Presenter: Murray Norton (MN)
Guest: Kate Kenyon (KK)

PART ONE

MN: Hello and welcome to today's webchat. It's very good of you to join us. Today I am joined by Kate Kenyon. Kate welcome, nice to have you with us from the Flowers & Plants Association, and we're going to be looking at getting in doors with the flowers, with the plants and brightening up the inside because it's going to get a bit dark, it's going to get a bit dismal very shortly. We're hanging on grimly to the last bits of summer but it's going to go sooner or later so as soon as it does we need to brighten up the lounge, the hall way, the kitchen, and my house needs it more than any other. So what can you do for me to make everything a little bit jazzy and funky inside this autumn?

KK: Well it's sad but true that it won't last forever this Indian summer we're having at the moment. We are eventually going to have to go indoors as you say, so I've got some ideas of things that can actually give an instant re-vamp for your house. Forget all that decorating and all the rest of it. I'm talking cheap tricks to make your house look that little bit better this time of year

MN: You said two words I like, cheap and instant, cheap and instant works for me. So what are we going to do?

KK: Like mash?

MN: Yes, instant.

KK: Ok, now most people when they think of autumn think of red and gold, orange, and the thing about those colours is eventually they go to brown don't they, and it's a bit drab and a bit dull, and it's just inviting the winter blues really isn't it? So, I've got some flowers here that I'm hoping will give you a different view of something you can do for autumn.

MN: What have we got?

KK: Now the first one I've got is not actually something you'd recognise as a flower, its dill, now

MN: The aroma in the studio is fantastic, you should smell, pinch a bit of that. Oh yes, you know immediately I'm thinking of dill over a bit of salmon, a nice salmon fillet now. What a beautiful little flower.

KK: It's a gorgeous, gorgeous flower isn't it? It's a bright, zesty colour, but it will instantly add a sense of brightness to your home, but of course it's still got that quite hazy, summer look to it, so a perfect one for this time of year. Additionally, have a look at this, a bright green, lime green chrysanthemum

MN: I thought that this was one that just hadn't bloomed yet, that wasn't ripe

KK: No, no they open wider and wider, and they last for weeks. You'll get three to four weeks out of a chrysanthemum, very good value at this time of year.

MN: Ok this is perfect for Gloria, Gloria thank you very much indeed for your question. She wanted to know about getting colour into autumn, an autumn bouquet, so this reflects well for that

KK: Definitely. You don't necessarily have to go for the red, gold, brown option

MN: I recognise those straight away

KK: These purple agapanthus, they haven't opened yet but when they do, like big, starry, purple almost like an allium, like an onion as well, but a beautiful colour, and they go very, very well with colours together

MN: Again the agapanthus you can get in white can't you?

KK: Yes. You can get blue and you can get white. Now this is a bright, hot pink, really zingy, goes wonderfully with lime green. You can add lime green to anything to make anything brighter, but look at that hot pink, fantastic.

MN: What is that?

KK: It's bavardia.

MN: Bavardia

KK: Now you don't often see this as a garden plant in the UK, but it is very, very easily available this time of year. We import flowers from all over the world so there's never any excuse not to have to find something you like.

MN: I guess that's the one thing people think of, what's available locally, but you know it's all with you very quickly isn't it?

KK: The world is your oyster, and just finally I wanted to show you this one. This is a asclepias, a quite unusual looking plant, but it's really, really beautiful and that bright orange flame colour has got a bit of autumn in it. Now I'm going to make a hand tie with this which is one of those bouquets that everybody wants to know how to make, and it's actually surprisingly easy. I'm going to take a chrysanthemum out for that. I've got some foliage here. Now this is Cyprus. It's what you make paper from and it grows quite easily in the garden but you can also buy it cut here. Now what I'm doing is I've got my three stems and I've made kind of like a fork motion with them. Basically once you've made that you pick flowers up with one hand and put them into the other hand, and you keep turning them so as you put them in

MN: There's a turn going on every time you add one isn't there?

KK: Yeah, and I'm just doing one of every flower as you go round, and I'm keeping the hold in the same place

MN: That's fantastic. You're making that look very, very simple but I know for most of us we're going to start dropping the darn thing

KK: No. The trick is to keep your hand in the same place and to just keep going. When you first start doing them they look hideous because there's holes everywhere and it looks really uneven, but I promise you if you keep going it will start to look very, very much more impressive.

MN: Again the amount of cut stems that you've got there, it's not a massive amount is it?

