Imitating an artist

My materials

I am not naturally artistic, but I'm very good at imitating the talents of others so when our Master Gardener meeting featured a floral arranger willing to teach us how she does it, I jumped at the opportunity to participate.

We were supposed to bring a container, something called "oasis" soaked in water, clippers/scissors and plant material cut 2 1/2 times longer than my container is tall.  I had a container I thought would hold a nice arrangement and I found some "oasis" at the thrift store for fifty cents!  But when it was time to cut my flowers, I realized that all of my favorite cutting flowers were in a blooming lull--no flowers!   Not wanting to miss the chance to learn how to arrange flowers I started cutting greens:  cedar, loropetulum,  eucalyptus, ferns, ivy, and Mexican petunia. 

Mary Carr, the floral artist

When I arrived at the class, we discovered that none of us had many flowers blooming, including our instructor, Mary Carr.  She had to go to a market to purchase most of the flowers she used in our demonstration.

My finished arrangement

Mary is an excellent teacher and I tried to be a good student.  I learned that "oasis" is a dense sort of foam that holds water.   If you put it in a container, you can stick plant stems into at any angle and the foam keeps them moist.  Mary taught us some simple principles that even I can remember and she encouraged us to experiment until we figure out what works.

Even though I didn't have any flowers, I think my arrangement turned out pretty well.