Sunflowers for Floral Design

Sunflowers are an awesome, stunning flower to use in summer and fall floral bouquets. They are readily available at this time of the year and are inexpensive. As a florist, and maybe a home gardener, one can grow this flower for their shop as long as the flowers are processed and hardened correctly. There is a very strong trend towards “garden flower designs”, kind of a natural flower patch and wildflower look.

Sunflowers come in a variety of dramatic Indian summer and fall colors. The annual sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is the flower most people picture when they think of a sunflower. They range from bright, sunny yellow to dark reds, to chocolate brown, and  all colors in between, including variegated varieties. Sunflowers have long, strong stems and are long lasting. As a matter of fact, if you do not use your sunflowers as fresh flowers, hang them upside down and dry them and use them in your dried flower fall arrangements. In your garden, they can be cut just before the flowers die off and dried over a few weeks. For design projects, it is important to leave a sufficient amount of stalk.

Sunflowers are beautiful in a tall vase, mixed with your favorite greens, maybe a little boxwood and eucalyptus. Statice, wax flower, solid aster, and salal leaves might also accent your container of sunflowers. Because sunflowers are large and showy, and  because they are hearty with thick stems that stand up well in a vase, and this is the very reason they are perfect for this type of arrangement.

Some varieties of sunflowers have one big head or flower. They are usually the giant sunflower varieties. Other large headed varieties, have a few much smaller heads that form on lower branches. Some varieties have multiple heads. These are typically mid sized sunflowers. Miniature sunflowers make lovely fresh bouquets also. Florist can make use of all varieties. Talk with your customers. Make suggestions to them. Educate your customers to try new and different types of flowers and foliage. It will make your job as a designer much more interesting when you can use new and exotic flora. They will be thankful for the unique ideas. You are the professional; that is why they trust you for their floral needs.

Just a fact for fun; sunflowers have a special property called heliotropism, which means that as it grows, the sunflower turns its face/flower head, to the sun throughout the day. In the morning, the sunflower's bud faces east to catch the rays of the rising sun and by night, the bloom is facing west to capture the last sunshine as the sun sets.

Natural, nutritious and attractive, sunflowers have it all. That is probably why sunflowers have spread from their native home in North America, and are now grown around the world! 

Vincent Van Gogh Sunflowers Floral Picture Framed Art Print 

Heirloom Sunflower Seeds Flash Blend Certified OrganicPackage of 4 Autumn Harvest 10" 

3 Way Metal Floor Lamp w Sunflower and Silk Shade

New Autumn Silk Flower Centerpiece 

Club Pack of 12 Artificial Sunflower Silk Floral Garlands 6' 

St. Ives Sunflower and Silk Moisturizing Body Wash, Nourishing 13.5 Oz 

Sunflowers 

Mammoth Grey Stripe Sunflower Heirloom Seeds 

van Gogh and the Sunflowers (Anholt's Artists Books for Children) 

At last—a Technology Resource That Truly Itegrates Raw Materials and Design Theory!

 The Floral Design CD-ROM is a powerful study and reference tool for students, instructors, and professionals alike. Beautifully designed and easy to use, this software offers a wealth of images and information to increase the user's understanding of flowers and foliages. User's can search by numerous criteria—botanical names, common names, design use, color, vase life, availability, horticultural zones, and more—to learn about the plants themselves as well as how they fit into the professional floral design process and the horticulture industry. Professionals, instructors and students will appreciate the full-color images, in-depth information, audio pronunciations, and glossary that work together to reinforce classroom instruction and aid in the creation of exciting floral designs.

Floral Design CD-ROM - Stand Alone Version


Full-Color Art Nouveau Floral Designs CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Series)

Fresh Flowers for Corsages

Making corsage flowers are a good way to build your floral business. Corsages are flowers worn by women on special occasions such as weddings, proms, and other formal occasions. They can be designed with either fresh flowers or silk flora.. Corsages are commonly worn either on the shoulder or on the wrist; although a corsage could be put on an evening bag or purse.

