridizing roses by cross-breeding varieties.  During this period the “War of the Roses” was fought with the eventual winner of the war, Tudor Henry IIV creating the Tudor Rose “aka” The Rose of England by cross-breeding varieties.

Just as the rose has endured throughout all time we use the rose to symbolize enduring and endless love.  No coincidence that the official flower for June falls during the month when most wedding anniversaries are celebrated.  The rose is also the national flower of the United States and England.  It is by far the most popular and gifted flower with over 1.5 billion fresh cut roses purchased last year which equals 4.7 roses for every woman, man and child nationwide.  How many roses did you receive this year???

Ok, so it’s been established…we love roses, can’t get enough of them.  They are a guy’s “go to flower”…good thing for him women love them too.  Why can’t all things be as easy as this?   Right guys!  The only complicating factor for the guys is what color rose to give?  Here again guys, for the wife the go to color is red!  Wheeewwwwww….that was easy.  The problem is red is not always appropriate because as we all know red roses symbolize “I Love You!”  Here again guys you’re safe because most women actually prefer colors other than red!  The problem is …what color to give?  What meaning will the color convey?  Yikes!!!   No worries, here’s a list of the colors and their respective meanings.

Red Roses: “I Love You”, 100 red roses means “I’m devoted to you”, and 108 red roses mean “Will You Marry Me?” (not sure why, but that’s what the research says)

Pink Roses:  ”You are so sweet” or expresses admiration, represents grace, gentleness and refinement.White Roses: Innocence, purity, youth, white rose buds are appropriate for a father to give to his young daughter.Yellow Roses: “Let’s just be friends” it can represent dying love or platonic love.Peach Roses: Represent modesty and friendship.

Purple Roses: Symbolize love at first sight.  Purple roses are appropriate for wedding anniversaries beyond 25 years.

Orange Roses: “Can we be more than friends?” wink, wink, nudge, nudge!When in doubt and you’re not sure what color to send why not send a bouquet of mixed color roses….remember women love all the different colors of roses.

One last comment on Billy Shakespeare’s quote, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”……yes, that’s true but, the lighter the color of the rose the sweeter the fragrance as well!!!    I wonder if the “Bard of Avon” knew that!

Friends often ask me “…when is Mother’s Day anyway?”  Having been born into the flower industry as the third generation in my family the answer is written indelibly in my DNA.  It is always the second Sunday in May or the week after the Kentucky Derby, which usually works better for the guys.  This year Mother’s Day falls on Sunday May 13.

Mom is where the heart is.  This is so true.  Mom drove you to school on those rainy days.  Always made sure you had a piece of fruit in your lunch bag (whether we ate it or not doesn’t really matter).  Mom sat through all your long hot recitals in June.  Mom cried when you left for college.  After all you are her baby.  It’s as close a bond as any human being can have with another.  It’s no wonder that Mother’s Day is the busiest holiday of the year for giving flowers.   Having delivered flowers to Mother’s for the better part of my 56 years I can honestly tell you there is no one happier than a Mom who has just received a bouquet of flowers from her “baby”.  The smile she wears is genuine and is born straight from the heart.  After all her “baby” remembered her on her special day.  For Mom, nothing does the trick like flowers.  It’s a gift from your heart that touches your Mom’s heart that gives birth to that smile she will be wearing all day.

People are often surprised to learn that Mother’s Day, not Valentine’s Day is the biggest flower giving holiday of the year.  Think about it….everyone has at least one Mom maybe two if you’re married and don’t forget Grandma!  And they all get flowers….or should get flowers if you ask me!  Alas, not everyone has a sweetheart….yet.  Let’s be optimistic!  So Mom truly is where the heart is.  Let her know you remember all she has done for you and all that she means to you.  Flowers from her baby will touch her heart like no other gift.  My Mother who has served thousands of Mother’s their flowers on Mother’s Day over the years will be receiving a special heartfelt bouquet from me…and she will smile.

Does your office have the “Ho Humms”?  Are you so focused on the job that you forget about your surroundings?  The fact is that how you decorate your office matters.  Texas A&M conducted an 8 month study that evaluated how the presence of flower bouquets and plants effected workers’ productivity in the work place.  I think we can all agree on the effect winter flower bouquets have on our moods!  I’ve been delivering flower bouquets for the better part of my 55 years and I can’t remember a recipient not breaking out in a broad smile upon being handed a floral bouquet.  My favorite reaction is when I’m carrying a beautiful bouquet of flowers through an office looking for the lucky recipient.  With sparkle in their eyes just about every woman in my path would ask: “Are those for me”?  Each time I reply,  “I wish, maybe next time”.  The lucky recipient is always thrilled and the attention that follows makes her “Queen” of the office for that day.

As it turns out the positive effect of winter flower bouquets in the workplace is real.  The Texas A&M study evaluated workplaces with plants and flowers against those that had no decorative embellishments.  The findings were astonishing!  Both men and women were effected positively by the presence of flower arrangements in the office.  Even more interesting is the fact that men and women were effected in different ways.  Men who were faced with problems came up with 15% more solutions when in the presence of flowers and plants. Women, on the other hand became more creative and flexible in their approach to problem solving when in the presence of flowers.

So if you’re looking for ways to improve employee productivity, “just add flowers”! Don’t allow the winter doldrums to effect office morale – a winter flower bouquet here and there can brighten the mood and foreshadow the spring season ahead. Besides becoming a more productive and creative office, you just might find you and your staff smiling a lot more.