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Arranging flowers, as a modern mass, is the floral design class this month, and lilies are the flower of the month

Modern Mass - a bold design to try

Lilies - how to grow, and use in floral art

Recommended books - The Flower Arrangers A-Z Daphne Vagg
- The Gardener's Guide to Growing Lilies

Modern Mass
A Bold Design

From a workshop by National Demonstrator,
Margaret Holmes, New Zealand.
Modern Mass designs developed in Italy and require a bold design on a substantial plain container of simple shape. The design can be vertical, horizontal or diagonal. In this design you are not looking at individual flowers, but rather blocks of colours with "no room for the butterflies". Texture and colour are featured rather than individual flowers, with the container an integral part of the design.The flower colours you choose should intergrate well with your chosen container.
The design also requires a considerable amount of flowers, preferably of not more than 2 colours. Two or more masses of flowers of one kind and colour are grouped together in well defined shapes.
The colour scheme can be contrasting or harmonizing, and it is the masses and colour of the flowers which should predominate, and not their natural line.

Your container
You need a larger modern plain vase with not too small an opening.There is an excellent selection available online here you can buy now, online, at garden .com If you wish to paint your container, spray it silver first, then the colour of your choice. This is avoid "muddy" looking colours and give you a clear result.

Mechanics
Fill the container with old oasis to the top and then put your foam oasis in a cage or wire netting,on the top of the container. Click here to buy oasis in New Zealand, here to buy it in the USA. Push 2 kebab sticks through the oasis in the cage to the oasis into the container diagonally from different angles to secure the cage on top. Then use waterproof florists tape (buy here) around the cage and neck of the container to secure it further. The time spent making sure your mechanics are solid and not wobbly is worth it!

Plant material
You will need a large number of flowers of one kind, but proportionate to the size of the container, such as carnations , OR roses, OR chrysanthemums, OR proteas,( Available online here in New Zealand or herein the USA and Canada) OR gerberas OR camellias etc. If you are using larger flowers fewer blooms will be needed. Don't use anything with dominant centres.
Tall flowers or foliage are also needed matching in colour but contrasting in shape with the basic colour, such as gladioli, astelia,delphiniums, liatrus, tall spikes of stocks or snapdragons etc.
Optionally, is a third element, flowers or fruits, contrasting or harmonizing with the basic colour, but contrasting in texture.
You will need foliage with a large surface such as bergenia, aralia, anthurium, aspidistra, lambs ears or similar.
It is possible and of interest to add a further element to make the design more interesting, such as twigs, broom, dried leaves, vines, actinidias, wisteria, etc but it is not essential.
These are a guide only, see what you can find in your garden or buy what is in season here if you are in New Zealand o here if you are in the USA
The Design
Start with the line of your design, with the tall material you choose, astelia, flax, long proteas etc,If your design is to be horizontal, put 3 long peices of this out to one side.Margaret you can see used silver astelia. Don't have them matching lengths, and if you are using a thick material, trim the end going into the oasis, to a point to make easier insertion.
This now needs to be balanced with plant material on the other side.Again take your tall choice and if necessary, bend it by gently stroking the middle with your hand, softly bending as you stroke. The warmth of your hand helps to bend long leaves without breaking them, but be patient. Bend into a loop and insert into the other side.If you have trouble inserting both ends cut the ends to a point, or wire them to a kebab stick to put them into the oasis. Do this with 4-5 peices until you are satisfied that the design is visually balanced.
Now take your flowers and cluster them tightly through the middle of the design starting at one side and travelling over to the other side.The aim is to have no one flower dominate but rather the group.Margaret has done this with the carnations
Take your second flower choice and do the same thing along side the first cluster. Again pack them in tight and around and under your looped longer foliage. You can see how Margaret has done this with the camellias.
Finally add the texture dropping down over the container, as you can see Margaret did with the Lambs ears, and with the flocks parallel to the asteila.
Now step back and assess your design.
Is your plant material fresh?
Is the oasis hidden?
Is the container suitable for the plant material in shape, colour, texture and style?
Is everything related in size?
do the colours seem related?
Is the design top heavy, bottom heavy, lopsided?
Does your eye travel from one part of the design to another or it is confused. Have you an "eye path" ?
Did you enjoy doing it?

Margaret Holmes

Demonstration horizontal design, for this
workshop by Margaret Holmes. She used
carnations,astelia leaves, camellias, stock
and lambs ears.
Her foliage colours were based on the
colour of the container which was blue/gray

Using all foliage of protea,bronze cordyline,
and geranium, this is a horizontal design by
workshop particpant, Margaret B.

