Flower arrangement:

Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers also feed the soul. - The Koran

 I teach flower arrangement for the second year students at my college, thought of sharing some ideas of flower arrangement with you all. Flowers have a physiological, emotional effect on the human mind depending on their colors. 

If you walk across the dadar flower market you see all varieties of flowers. You also end up purchasing some beautiful flowers but less do we know how to store them.

•  Here are some guidelines on how to store flowers:

·       Always use a clean container to store the flower.

·        Fill only ¼ of water in a container to last the flower stalk for a long time.

·       Cut the stalk of the flower in slant direction as it gives a large surface area to absorb water.

·       Add a floral preservative (available at the florist shop) to water as it helps to keep the flowers fresh for a long time.

·       Every alternate day the container water has to be changed.

·       Purchase  flowers which can last for a week, e.g.-  anthurium, orchids,

·       Hollow stem flowers should be wrapped with cotton and rubber band as it helps to retain water .e.g. -orchids.

I prefer ikebana style of flower arrangement to be a part of my living room.

Ikebana- means “giving life to flowers.” Japanese style of floral arrangement is an old form of floral art done by Buddhist monks as a part of rituals to  lord Buddha.

It is simple to arrange and brings up the natural beauty of the flowers and foliage.

So in this post I demonstrate how to make a simple ikebana style of flower arrangement.

Material required:  flower vase, anthurium- white, bird of paradise, carnation- red, bottle grass- foliage, Dry sticks, cutter, duster, floral oasis.

In the picture below you will  see cane and ceramic container which can also be for an arrangement. 

Picture below shows  white-anthurium, bird of paradise and red- carnations.

•    Procedure-
•  Always use a clean container to make an arrangement.
•  Lay a duster below the vase so as to protect the surface from getting wet.

•    Place the floral oasis on the container and take a proper measure.  (Floral oasis is easily available at the local florist store and it is used to store water and as a source of anchor for the flowers. 
•            With the help of the cutter cut the oasis of a desired shape.

•   The height of the oasis should be higher than the container so that it becomes easy to attach the flowers.

•   Hold the oasis under water for at least 2-3 minutes so that it absorbs the water completely.

•    Now place the oasis in the container. If the oasis is wet it slides in the container easily
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•    I have used bottle grass to cover the oasis. 
•    Use small stalk of the bottle grass branches to cover the oasis. You could also use dracaena, song of India or money plant leaves as foliage in an arrangement.

•       We first place the bird of paradise perpendicular to the container; you could place 2-3 in decreasing height.

•    Then place the carnation in diagonal direction that could be 3-5 in number.

•    In ikebana we follow a line of arrangement-heaven (90), earth (75) and man (30) are the 3 basic angles.

•    At the end I have used some dry sticks to elevate the height of the arrangement. Dry sticks are small wooden dry stick which are decorated and used as accessories in an arrangement.

•    Thus the flower arrangement is ready.

•   Below you could see some arrangements made by my students.