KK: No, I mean actually when you do, a hand tie bouquet is one of the most flower intensive bouquets you can make, so this is something which you would often give as a gift or like a really big, wow arrangement for the house. Later on we're going to be looking at some much more sort of low maintenance arrangements if you like, something which anyone can do and that you don't have to have lots of money to do, and one of the best things about this time of year is that there's plenty available for really cheap prices. Certainly later on we're going to be looking at using bits from the garden, even from your own house plants in order to make something that looks beautiful but uses very few flowers.

MN: I'm assuming some people may have some of these things growing in the garden

KK: Yes certainly

MN: Dill may be flowering certainly, but the agapanthus certainly may be there

KK: And you'll often see bits and pieces outside, in hedgerows, things like that as well, so have a look in your back garden and just see what's available. It might look like a weed to you but if you put it with other flowers you'll be amazed what it turns into.

MN: Gloria was mentioning about gold coloured flowers actually, so what sort of gold coloured flowers

KK: Gold is a more unusual colour to get in flowers, but you certainly can find it. There's a beautiful plant called a salocia which comes in a pure gold - certainly you can have gold flowers, chrysanthemums. That green one I showed you earlier, they come in a beautiful shade of coppery gold as well, so they're well worth looking out for

MN: Tracey was asking about those. She was saying "Chrysanths, suitable for arrangements, yes or no?"

KK: Absolutely, yes. Go for the most interesting ones. Go for the big, single blooms. They are big, bold, beautiful, and as I said earlier you will get four weeks out of them easily. They are one of the most wonderful, low maintenance flowers you can buy.

MN: Now that's value for money.

KK: Absolutely.

MN: Again we're going back to what I like best, value for money.

KK: Value for money, cheap and cheerful. Now, what do you reckon to that?

MN: That looks absolutely fantastic. It looks like its taken hours to do. You've done that while we've been talking

KK: And you saw it took minutes. I'm just going to show this to camera two so you can get a nice close up and see everything I've put in there. Now you might not have thought all those colours would go, but look at them together. It looks fantastic.

MN: That looks terrific. Thank you very much indeed for joining us. We're going to be back very, very shortly with more top tips from Kate, so stay right there. We're just going to go for a short break, and we'll be back very shortly.

PART TWO

Hello, and welcome to today's webchat and you join myself and Kate Kenyon, and we're talking about flowers for indoor brightening up our autumn, making it go a little bit further

KK: Absolutely

MN: From the Flowers & Plants Association. So Kate, things like fern which we've got right in front of us here. I could pick this one when I'm going out on my country walks. Sunday afternoon, pick some of this, what can I do with it?

KK: Well its very, very easy at this time of year to make cheap stuff that you can get out of your garden, from the supermarket, anywhere you like, go that little bit further, and the last thing that we made was a big, snazzy arrangement. These are more fun arrangements that you can do at any time for absolutely no reason at all. You don't need a big occasion to have flowers any more. The idea is to treat yourself as and when you want them because if I told you that I'm afraid 80% of flowers are bought by women, you wouldn't be waiting around for a chap to buy them.

MN: Shame, shame on you gentlemen, shame indeed.

KK: Bad news, so what I'm going to do

MN: Natty little glasses

KK: Yes. As I say you don't necessarily have to have a big vase or anything to fill. These are tea glasses which I was given for Christmas, very nice they are too but as I don't drink much tea out of them

MN: You looked at them and thought "Umm, I know what I'm going to be using." Good idea.

KK: Yup. So what I've got here is some fern. It's just small, leafy fern, carnations, you'll see these everywhere. Every supermarket sells them. I've got some lovely, bright limey green ones here because I love the colour

MN: I just want to ask you about fern. Actually Lynne has just sent a question. Lynne wants to know about wild ferns, "Can you pick them?"

KK: You shouldn't really, no to be honest

MN: Ok so I won't do that when I'm out on my walk

KK: There's nothing to stop you picking stuff from your own garden though of course, and to be honest I'm not actually sure I'd want this growing on my own garden. It looks a bit like the tops of a carrot really

MN: Yes

KK: But there's nothing to stop you making good use of it indoors. It may not look right in the garden, but it would certainly look fabulous indoors. Now what I've got, I've got one green carnation, one bright pink salocia, now feel that

MN: Salocia, can I?

KK: Yeah, weird isn't it

MN: Oh, now that's got a weird texture to it

KK; Weird, wonderful and beautifully textural

MN: Sort of dry and soft and velvety, they're great aren't they?

KK: And this is quite an exotic flower, but it's very easy to get hold of

MN: Where do they come from?

KK: They actually grown them all over the place, but these came from Italy. But you don't necessarily have to use something from far flung regions. What's making this look quite so jazzy is because I've got two really bright contrasting colours together

MN: Right, so you just put those in together. I've got a question in from Yvonne. She wants to know, you've got a lot of exotic flowers, but she loves using native flowers, nature's foliage as well, so is quite simple to be able to do this with all the native plants that we've got?