Pat used the same techniques for a
diagonal design,using protea, bromeleid
flowers and flax.

Another horizontal design from Glenys,
using dried strylitzia leaves, protea,
and dried canna heads.

Margaret clustered the carnations and the
camellias before adding the lambs ears
for texture.

Have a go, don't get disillusioned,
and have another go!
Take a photo of your design!
Email it to us here as an
attachment and we will add it to
this page.
Add your name if you wish and
where you are from, and details of
the plant material you used, for the
container and the design.
Let's share creativity!

carnations:
A wide variety of pastel shades
You can buy them online here if you are in New Zealand or herein the USA and Canada

Camellia: there are hundreds of varieties

Lambs Ear or
Stachys byzantina.

Gerbera:
come in many colours
you can buy them online here if you are in New Zealand or herein the USA and Canada

Asteila:Silver spear,
It is a native of the Chatham Islands
It loves a coastal position and if you grow it in the sun, you will get soft grey leaves. Grow in the shade and it will be greeny grey.
Pick the leaves gently and rub with a soft cloth to wipe down the leaves and remove fluff. If you rub too hard you will loose the grey! Don't immerse the leaves in water.
They will last for weeks on oasis and give any design a beautiful grey element.

Lilies
At this time of the year the southern hemisphere should be planting liliums in the home garden, while the northern hemisphere will be enjoying these amazing flowers in full bloom. True lilies are bulbs composed of fleshy scales and they should never be allowed to dry out during planting. The parent bulb must be sound and free of disease. Plump outer scales are pulled off gently and put in shallow trays of light soil with sand. Insert them upright with their tips just above the surface and will be become little bulbils by the spring. By autumn they will be ready to be planted out. If you can't wait the full year for these bulbils to become flower producing you can buy them big enough to produce flowers this season here Liliums prefer acid soils and are great underplanted with azaleas and rhododendruns.You can make your soil more acid with aluminium sulphate.	You can order the lillum bulbs online here in all the spectacular colours you would want.
Preparing flowers and foliage for a floral arrangement, is called conditioning. To condition lilies soak the stalks in a bucket overnight .If the flowers are not yet open, put the bucket in a warm spot. The yellow stamens stain clothes so if you are putting your lillies on something precious,cut the tips off the stamens first.It is a shame as they are beautiful so it is a last resort measure. Try this arrangement as a table setting for Fathers Day! Designed by Margaret W of New Zealand , it combines white lilies and carnations, with glossy green foliage, in a low container. and is ideal for the middle of a table. Keep it low so people can see over it. Pop some tiny surprises amongst the flowers such as wrapped after dinner mints. Order your flowers here in the USA and Canada or here in New Zealand. ,in your Dad's favourite colour, buy his favourite book or CD here and use it as a place setting with a lilly flower on top, and you have a table setting to remember! Take a photo of your dad with his special floral arrangements, email it to us, and we'll add it to this page!	Lilies are available as cut flowers online from Proflowers.com for you to try this arrangement or they look beautiul in a tall glass vase.Put a drop of Janola and 1 tsp of sugar in the water to feed the lillies and stop bacteria forming and clogging up the stems.. Old Lemonade works well too! Click herein the USA and Canada to order and here in New Zealand
This month's Recommended books
The Gardener's Guide to Growing Lilies In the whole lily spectrum, there is something for everyone, from easy-to-gro long-lived garden plants to the more difficult and rare species. The authors first explain the plant's ecology and life cycle and then give advice on planting and grouping for effect. There's information on cultivation and propagation, along with techniques for breeding. But the bulk of the book is a list of species and hybrid species; each listing gives detailed data on the plant's foliage, flowers, flowering times, size, and soil requirements. There are 70 color photographs and 40 black-and-white line drawings in this comprehensive guide to the genus Lilium. Click here to review and buy through Amazon.com. They ship worldwide.	The Flower Arranger's A-Z Daphne Vagg This is an alphabetically arranged guide to all aspects of flower arranging covering themes,historical periods, colours, national arrangements, materials and symbols. For competitive flower arrangers, the book includes rules and schedules, together with tips for organizing shows. Other sections refer to weddings, anniversaries, hospital flowers and Christmas decor. Daphne Vagg is well respected by Floral Art circles and her book is regularly recommended by Floral Artists everywhere.This book is available online only through Amazon.com in the UK, but is a worthy addition to your collection. Click here for ordering details.