I love going to the fresh farm markets and getting that summer feeling to the max by seeing and smelling all the great fruits and vegies at their prime. What’s even more fun for me is adding fresh flowers to the mix! Pineapples are wonderful to use for a summer tablescape and much easier to design out of than to carve up to eat! I carve out a spot just big enough to fit in a liner and leave the rest of the fruit in tact- undisturbed. This cuts down on any bacteria starting and will help the pineapple last longer. Also- when the fruit gets very ripe- you could always remove the liner(holding your arrangement), and transfer it to another vessel for viewing, while you cut the rest of the pineapple up to enjoy! BEFORE cutting spot for your liner, set the pineapple on table or floor to determine the balance. Once you’ve found ’spot’ it lays on most flat, carve out the area on top for that liner  to go in.

Fresh Pineapple Tablescape

Add soaked fresh flower oasis to the liner and cover oasis by inserting pieces of green foliage  or use moss to hide oasis once flowers are inserted in desired design.Any fresh flowers will work if you cluster them…Add height to your arrangement by keeping the stems longer- like I did here with the roses. Also, remember, branches, colored wires,mikado sticks, etc help with height!  Sisal added as filler along with the green hypericum berries from South America ENJOY!!!

Congrats Amelia and Phil who got married last Saturday!!!! I had the privilege of designing their wedding package.  I am terrible with taking pics…I move too much etc so I asked my husband, and subsequent Delivery Guy to take a few quick ones as we were packing it up to deliver. Amelia went with a simply elegant bouquet of all freesia clustered together with a collaring of variegated pittosporum…very nice look. Her bouquet wrap was a 2 sided satin ribbon with an off white sheer overlay in a french wrap with pearls up the stem. Her bridesmaids carried just a cluster of mixed hydrangeas -  green and white ones with wrap to match their pool blue dresses. The boutineers were small clusters of the green hydrangea with a touch of the variegated pitt. The grandma’s wristlet was very light as it was done with the new oasis glue rather than wiring and taping…. OH! and the Moms had the smaller version of the bridal party clusters with a few freesia zinging out  the middle….fun stuff….What a nice family, lovely day and happy occasion :  )

used Double Freesia from Holland for Bride's bouquet

All boutineers labeled to omit wedding day confusion re: flowers

My handsome Delivery Man ; 0 making me laugh...

So many people have commented about the gorgeous hydrangeas that are blooming everywhere here in NJ! Have you noticed them? My neice,Martina, who just moved into her first home, has beautiful pink ones and she’s so excited. My one bush doesn’t have a chance to get more than 3 inches high bc of the many deer in my area and I don’t want to ‘net’ everything – so I enjoy everyone elses!  My mom-in-law has lovely blue hydrangea that I’ve been using at my last 4-5 demos. The color range is amazing from one bush…pink to blue to purple. I love playing with them. Attached is a pic from one of my last demos- 2 days ago at the lovely auditorium at Franciscan Oaks, in Denville, NJ. What a nice crowd with a lot of ?’s. I only did 4 fresh floral designs and I went 5 mins over my hour bc of all the ?’s. I guess I only work fast if I’m the only one talking! ha …. oh surprise : )

P.S.for all you ‘good deal shoppers’, the hot pink watering can was on clearance in JOANN’s in Succasunna and the other is a mini watermelon that makes a good sized tablescape. ENJOY!!!!

I have been neglecting this blog :0   Life got in the way AGAIN!!!! I have been playing continuously with flowers tho and this weekend is no exception! I have a Patriotic Demo to do at  Park Crescent Healthcare Center on Friday and I am bringing a red white and blue arrangement to a friend’s party on Sat. so I am thinking patriotic today!

A popular arrangement at my Seasonal Demos is the fresh flowers in the watermelon. Cut it in half, hollow out the watermelon completely , then rinse shell with bleach and water (to keep bacteria from starting), then fill shell with 4 inch plants(ivy, annuals,etc.) and top it off with moss to hide your mechanics and a couple dollar store US Flags or pinwheels! This makes a great conversation piece AND an interesting tablescape! Another way to use your watermelon is to only carve out a hole large enough to fit in a liner and leave  the watermelon otherwise in tact…then put soaked oasis in the container and begin your fresh flower design. True blue flowers can be hard to find, (you’ll notice a lot of purple colors in these arrangements for our US Holidays!…for IE- blue statice is actually quite purple!) I enjoy using red and white flowers and adding a ’stick-in of blue in either navy or cobalt! A stick- in being a flag or a ribbon or the patriotic fans that are out now. That helps carry the color I need that isn’t in a lot of  flowers naturally.

Also, the dollar stores carry fun pails and shovels in red white and blue. Target had dollar tins in these colors…flip flops (of course you can design fresh flowers on those!) and many other ‘base’ ideas to design off of. Don’t forget that simple works great too! A cylinder vase in cobalt blue, (found in the dollar stores) with white flowers and a simple red ribbon would be nice multiplied and put around your house or deck area!

