Simply cut luscious Strawberries, Lemons and Mandarins into wedges.
Take some Gerberas and wire them to hold them straight. Or you can just use cocktail sticks to keep them straight and use a tape to secure the cocktail sticks to the Gerbera.
Cut Gerberas to different lengths and hold them 3 a piece to any co-ordinating Mugs.
Fill the mugs with broken marble pieces or glass beads etc.
Once Gerberas are placed then add the luscious fruit wedges right on top.
Its a visually beautiful Table piece as well as the fruity fragrance it spreads will enhance your dinning experience.
A simple Wild Flower can be so dramatically enhanced simply by changing the background!!
Take a piece of thermacol about 2feet by 2feet.
Place sticky tape on the thermacol board in a cross shape as shown in the picture to create the dividing “white line”
Cut out cardboard squares of four varying sizes as shown in the picture and place on the thermacol board.
Remove one cardboard at a time and paint the thermacol to get perfect shapes as shown.
When you have finished painting all the squares, place the wild flower ( you may choose any flower and any long foliage or grass) in dramatically opposite line of the “white line”
Anthuriums are exotic tropical flowers which look like coloured leaves. The anthuriums have a very long shelf life and make excellent gifts as they last for almost 20 to 30 days!!
Besides the well known red colour anthuriums can also be had in white, pink and green and many are double hued. Bunched together they give off a shiny look to the bouquet.
My favourite is the Lady Jane anthurium which is petite and light pink with a delicate palette. The colour and shape of a nice bright red anthurium represents the heart, and prompted the famous cleric Martuin Luther to use it on his family’s coat of arms. A perfect gift I would say for this Valentine.
Amaryllis is not easily available in India as these do not make very good ‘cut flowers’ but they are an excellent garden flower. However the bulbs of Amaryllis are very popular in colder climates of the hill-stations around Mumbai and even the garden city of Bangalore. One reason these do not make good flowers for bouquets is because they have a large porous stem and they cannot be easily fixed into floral sponge and transported. However they make excellent ‘vase flowers’ especially if they are growing in your garden or balcony.
Calla lilies are very delicate flowers with porous stems that wilt easily under transportation hazards. These flowers do look chic and contemporary but best advice would be hand pick a bunch yourself from a local florist who stocks these exotic lilies. They make excellent ‘vase flowers’ and should not be thrust into floral sponges for display.
Oriental Lilies, the most famous of which is the “Star Gazer”. The petals unfurl to look like a star and it is my belief that the little dots inside it are the ‘sparkle of the star’. The fragrance this flower carries is like that of an ethereal fragrance from heaven and it lingers, long after the flower has wilted. This makes an excellent gift for Valentine though it is very expensive. One drawback is that it is delicate and does not transport well when fully bloomed. I would advise you to personally buy these flowers at least 3-5 days before and carry them fully bloomed to your beloved!!
Birds of Paradise are precisely that!! Flowers, those look like the plume of an imagined bird in paradise.
These gorgeous tropical blooms are really exotic and are now available in abundance at most better florists. Though they have thick stocks they are not porous, so they transport well and are great ‘cut flowers’ I would term these flowers as ‘metrosexual male’ flowers, not afraid to display the ying and the yang of beauty and the not afraid to display all traits masculine and feminine. I personally love these gorgeous stems and even a single one changes the dynamics of the design of a room. Definitely on the Valentine list.
Heliconia is a family of ornamental tropical plants that is a relative of the Banana plant. Many such tropical flowers are termed as ‘ginger flowers’, ‘hanging heliconias’, ‘crab claws’, ‘musa’ etc. You will find them growing easily in our moist tropical climate. They make good vase flowers if they are cut from your garden or balcony. Sometimes these might be found with florists but I would not be sure how long they would last as they do not transport very well and being heavy the air freight is an enormous part of its price!!
but you get the idea…