KK: Yeah, absolutely. Again you can't pick native plants in the wild, but certainly things like the carnations and the chrysanthemums we've been using, you'd still get the British grown ones of those. Obviously you are limited by the time of year. Summer is sadly over, and we are starting to see less stuff available, but do keep looking. There are British roses still available. As I say you can do this arrangement with any flowers. You just need to get the right colour combinations.

MN: So that's been quite simple, just put a couple of things in together there

KK: Yes, it's just two flowers and a bit of fern. Now what I'm going to do is

MN: Tell me about that little bit of wire you've got there

KK: Now this is hobby craft wire. You get it in DIY shops. It's just basic, thin wire. I'm going to wrap it round

MN: We're getting all the secrets here aren't we? All the bits that we don't normally see

KK: Well it's really nice and neat and it's really flexible. Now what I'm going to do is I'm just going to cut that to length so that it sits like that in the vase, and what you're going to do is help me make another one

MN: Oh no. You didn't tell me that before so I wasn't watching

KK: I'm afraid so.

MN: I wasn't watching

KK: This will see whether you were watching or not. Now I'll give you a pair of scissors to be fair

MN: We can do this, we can do this Murray

KK: Little bunch

MN: I've done it already, look there

KK: There you go, that's how easy it is.

MN: We're there. I mean I just wedged those in together

KK: That is all there is to it; wedge them in together, cut the stems

MN: Ok, I'm hoping I do this right

KK: Here's one for you

MN: Oh thank you so much. You didn't tell me I was going to be doing this, so

KK: Well I feel it's good to get people hands on. If nothing else it shows how easy it is to do this. There's nothing to it and I promise you it's going to look fab when it's finished. There you go, just wind it quickly and neatly round. I'm going to put that one so roughly they're all the same height. You do have to sort of fiddle with them until they look about right, and then you've got three together. Massing them together like that in a three really amplifies the effect. Now you could put that as a table decoration, you could put it on a window sill, mantelpiece, whatever you like. It looks fab and it's really easy to do as well.

MN: Nancy wants to know "Is there a balance you should strike between the amount of flowers and the amount of foliage that you use?"

KK: Yes. On the whole it should be about half and half. I know that people often don't consider foliage to be very exciting, but I promise you it is, and I've got just the thing to show you in fact. Now take one, large green vase, we'll just move these out of the way for the time being

MN: I thought that, that one on the end was particularly good actually Kate

KK: Yeah, I'm very impressed. Now, to answer Nancy's question what I have got here is two forms of foliage. I have got these tall, very nice Cyprus, and I've not got many, I've got two here. We'll add a third in

MN: They are terrific aren't they?

KK: Aren't they fabulous

MN: They've got a great sort of dimension to them

KK: Yeah, and what else I'm going to add is this is tricina leaf. As I was saying, you don't necessarily have to use a lot of flowers to get an effect.

MN: This is very pretty

KK: Do you like it?

MN: Yeah.

KK: I like it because I like the hot pink edge it's got to it

MN: Yes

KK: It's just that bit more dramatic.

MN: Hot pink is your thing isn't it

KK: Hot pink is definitely my thing. Now to make this look a bit more snazzy I'm going to take a stapler. I know this sounds weird but trust me, right, and you curl the edge and just get the stapler in there, and you just add a more dramatic look to it by curling them over and going like that. There you go

MN: Do you want that one done?

KK: Go on then, see as you're getting into this

MN: Ok here we go. I suppose this is going to answer Harriet's question, Harriet thank you very much for your question about making arrangements look more modern. I guess there is a thought in there somewhere that arrangements are a little bit kind of fuddy duddy. Is that the wrong term to use? Being modern with arrangements, sometimes being a little bit more minimalistic, doing more with the plant?

KK: Yes, it's also about if you want to make modern arrangements one of the best things you can do is use one set of colours. Rather than doing mish mash, sort of like a pocket handkerchief, go for something which is all in one colour, be it pink, red, whatever colour you like. I mean this arrangement is all in green, and I think it looks really, really modern. It hasn't got very much in it in the way of actual flowers so it will be very cheap to make and it's a very, very bold, striking arrangement. If you put it somewhere on a reasonably high surface so that when people come in they look at it and they look it straight in the eye, and they'll think wow. I mean I'd certainly like that one in my living room.

MN: That looks fantastic. I hope you'll join us very, very shortly. We'll be back and we'll be talking about some of the trade secrets, some of the bits that go on behind the scenes to make these arrangements as beautiful as they do, so please join us then. In the meantime we're going to take a very short break.

