With Garden Roses & Kumquats

What you need:

• 1 large fuchsia Grand Dame garden Rose (cut 7 inches)

• 1 large hot orange garden Rose (cut 8 inches)

• 1 large peach garden Rose (cut 9 inches)

• 3 large white Ranunculus (7-10 inches)

• 9 fuchsia Ranunculus (cut 8.5-12.5 inches)

• 1 Emerald Amaranth stem (cut 19 inches)

• 5 Jasmine cuttings (cut 13 inches)

• 1 stem of Nandina or “Heavenly Bamboo” (cut 9 plus inches)

• 1 Kumquat branch cutting (cut 12 inches)

• packet of floral food (purchase here)

• 18 gauge floral wire cut into thirds

• 1/2 inch clear waterproof floral tape (purchase here)

• 1 pedestal vase.  Here's a similar one:(purchase here)

• rose gloves (99 cent store)

• 2.4 inch floral frog (purchase here)

  These amounts are for an arrangement with one side, meant for a entry table, or mantle. For a two sided arrangement double the amounts of Roses, Ranunculus and Kumquats.

  Tools Used:

• pruning shears (purchase here) or

• sharp pruning shears (found here) better for cutting the ranunculus with.

• Scissors

• Floral Stripper - if your roses have thorns (purchase here) or produce knife which is better to cut thorns off delicate roses

Steps: 8

Flower Cost:  $18.97

Rated: Intermediate Arrangement

Jasmine vine is available now in Southern California and kumquats are still on the bush. My roses are just beginning to bloom. The fuchsia rose in the arrangement, is the second rose to bloom this season from my Grand Dame Rose bush. The first one was enormous and this one is still about 4.5 - 5 inches across. We will use these to make an arrangement that looks as it might grow in a garden with various heights and angles. It is actually more difficult to do than making a symmetrical arrangement, but it is a beautiful look.

We will not use floral foam to hold the stems in place because the ranunculus stems are hollow and fragile. Instead, we will be using two methods to hold the stems in place:

Floral Tip: 1st method. Put a 2.4 inch floral frog into the bottom of your vase. As you put the stems into the vase, push them into the teeth of the frog to hold them in place. (P.S. If you need to move one of the stems, put the tip of your scissors or a pencil in place and push down on the frog as you pull the stem out that you need to move. This will keep your floral frog from shifting in the bottom of the vase.)

Floral Tip: 2nd method. Wipe the rim of the vase dry then make a grid with your waterproof tape, making sure to firmly press the edges of the tape down onto the lip of the vase. This will keep your flowers in position as well.

You will need to wire each rose with 1/3 of a piece of floral wire. See how to do it here: https://www.floristinyou.com/prep

In this post you will see my grandson learning about flowers.

Now if you have your flowers, cuttings and materials you are ready to begin.