Host: Murray Norton (MN)

Guests: Gemma Payne (GP)

MN: Hello and welcome to today's webchat, today we're talking to Gemma Payne, Gemma, nice to see you thanks very much for coming in from the Flower and Plant Association. Now Christmas is just around the corner, we should be talking seasonal things, obviously Gemma has all the very latest news on what's hot and what's not in the world of flowers and plants.

Christmas time is coming up and of course we're dressing ourselves up, we're dressing the house up and trying to make ourselves look as festive as possible. I suspect it's the traditional colours at Christmas then?

GP: It is the traditional colours, but you can ring the changes and mix the traditional colours with others this season, that's the fashionable thing to do. Because not only is deep red, which is a traditional Christmas colour, but mixing that colour with hot pinks is really fashionable. I think you can be really bold this time of year, be daring, and you want to stand out from the crowd. What I have here is a very unusual flower called anthurium.

MN: I've seen these out in the Caribbean, you do see these growing wild out there, and they are a tropical plant aren't they?

GP: They are a tropical plant, sometimes referred to as flamingo flower, that's the common term for them, but they just have this lovely glossiness to them this time of year, which I think is really glamorous. So you can mix your pinks and your deep reds, and your purples as well.

MN: So at Christmas you're going to have lots of people coming round to your house so you want it to look it's best, and that's what flowers help to do.

GP: Sure. I'm just going to mix these colours in a very tasteful way. Gold and green are also very popular colours at this time of year, so I've got this gold vase and this orangey plant called euphorbia, I'm going to mix a few stems of euphorbia with these lovely alocasia leaves here, which have a gorgeous texture to them and these beautiful markings. I'm going to take some red roses and put them in a circle.

MN: I see you've taken most of the thorns of there; most florists would do that would they?

GP: Yes, most florists would do that. They always strip the thorns off, and you must remember to strip the foliage off below the waterline.

MN: Is that what makes the water rotten?

GP: Yes, and that will kill off your flowers all the quicker. So I'm taking the foliage, and when you've got nice glossy foliage like this it looks quite good.

MN: You're making that look really easy, but you're twisting the stems.

GP: Yes, I'm twisting the stems and you want to make sure you're putting the stems in the same direction each time, so that you're getting this dome shape. Once you've got that, your basic shape, I'm just going to add in a few of the anthurium.

MN: A question from John, whilst we're looking at this, what flowers have the nicest aroma at this time of year?

GP: You can get hyacinths; you can have them as bulbs. Now just with this arrangement, you want to stand it next to the vase to see the height you want your flowers and then trim the stalks accordingly.

MN: James wants to know which flowers last the longest this time of year?

GP: This time of year things like roses, lilies, and waxy tropical things like this anthurium.

MN: And obviously you'll have the heating on full blast so positioning is important too.

GP: Yes, that's right you mustn't put them next to radiators or anywhere where you have electrical heat. It's just common sense really, but equally you mustn't put them where you have drafts either. Keep them fairly cool because then they will last longer.

MN: I love the way that arrangement is working now, I would never have mixed red, pink and orange but it works really well, and that offshoot to the side just gives it that different edge to the usual symmetrical arrangement. Now join us in part two where we are going to be talking about floral fashion. If you're going out to a party, you're going to want to dress yourself up as well as the house.

MN: We've been talking about flowers in the home, but what about flowers you may like to dress yourself up with? It is that party season after all. Flowers have been used traditionally to make people look good since before Carmen Miranda, so what tips have you got for us?

GP: Well, it's really fashionable to wear flowers this season. You see people wearing corsages made of fabric flowers, but why not use real flowers? It just adds that extra dimension, they look stunning, and the colours are amazing. I've got a few here Murray, so you can choose one for your party outfit later.

MN: Thank you...

GP: Firstly I have a corsage, which is traditionally used at weddings, but if you're going to a party dressed up in your dinner suit then why not wear a corsage? This is a very simple corsage with a lovely pink rose and some eucalyptus foliage, which has a lovely smell. We've just attached it to wire wound around a heart-shaped frame, which you can buy from most craft shops, and you can just pin that on yourself. If you don't like pinning things to your dresses, for example if you're wearing silk, so why not wear a flower in your hair?

MN: In yours rather than mine! I don't think this one's going to work for me.

GP: I've got a hair clip, which is easy to buy, and a beautiful oriental lily with some asparagus fern. It's very delicate and it have that lovely furry look to it, it's very Christmassy as it almost looks like a miniature Christmas tree. What you do is you put some wire up the stem, and you cover that with florists' or normal sticky tape and you can cover that with coloured wire, which you can get from hobby craft shops.

MN: While you're doing that, question from Louise, could you get away with wearing mistletoe?