Enjoy these quick summer months and the wonderful flowers they supply us with! (if our neighborhood deer don’t eat them first!ha)  ~Have a beautiful weekend!

This is a design that’s more impressive to see than hard to make. Tulips as a gift on mother’s Day are way popular so be prepared to receive yours with a great design in mind! I call this an “In and Out Design” because some flowers are inside the vase while others are flowing out of it. I did this design for Randolph Public Library when I was there last. Simply use a small grapevine wreath and set it over the top of the garden vase so it ’sits’ on the glass (or you can wrap curly willow or grapevine pieces yourself into a wreath shape and set it over the opening). Only fill the vase partway with the water. Cut some tulips shorter to go inside vase and leave stems just long enough to allow the bloom,(or flower head) above the water line. Then add the rest of the tulips as you would a regular vase, keeping stems long enough for blooms to flow out of top in a nice fashion. Remember to make a fresh cut on all your tulips first(especially if they have a brown tint to the bottom of stem).There you have it! A new arrangement in a ‘recycled’ vase! Happy Mother’s Day to all you Dare to Design Moms out there.

While here in SC I had to pick some beautiful white mini hydrangea that was in bloom on our apt. grounds. Don’t worry! I had permission from Deb in the main office. I had a large glass square vase that was filled with fresh flowers last week, now faded away,  and I was dying to remake something in it’s place. For a change I put 4 drops of red food coloring in the water first to tint it pink and then just placed the mini hydrangeas in the water – submerge the whole bloom and keep adding pieces of blooms til it is nice and full. This type of hydrangea has little to no stem when cutting so this design works well for that. I like to see the white of the flower press up against the glass and have a bit of the bloom coming out at the top. This picture is actually four days old so you can see it holds up well even with most of all blooms submerged!  I love this arrangement..simple, fast, and fun.  Add a ribbon to match, (I didn’t have one with me here in SC to use).  Everything is in bloom here – a little ahead of NJ – and just lovely!!!  This arrangement reminded me of Carmelina and Bobby’s wedding tablescapes for the cocktail hour at their wedding at The Palace at Somerset Park a few years ago. Only we used glass rectangular vases and totally submerged pink hydrangea (no food coloring in the water : )  A great look – try it yourself-Dare to Design today…..

Daffodils are so much fun to play with at this time of year! I LOVE all the different kinds there are. As you probably know – they secrete this gooey stuff from their stems when they are first cut.  Don’t mix them with other flowers right away as the gunk could clog other flower stems in the same vase…let them drink in a separate vase for awhile then place them with the other flowers….give the ‘gunk’ time to seep out before placing them with other blooms!  I’m showing a pic of an easy spring arrangement using just the heads(or the bloom) of daffodils! They will float nicely in a container  and makes a fun tablescape even in a small vase! Wrap a reed inside the glass container for interest and set 2 or 3 of these cute designs down the center of your table. No special occasion needed! Spring is reason enough to walk by your table and smile whenever you see the bright cheerful bloom of a daffodil there! Enjoy….by the way!  MORE of our forsythia bloomed since my easter post!!!!  Still a most welcome design on a kitchen counter!!!

Wow! Easter is coming quickly. I have gotten out of cooking EVERY Easter dinner so far in my 25 year marriage!!! I know you are all jealous, because if you are like me you want to only bring the flowers and leave the food to those who actually like cooking. My only problem with bringing a tablescape to someone’s home is there is usually such limited space for a floral design! Be careful not to make it too big or too crazy! People don’t appreciate tablescapes that are not contained…for IE A mix of wooden eggs, bunnies, foiled choc. candies, curly willow and moss running down the center of their long food table! I know!-I don’t understand it either but it’s more acceptable to bring something smaller and self contained. If there will be many children I love to make a bunny out of flowers(I first saw this when I worked years ago at Calico Country Flowers, in Hackettstown, NJ) or my other favorite Easter arrangement is to make a round arrangement with mix of spring colors and add a ‘CROSS’ armature made out of forsythia or reeds to center of arrangement. Experiment with the many beautiful flowers available to you and DARE TO DESIGN!!! and tell me all about how it worked out! Happy Resurrection Sunday!!!!

Have you played with the forsythia that’s getting ready to bloom? Simply cut some branches that have buds on them and put them in a vase you love and watch them bloom within 5-7 days! The bright yellow flowers are sure to brighten up the rainy gray days we have to deal with before Spring is in full swing!

Hi Everyone, welcome to my new blog. If you’re looking for the old DareToDesign.net webpage, you’ve found it! I’m transforming the website into a blog format so I can more easily update you with information, videos, tutorials, and posts. It’s a bit of a process, so bear with us as we make this transition.

If you have any questions for me, please send me an email at rosemary@daretodesign.net.

Looking forward to an exciting future!