Flower Show Practice
This month’s meeting, Monday, July 20th, started early with a tour of Stewart M.’s charming garden. Please see the gallery below for some digital glimpses. Our regular club meeting concentrated on practice–practice making new designs. Members Myra K., Sydney S. and Jane W. lent their expertise to inspire us all to create floral arrangements with flair. Myra reviewed traditional mass designs and introduced us to the modern mass.
Characteristics of Traditional Mass Design
- Generally a geometric shape
- Stems radiating from a central point
- Flowers equally distributed throughout the design
- Smaller flowers (transitional) placed between larger ones with spaces between.
- Design size approximately one to one and one half that of the largest dimension of the container.
Myra emphasized that this design type is already well known to CGC members.
Characteristics of Modern Mass Design
- Bold containers in larger proportion than in Traditional design.
- Few components in large forms.
- No elements of transition as in traditional design.
- Design has a sculptural feel and relies on sharp contrast.
- Plant material is grouped to form a mass of volume.
- Materials do not intermingle.
- The sculptural form is three-dimensional and incorporates space, positive and negative.
- It is recommended to use only three to five different elements.
Sydney demonstrated the assembly of a Parallel design. (A design in which three or more groupings are placed in a parallel manner with open spaces between the groupings. Parallel direction may vertical, horizontal or diagonal. Design is in one container of containers combined so as to appear as one unit.
Jane W. concluded by encouraging members to try their hand at cup and saucer designs which this year takes on a new tack—a design using a tea cup, not necessarily a design inside a tea cup. Be sure to check out the Show Schedule to decide which designs you intend to enter.
New this year as well — We have been asked to make our “reservations” for our entries to ensure space will be available.
The evening was capped off by another beautiful design—our snack table, ably fashioned by Joanne J. and Tom F.
Myra provided the following pictures of traditional and mass designs to aid you in your plant selections. And, in case your missed it, enjoy the photo gallery of Stewart M.’s fabulous garden that we toured earlier in the evening.