April Showers bring May Flowers!

Laurel Winzler

We’ve certainly had our share of April showers this year, which means that May flowers are sure to bloom! The San Francisco Flower Market is ablaze with color and the selection of beautiful blooms makes it hard to choose!

by Laurel Winzler
Floral and Event Designer

Here’s my list of  personal favorites for wonderful spring arrangements:

RANUNCULUS – These multi-petaled beauties are wonderful for their range of colors and fullness.  Unlike many spring flowers which tend to be in the cooler pastels, they come in the “warm” tones:  peach, apricot, coral, yellow, pale to hot pink, and red.  Massed together they make charming flower girl bouquets, and in a mixed bouquet add fullness and delicacy.

PEONY - Peonies are a cold-weather flower that won’t grow along the California coast, so the majority of the product we receive comes from Oregon and Washington.   White, coral, pink and deep red are the most available colors, and some tree peonies in peach and creamy yellow are available for a short part of the season.

As you can see from the photo, they arrive at the Flower Market as tight buds, but open to dramatic single or double blooms that can stand alone in an arrangement.

LILAC – Lilac is a woody shrub and the cut blooms can be very temperamental!  Getting freshly-cut stems is very important, and it helps to pound them with a hammer before placing them in a vase, so that they can draw water more efficiently.  Keeping the water very fresh and clean also helps the blossoms last longer.   The beautiful blooms in white, lavender and deeper purple are worth the effort – and the scent is heavenly !

TULIP – Coming in the widest range of colors and shapes, these are the go-to spring flowers for arrangements.  Beyond the standard varieties there are long-stemmed French tulips, double-petaled tulips that mimic peonies, and ruffled parrot tulips – my personal favorites !!!

The drawback to working with tulips is that they continue to grow after being cut, so that the stems can lengthen an inch or more overnight, and they move and rearrange themselves in response to temperature and light conditions.  This means that a tulip bouquet is constantly changing and sometimes needs to be re-worked if you want to keep a particular shape or size arrangement.

The old method of putting a penny in the water to keep the stems upright no longer works because modern pennies have almost no copper in them – but a sip of inexpensive vodka will accomplish the same thing !!!!

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Tags: Beauty, Home, Inspiration, interior design, My Time

Category: Home & Garden