How to Arrange Flowers Using Grocery Store Flowers

Our January program was a terrific and fun meeting!  Snow flurries and cold weather greeted the day, but warmth and good cheer were inside at our meeting.  This program would make a great program for any garden club!  If any readers from other clubs have tried this before, please do comment at the bottom and let us know what additional things you may have done.  This is a joint post by our Program Chairman (Lynn) and Flower Arranging Chairman (Beth).

"As 2nd VP for Kanawha GC, I am responsible for planning the programs for the entire year of monthly meetings.  We have a committee that makes program suggestions as well getting input from  members from the previous year's committees and random suggestions  fom other members.  Since Kanawha GC members love hands-on workshops and fun, we needed a different type of meeting than a speaker.  We have several members that plan out of town trips around Flower Shows (translate to nervous/fearful!) and have, in the past, tried to take the mystery out of flower shows with flower arranging workshops. 

Looking for new and innovative ideas for meetings, I read the GCA webpage that suggested and evaluated speakers to see what other clubs were doing. 

I ran across a blurb written by another club about videos on YouTube that dealt with taking the mystery out of arranging grocery store flowers and that gave me a fun idea.  Since our Flower Show Committee is responsible for the meeting, I called Beth and passed along the suggestions.  I also suggested that we show several videos and then have different members arrange the flowers.  My suggestion was to keep the program a secret so that our 'fight or flight' members would not plan a trip.  I suggested that we pull members' names out of a hat to do the arranging.  Had I been diabolic, I might have suggested that we 'stack' the deck with those 'flight risks'!

Lynn


At Lynn's suggestion, the Flower Show Committee presented a program "Flower Arranging Using Grocery Store Flowers" with a surprise participation segment similar to the competitive cooking show "Chopped" - without the Chop!  She requested that planning for the meeting should remain a 'secret', which we honored as best we could.  I, the Flower Show Chairman, opted for a little help from about 4 members of our committee. 

This is what we did.

First, we viewed several YouTube videos on "How to Arrange Flowers Using Grocery Store Flowers".  There were lots to see and lots of fun personalities.  We chose three that we thought were entertaining, not too long (2-3 minutes) and demonstrated distinct arrangements our club might be interested in.  This would be the foundation for our competition.

We introduced the program by engaging in a short skit that went somewhat like this:

Beth:  "I'm going to talk about Flower Arranging today. "

Anna: (with a loud, panicked shriek from the middle of the room that snapped us all to attention!) "Whhaaaat!!!  How do I arrange flowers?  I can't do it very well, and it is always so intimidating!?  I shouldn't have come today." (much laughter from the membership as they realized what was happening).

Beth:  (reassuring voice) "Stay calm, Anna.  We will make this easy!"

(More back and forth panic by Anna and reassurance from Beth).

Beth: "How about if we watch a few YouTube videos to help with this problem...it isn't hard...you can do it!"

Anna: (who was trapped at the front of the room; resignedly)  "Well, OK."

The first video (1:47 minutes) highlighted using a large mixed arrangement (both flowers and color) and made 7 arrangements.  We selected a taller thin rectangular vase.  (Re)Arranging Grocery Store Flowers with Oscar Mora | Architectural Digest.

The second video (6 minutes) highlighted 4-5 small separate flower bouquets with complimentary colors using a smaller/tighter vase, Arranging Store Bought Flowers (Fusion/Kim Foren/Geranium Lake)

                            

The third video (3 minutes)  highlighted white and green flowers using an approximately 8" tall cylinder.  Uses flowers of just 1-2 colors and fairly monochrome.  Easy Grocery Store Flower Arranging | Home Hacks | Theodore Leaf

All vases were of clear glass.  Each arrangement was to be based on one of the above videos. competitions. 

After watching the videos, we presented the group with a 'take-home' sheet of "Top Tips" for arranging with ideas that we learned from the videos.

Then the 'SURPRISE' and the competition began...three teams of 2 members each whose names were randomly drawn from a basket were assigned the task of arranging one of the above arrangements.  The supplies for each arrangement were all ready to go on tables and covered by a bedsheet to keep the secret during the meeting that was held before the workshop.  The three teams were given 10 minutes to complete their arrangements  The arrangements were beautiful!  We decided to have NO JUDGING!...just FUN! 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations and a big thank you to all the participants.  In addition, a prize of a $5 grocery store gift card (in our case, Kroger) was given to each participant.  Then, off to lunch!  Everyone seemed to enjoy the fun interactive program.

 

Beth

 

Supplies  & Equipment Needed: 

 Flowers from the grocery store

Screen/computer/video equipment to show the videos

Two 6' tables

Plastic drop cloths (cover tables for easy clean up)

3 vases

3 lazy Susan's

Water pitchers and water

1-3 frogs (depending on arrangements)

Knives/scissors/clippers

Kitchen timer

Floral tape (taped to the needed vases prior to the meeting and had all ready0

Bedsheet to cover the floral supplies and set ups

Basket & member names already prepared

Gift certificates

Trash bag