What you need:

• 6 Hot Pink Baroness Roses 12"

• 3 Gemini Roses (hot pink & white) 8-10.5"

• 2 Sunset Celebration Roses (orange)10.5"

• 4 New Zealand Roses (champagne ) 8-10.5"

• 4 Orange Ranunculus 4.5" - 10.5"

• 7 Yellow Ranunculus 4.5" - 10.5"

• 9 Pink Sweet Pea stems 6 - 9"

• 7 -8 Lemon leaf (three 12" and four 7")

• 2 Fushia Bougainvillea stems 14"

• 6 Calamondin Lime stems (tiny oranges)14"

• 4 Privot berry stems 10 - 12"

• 1 block wet pack floral foam

• 1 produce knife

• 18 gauge floral wire (cut into thirds)

• Sea green ceramic pedestal vase (5.5" H with 3.5" inside Diam.)

Steps: 12

Rated: Intermediate Arrangement

The colors in the arrangement are "hot", that is to say it has intense hues of hot pink, bright orange, and yellow.  These are the dominant colors in the arrangement, but it also has a few softer pink and yellow pastels in it too.

I ordered the Hot Pink Baroness Roses from the Flower Mart, but the larger roses are garden roses, cuttings from my friend's garden.  They are the first roses of the season, and therefore some of them are very large. The Gemini roses (the very large hot pink and white roses,center stage in the arrangement) had a diameter of about 5 or 6 inches.  Incredible.  You cannot buy these at the Mart, or at any store, so if you would like to have some of these blooms, plant a garden.  You will need to remove the thorns off all the roses, Calamondin Lime branches, and bougainvillea.  Then wire all of the roses.  See 'Flower Prep' under 'My Best Secrets' for instructions.    

This time of year, hot pink bougainvillea is growing all over Southern California.  If, by the way, anyone asks, I didn't climb on the side of my car door to snip these lovely ladies!  Good thing I don't care if I put a little dent in the top of my van.  The 'tiny oranges' are Calamondin Limes that ripen in early Spring in Southern California.  I cut these from another friend's yard, with permission, of course.    The light pink blossoms that look like the Bougainvillea are sweet peas.  The purple berries are Privot Berry.  They are not in season here.  They flew in all the way from Australia.

This arrangement has very horizontal lines, and you have to work at it to achieve this.  It is natural to build an arrangement up vertically.  In this arrangement, you build the structure horizontally, so that the arrangement goes out quite a ways on both sides, and so that it is fairly level across the top.  You have to keep reminding yourself of this as you add the flowers...out, not up.  Well enough talk, let's get to work.