PART THREE

MN: Hello and welcome to today's webchats, it's good of you to join us again and I'm with Kate Kenyon from the Flowers & Plants Association. We're getting the most out of our flowers, we're getting into that autumnal feel now where the enjoyment of being out in the garden, we want to bring it inside, and we want to make them last as well

KK: Yes, if you're going to spend money on flowers you may as well get the most out of them, right?

MN: Yeah, well the trouble is you spend some money on them, they're gone in two or three days, they didn't look that impressive in the first place when you've, in my case, shoved them into a jam jar, so what can we do? I see you've got the goldfish bowl here. I don't know what happened to the goldfish.

KK: Well I kept the container if not the goldfish. There is a lot you can do with flowers to make them last longer. Certainly one of the main things you should do when you get them home is to actually re-cut the stems

MN: A lot of the myths about that isn't there? You've got to bash the stems, you've got to stick them in lemonade

KK: Oh no, please don't bash the stems

MN: Really

KK: That is an old wives tales. I will stand for it no longer

MN: Steady Kate, don't get angry now. No more stem bashing, alright.

KK: Basically when you get them home strip off any of the foliage on the flowers which is going to be below the water line, because if it's below the water all it does is it basically rots and it kills the flowers quickest. Make sure your vases are really, really clean, I mean scrub them washing up liquid, the lot. Make sure they're really clean because if there's any bacteria in the water that kills your flowers off.

MN: Is that why you end up with the sort of misty, scummy looking water?

KK: Scummy nastiness. If it's murky and it's scummy, change it for goodness sake. Don't just look at it thinking "Ooh, that's not nice," change it because that will make your flowers last longer. Of course keep them away from sources of heat and light as well. So don't put them on top of the telly. I know most people do actually put them on top of the telly

MN: I can't believe people do that

KK: Yeah, they look nice there

MN: But if they fall over the telly's going to go bang for starters

KK: Yeah, that's also a good reason why not, but actually the heat and the electricity, the electrical heat given off by the TV kills your flowers off.

MN: Had a question in about bananas, bananas and plants don't mix, do they, in the same way?

KK: They don't

MN: Is it something that comes off the bananas, is that right?

KK: Yes it's a gas called ethylene which is given off by ripening fruit but particularly bananas. They actually use it to ripen bananas quite quickly in places like supermarkets and stuff. That's how you make them to go yellow. Flowers don't like it though. In particular flowers that don't like it are carnations like these lovely carnations we used earlier, but also orchids don't like them, chrysanthemums don't like them either. General rule of thumb, keep them away from fruit.

MN: Right fruit, flowers, opposite rooms. You think they go together but they don't. what are you going to do for us?

KK: I am going to do something a bit creative and a bit snazzy looking. A modern arrangement that is actually really cheap to do. Now, these fantastic, gorgeous looking flowers are calla lilies. They are also known as arum lilies. They come in a lot of colours. I've got a bright yellow one here, but you can also get white ones, mango coloured ones

MN: Expensive? Cheap?

KK: More expensive than other flowers but you will get three, four weeks out of them, so balance it out

MN: Sure

KK: I'm only actually going to use three or four of them so if you went to a florist you could just buy as many stems as you needed. You could just buy three or four. The thing about these flowers is they don't actually mind being out of water. There's not many flowers that you could say that about

MN: I was a bit worried earlier on when we were putting the table together these weren't in water at all

KK: No, and I said "Don't put them in water" for a very specific reason. If you take them out of water for about twelve hours they become slightly more loose and they start to bend like this. If you don't then you'll find that they stay solid and rigid like this one is, and it depends on what you want to do with them but that's a good solid one and this is one that's been out of water for a little bit of time, but I need it like that because what I'm going to do is actually I'm going to curl it round the inside of this vase

MN: Oh, terrific

KK: For a sort of modern, funky look. Now

MN: Excellent, that's good.

KK: What we do is just put one in

MN: We've got a question from Mrs Freeman about extending the life of orchids. How do we extend the life of those because I've had problems with orchids

KK: This is cut orchids we're talking about?

MN: Yeah

KK: Right the thing about cut orchids, and this applies to these flowers as well, is that if you've got a flower which doesn't have any leaves like this, which has got a completely leafless, waxy stem, don't put them in a lot of water. I mean that much. Little and often

MN: Tiny, tiny amount

KK: Yeah I mean 2" tops. The reason being is that otherwise they drink too much and they can't transpire. Like humans, we drink water and we sweat it off

MN: Sure

KK: And they do the same thing. If they haven't got any leaves they can't sweat it off quick enough and they actually drown

MN: They drown?

