Relaunching the Humble Poinsettia

Due to the recent resurge in popularity for Dianthus in the last 2 years, there has been quite a lot of noise made about the humble Poinsettia 0r Euphorbia pulcherrima before Christmas this year. To tie in with current trends and contemporary technique modules at college we were asked to design our own 'shop window' display to demonstrate the relaunch of the Poinsettia. Heres some of the designs I came up with. My team members made parcels out of pine and planted up Poinsettias and used stems clustered in Advent designs.

This was also a personal experiment to understanding the plant and its suitability. Note to self : Poinsettias DO NOT take kindly to being shoved in oasis and sealing the end of the stems with a lighter doesnt seem to stop the poor plant from bleeding sticky sap everywhere. HOWEVER, stems cut from the plant thrive in water and are long lasting. I cant say that these handkerchief shaped plants are at the top of my list but they certainly can make an impact when used en masse on a relatively tight budget . . . Think along the lines of the white variety massed at a winter wedding venue.

Floral Christmas cakes and Dress Making

Creating a eye popping window display is the latest message being drilled into us at college. Today we collectively created a display for a winter wedding in the college reception. I cant tell you how much I enjoyed making a very regal looking bridal gown to complete the display . . . Ok,  I wont say I have the skills for 'real' dressmaking . . . But the end result was very pleasing. Surprising what one can do with a little satin material, a handful of pearl headed pins and some eager florists :) ( surprisingly half the group making the dress had retail and clothing merchandising experience and haberdashery crafts such a millinery, many hands make light work as the saying goes (Bibi I hope have spelt this right). 

No Wedding dress is complete without a beautiful train.  A beautifully handcrafted necklace  ( made by a colleague) finishes of the decadent look!!

Social Wellbeing in Urban Environments

Today is the last day of the 4 week investigation I have been carrying out at my fathers office blocks. I am investigating the link between plants and flowers in urban environments such as offices and how they effect social wellbeing of the people working in office conditions. I have delieverd floral arrangements to 3 sets of offices each containing a miminum of 3 staff memebers for a month. This afternoon I will collect the arrangements sadly for the last time and leave a set of questionnaires for the participants to answer regarding their personal experiences of having plants and flowers installed at their office. Looking forward to analysising the answers and seeing whether my hypothesis is correct. I was inspired to conduct this investigation after reading an article in 'Florist &Wholesale Buyer' in 2008/2009 regarding the relaunch of selling plants in florists and how to sell the benefits of plants to customers. Alongside the article was a column about Plants for People, an organisation looking to raise the profile of the humble houseplant and scientifically prove the social, health and econmical benefits of plants in home and office.

http://www.plants-for-people.com/

http://www.plants4life.org/


Some really interesting stuff . .  Take a look