Easy Floral Arrangement

Yesterday was an exercise in personal serenity during intense and rapid fire. ... it was Bosses Day and we have a fledgling flower shop that is run by yours truly, a therapy assistant who is a fantastic saleswoman and counselor but originally knew nothing about horticulture, and 5 patients. We have been preparing for the day by making bunches of cut flowers, arrangements in baskets and birdhouses, and prepping all the houseplants in addition taking care of the grounds and greenhouse. Can you believe there are only 8 yellow roses left... ?

The big seller was this birch birdhouse with liner. I basically sold it at cost (flowers and item) so that we could get business flowing and so that I could keep the patients busy making deliveries. This is a great arrangement for patients to do because the arrangement is simple, forgiving of mistakes, therefore the result is big and immediate.

Take a block of oasis floral foam and soak in water or cut flower concoction. For each birdhouse, you will use 1/4 of a block and then cut the edges to make it wedge into the liner. Then green up the liner on the sides with baker's fern. We ran out of baker's fern so I went on campus and started trimming the dusty miller. If you ever need filler for arrangements, look around you first. You would be pleasantly surprise at the items that can suffice for filler in an arrangement. We used the bunches of cut flower bouquets to measure out how many flowers to put into the arrangement. The bouquets are made with: One large piece of baker's fern, 1/2 stem of limonium, one daisy stalk, one alstromerium, and 6 carnations. The alstromerium become the middle focal point with everything else going on either side. This is easy because you tell the patients to follow the shape of the birdhouse roof. To fill in gaps, use the limonium, extra dusty miller, and other filler wild flowers you can find. Voila!!

You hear the darndest things when patients don't think you can hear... some of them are quite profound despite themselves! So, I close with the wisdom of the day:

"You know, you REALLY have to hate something in yourself to go to these lengths (substance abuse rehabilitation) to change it."

May we all strive for better things.