Corsages can be made with either one single flower, a focal flower, such as a rose or an enchantment lily. The success of any design is in using proper and secure mechanics in which to put the corsage together. A single rose corsage may be embellished with green fern, asparagus fern, baby’s breath, statice, and other filler flowers. A silken ribbon is also added for a couple of reasons. First of all, it adds beauty to the design and secondly, it hides the design mechanics in a corsage and pulls all of the elements together to finish the corsage. Be sure and advise the customer of delicate flowers such as gardenias, as they bruise easily and turn brown when touched. Also, you may want to take allergies into consideration. Make sure the recipient has no allergies to flowers. If so, the corsage can be made of silk flowers.

Also, corsages can be made of several smaller flowers. These are multi-flower corsages. Miniature carnations are an inexpensive example of this. Rose of the miniature variety can also be used. A combination of flowers such as small daisies, and carnations, with green leaves, baby’s breath and accent flowers such as monte- casino (a small solid aster) are good choices. Color is very much a concern. Usually as with weddings and proms there are either a color theme or dress color that needs to be matched. Wiring together many small flowers is more time consuming. Each flower and filler flowers are wired together individually and then wired together as one flower. Special efforts have to be made to make sure the corsage is firmly wired together so it does not flop. As with the single flower corsage, a ribbon is also added to the multi-flower corsage to finish off the design.  

Wrist corsages are made the same as a single-flower or a multi-flower corsage. The difference here is that a wrist corsage has a “wristlet” securely attached. There are several commercial wristbands available.

Before packaging any corsage be sure and add at least 1-2 corsage pins. A corsage pin resembles a very long thicker straight pin, usually with a round, pearl top. They are commercially available as florist supplies. A wrist corsage does not need a corsage  pin. Sending a corsage out of your flower shop is a good chance for advertisement for your shop. Be sure and have an attractive corsage box with your shop clearly labeled so all knows from where the flower came. This is a part of “branding your shop”; getting your shop name and logo out there. We all want our flower shop to become a household name. 

There are several good books out on the market about corsage design. You may want to check out this book to aid in your floral education.

White Silk Rose and Calla Lily Corsage or Boutonniere - Package of 6 

FloraCraft Floral Accessories 90-Corsage Pins, Crystal 

Wrist Corsage Elastic Bands - Package of 48 - Make Wrist Corsages for Prom, Dance, or Wedding 

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE IN PROM SUIT from the movie NAPOLEON DYNAMITE Action Figure with Display Base & Sound 

How to Design Fresh Flowers - the basics

Flowers are beautiful. Flowers make people happy. Flowers are a positive in an often scary world. Many yearn to know how to design and work with flowers and natural materials. It is a skill and a talent, but it is a talent that can be learned by starting with the basic design skills. Once the basic design skills are learned, design embellishments can be learned. Knowing where to start was my biggest obstacle when learning floral design. I was taught by a professional florist with her own exclusive shop. I remember her telling me to make a design, anything I wanted to design. I stood at the floral cooler thinking where do I start? Being able to choose materials to work with comes with experience. The more one makes those decisions, the more one becomes comfortable with making selections and the choices become second nature. To learn to select materials, one might consider these points:

• What colors do I need to work with?

• What textures do the flowers have?

• Do I need tall or short flowers?

• Will this be centerpiece or a one-sided design?

• For what occasion am I designing?

• Do I need everyday flowers, such as carnations and daisies, do I need roses, or do I need tropical flowers?

• Do my flower choices all last about the same?

Your flower selections do need to be addressed by points such as these. Your choices will automatically be narrowed by answering these questions. Many times I let colors guide me. Colors of fresh flowers are vivid and many. If you are uncertain about what colors go together, consult a color guide for flowers such as this one Quick and Easy Flower Design: More Than 125 Color-Based Recipes for Everyday BouquetsPinks, purples, yellows, reds, whites, orange... color is one of the features that makes floral design exciting. When I see combinations of flower colors put together I get excited! Color, textures, size, types of flowers, what am I designing, and the lasting ability of each flower, once again are all points to consider. Don't be afraid to experiment. Just pick up and start doing. The more you practice, the more you learn. Each and every design time gives you knowledge and is a valuable learning experience.