GP: You could, although the only thing I would warn against is the sappiness in the buds and if you get that on your clothes you probably wouldn't be too pleased. I'd stick to things that don't' have any liquid in them, or pollen. This lily I'm using now we've taken away all the stamens that have the nasty orange pollen that will stain. Maybe if you attach it to your hair, it will be above you, in a kissable position and it won't get on your clothes!

MN: It comes from the druids, that. It's one of those things that goes way, way back and lives on apple trees.

GP: I think you're right there. Right, now you've covered any tape, you can then attach it to your hair. I don't know what this looks like, but you get the general idea.

MN: That looks great!

GP: Just quickly, if you don't want to wear it, attach it to a handbag. Here I've taken a lovely carnation, a deep purple pink colour, which looks great on a black bag.

MN: A question from Louise, are corsages really in this season, I thought they were really fifties? What's brought them back into fashion and what flowers are best for corsages?

GP: I think, what's brought them back into fashion is that fashions come back in all the time, and at the moment it's the fifties and also vintage, twenties style, so corsages are perfect whether they be on your hair or your lapel. The best flowers are things that will survive out of water, like the things I'm using today. Carnations, lilies, roses, but also calla lilies, which I showed you earlier, they last out of water for a week and they look really good. And another great thing about them is that the stems bend out of water.

MN: And you can actually use craft wire to bend them any way you want can't you?

GP: Yes. What I'm using here is some thick wire, which again you can buy from craft shops, and I'm not getting too technical with it, but you attach it so it stays on and you can attach it to a zip, or the handbag strap.

MN: And you can choose colours that you're going to be using for your outfit then can't you?

GP: Exactly, you can buy a black handbag which goes with anything and then adorn it with the colours of your outfit.

MN: Question now about tropical flowers, which obviously come from a tropical climate, is it going to harm them being in a cool climate here?

GP: They're used to being in a warm humid environment, but the development of cut flowers nowadays is really good, they really last. Things like anthurium and calla lilies could last three weeks in water, which is fantastic.

MN: You've got some purple ribbon here, what's this one for?

GP: This is for a wrist corsage; we've attached some wire at the stem.

MN: I'm putting my wrist here ready.

GP: You're so good.

MN: I wouldn't normally do this but for the sake of demonstration, go on then.

GP: What we've done is we've tied together the followers and then ties ribbon around the stems. It's a lovely piece of silky ribbon. Isn't that beautiful?

MN: It's stunning, but probably would look better on someone else rather than me. We'll be back in just a moment with more from Gemma, and dressing up our flowers a bit more.

MN: It's stunning, but probably would look better on someone else rather than me. We'll be back in just a moment with more from Gemma, and dressing up our flowers a bit more.

GP: Well we don't just stop at dressing ourselves up, we also dress our flowers up as well and it gives it a bit more of a festive look but also you can use more colours by dressing up the flowers in different ways. What I'm going to show you is a table decoration and we're going to dress up the flowers in different ways inside.

MN: It's such a stress isn't it, we're talking about the turkey and friends coming round, what are you going to do with the table decoration! It's always left at the last minute isn't it, but can it be done in advance?

GP: It can be done in advance, and you can do something quite simple. I've got a simple glass vase here, and you don't have to fill it with flowers, sometimes that's the mistake people make, they buy huge vases and think, "Oh my goodness! How am I going to fill it?" and it costs a fortune. I'm just going to staple the ribbon I've tied around it so it looks like a little parcel.

MN: Keeping in with the Christmas theme.

GP: And then what I'm going to do is dress up some flowers with glitter.

MN: This is very Blue Peter; we've got some glitter!

GP: And we're not afraid to use it! We've got some lovely pinks; you remember I was saying bright pinks are in this season, we've got these bright pink melano roses here. What I'm going to do is choose a really nice one.

MN: Quick question from Melanie here, it's a great way to occupy the kids isn't it?

GP: Yes and it teaches them about flowers too and how to recognise them.

MN: What are you spraying them with?

GP: This is glue, spray glue, which sounds a bit mean to the flowers but they can survive it OK.

MN: Well they're chopped off at the ends anyway aren't they?

GP: Yes. I'm putting the glitter in this bowl then dipping the rose in, and you don't want to go too mad but just wave it around...

MN: Will that damage the flowers at all? Wow, that is fantastic! I love that!

GP: It will cut down their life a little bit, because obviously being sprayed with glue and having glitter on isn't natural, but roses are so good that they'll last for ages anyway.

MN: And people will come round and go, "They're not real" and you can say they are and that's the impressive thing.

GP: And again put the vase at the edge of the surface and hold the roses up against it so you can measure where to cut it off and then we do the rest. I'm just going to put, because you don't want to go mad with glitter or it looks tacky, just one rose in each section.

MN: I'm going to have a go too. Hey that's not bad for a ham-fisted bloke!

GP: Right, now that's one arrangement. What you can do to create maximum impact is do three of those down the middle of the table. I've got another one I've done here with carnations. These are beautiful bi-coloured carnations with this beautiful lilac colour on the edges. Carnations and roses look really good when massed together, really elegant, but we've only got four in here and six in there so you're not using that many. Using all the same colour massed together looks really stylish.

MN: Lesley wants to know about colour. What colours are best around the Christmas tree, and why are black Christmas trees so popular this Christmas?

GP: Black's really coming back into fashion.

MN: I think that everything just offset with black looks stunning, I mean these would look great with black; purple with black would look stunning too.

GP: I think it's the time off year. We like bright colours but we also like contrasting colours and black's as far contrasting as you can go really. It's just really stylish and we always look for something different when we want to be in fashion. Last year it was whites and pale colours but this season we're really going over the top with these colours.

MN: And these are really quick to make and look tremendous.

GP: And something you can use to dress them up is something like a pearl on the end of a pin, you can buy them already like this and you just place them in the flowers.

MN: They look really stylish.

GP: Right in the centre, that's not going to harm it at all.

MN: We're coming back very shortly with decorating gift boxes. Join us then.

MN: We've dressed ourselves, we've dressed the house, we've zapped up our flowers in a festive way, what else can we do Gemma?

GP: You thought we'd done it all didn't you?

MN: We've stuck flowers on everything!

GP: Well, what about the presents?

MN: And here's a present for me! How are you going to decorate it for me?

GP: Well, we often use ribbon; sometimes we use different styles of paper and things like that, but how about using real flowers? They give something a really glamorous look, and something a bit different. People will really remember you and see that you've made a bit effort. Things to use are things like these calla lilies

MN: Calla lilies.

GP: Yes, because we're going to leave them out of water and these are really good at being left out of water. I'm going to cut them really short, and it's really easy, once you've got your ribbon, I'm just going to place it underneath like so, but I've got something even more extreme that you can do. These are aspidistra leaves and they're nice and glossy, sort of mini aspidistra leaves. What I'm going to do with this is use a bit of tape to bend it and fold it, fold it backwards like so, cut it off and now this is going to be our tag.

MN: Alice has got a question while you do that, is it OK to give someone flowers for Christmas and which ones should we buy? I suppose perhaps the answer is to do both, to buy a present and decorate it with flowers?

GP: Yes, you can buy a gift and combine the flowers too. So you now write here on this leaf...

MN: Yes, write 'Merry Christmas Murray'

GP: OK, here you go, merry Christmas Murray love Gemma.

MN: Just hold it up to the camera so we can see it. I guess everyone gets the idea but it saves you rushing out and buying them.

GP: Exactly, use a natural gift tag.

MN: DO you know what, I might just do that with every flower and plant and every gift this Christmas. Might be a bit expensive!

GP: Well I think it's a great idea to get people presents for Christmas. Because so often you get something you don't want and you always get a really positive reaction. Try and get it right by finding out people's favourite flowers from someone else. Can you pass me another present please? Again I'm combining the dressing up of the flowers with the dressing up of the presents.

MN: Marilyn's got a great question; I try to stop ethically and organically, what are the best flowers to buy without putting a strain on our land?

GP: Well, the difficulty is that this time of year there aren't a lot of flowers that are grown here. So the best thing to bear in mind is how far they've had to come, have they taken up lots of air miles and fuel, and polluted in that way, because there aren't many people that grow organic flowers. At this time of year roses come from all over the world because we don't have the climate for them to grow. There are things that are still growing in this country, things like chrysanthemums and astrometry, but that's something to bear in mind all year round, buy seasonally and buy locally if you can, if you're lucky enough to live in an area wear people grow flowers then get them there.

MN: Fair trade flowers, there's an idea for someone.

GP: On with this, just to quickly show you I'm getting a bit of a snowy look by using some spray paint on this asparagus fern, just a bit though.

MN: There's a cameraman there who's white now!

GP: You might want to do a few more of those, and add in your anthurium there to give it a bit of extra pizzazz. Just snip your stems and what I've actually done there is used a decorate pin and folded the ribbon securing it in place with the pin so you have a lovely arrangement there on your present.

MN: Terrific! It's not very often that I see my presents wrapped before my very eyes! What else do you have for us?

GP: Napkins. I've got nice brightly coloured pinks and purples, tie with a ribbon and put some sprigs of flowers or foliage. Here I've got some eucalyptus, which has the lovely smell, mix it with some calla lilies or roses and tie it.

MN: I really like the idea of unwrapping that actually.

GP: Yes, it's like getting more presents but actually you're not.

MN: You could put a little present inside if you wanted.

GP: Yes, instead of having a cracker.

MN: See, we're thinking on our feet here! Thank you very much Gemma for coming here, half an hour does fly by very, very quickly when you're with the lovely Gemma Payne from the Plants & Flowers Association, hope we've given you some ideas for Christmas, thank you very much indeed. Have a very happy Christmas from everyone here and from the Plants & flowers Association and we'll see you soon on Webchats for more ideas.