KK: Yeah

MN: I've never heard of flowers drowning before

KK: It's true. It's certainly true. So any flowers like gerbera, these calla lilies, that's why they don't mind being out of water.

MN: But also cut orchids

KK: Cut orchids

MN: Mrs Freeman thank you for your question. This is looking very simple already

KK: Do you like it? It is, I mean you've seen what I've been doing

MN: But truly modern

KK: All I have done is I've just put a little bit of water in the bottom here just to keep them going but you can leave it completely out of water. Let me just have a look at that. Yep, there you go, three. I have used three in that

MN: That looks fantastic

KK: Let me just show that to camera two so they can have a really good look at that.

MN: Whilst they're having a look at that Kate, Abi wants to know, she says she is getting married at the end of September. What flowers would fit in with an autumnal theme?

MN: Oh, there's so much to choose from Abi. You've got really lucky you've got loads to choose from. If you want something very autumnal then you can get hydrangea at this time of year in shades of blue and pink, but also more delicate shades like a sort of russety greeny brown as well. Berries are very, very good for getting that autumnal theme, things like hype Rican berries. You might know it as St Johns Wart but it has this beautiful, rich, red berry on it which is very, very elegant

MN: That's lovely

KK: And really does add that sort of autumnal theme, sense of gathering everything in for the autumn

MN: I have to say we've had loads of questions on a very similar theme, getting married, what would you suggest for autumn time? So there you go some berries and lots of autumnal themes like that.

KK: Yes, when you're planning wedding flowers the easiest thing to do is to go with the season, go with the grain for two reasons. One, your flowers will be less expensive so you can afford more of them, but also because they will look best. Autumn light is quite delicate and quite pale so you need quite strong, quite vibrant colours in order to bring it out, and those flowers which are naturally in season at that time of year always look best.

MN: Excellent, Kate thank you very much for the moment. We'll be back very, very shortly. We're going to take a short break and we'll be back with more top tips from Kate on how to get the best out of your flowers indoors. Back shortly.

PART FOUR

Hello and welcome back to today's webchat. I'm joined by Kate Kenyon from the Flowers & Plants Association

KK: Hello

MN: Hello, and we're looking at clever containers

KK: Absolutely

MN: That we can absolutely pot some really autumnal, bright flowers in, and some not quite so autumnal to brighten up our autumns and the lounges.

KK: Yes

MN: So what have we got?

KK: Well I have got a collection of containers that were gleaned from the kitchen cupboard

MN: I only recognise this one. This one had balsamic and oil.

KK: Oil and water container. Actually the point of this is that often people go "Oh I've only got a massive vase and I can't afford to fill it." This uses odds and sods that you might find here in the kitchen cupboard and only uses a very few flowers. The idea is that you use lots of different containers of different heights and group them together to get the effect. One thing you can also do, this is another cunning trick, this container you add water to it as you would normally do

MN: Ok, there we go

KK: Yeah

MN: Water going in

KK: But I'm also going to add a certain twist to it by using food colouring, and this will add a sense of brightness to your arrangements. Even if you don't have very much in the way of flowers to put into things, you can use the water. That bright green seems like a chemistry lab doesn't it?

MN: Yes it does. I was going to say that's some strange brew you've got there.

KK: We've got all our different arranged containers and what I'm going to do is literally just put one or two stems tops.

MN: Is that it?

KK: Yeah that's everything that goes into to making this arrangement.

MN: Will the food dye change that blue?

KK: If you put white flowers in it, it certainly will, less so if you use coloured flowers.

MN: Actually that's quite a creative way to, if you get some white carnations and put a blue food dye in you'll get a wonderful carnation.

KK: Yeah. You will find that they change arrangements. Again what I'm doing here is just two stems

MN: It strikes me you've got to be brave

KK: Yeah

MN: Yeah, it's about being brave

KK: It's about using what you've got in a creative way, yeah?

MN: That just looks so clever. Got a great question

KK: And you saw me, how quick it went to put together

MN: How quickly was that and yet that, as an arrangement, people would walk in "Oh, that's really clever, looks really good." It's really that quick. Lee wants to know "Are cut roses available in autumn? If not, is there a good alternative with striking colour and scent?"

KK: Yes you will be pleased to know Lee you can get roses nearly all year round now. Certainly there are some which have a particularly striking colour and scent. One of the best ones I know is one called Jacaranda which is a really deep pink colour and it's got the most wonderful tea rose scent, really something special. Alternatively there's another one called ecstasy which is a deep red colour, which has the most wonderful perfume.

MN: Thank you for that question and thank you also Sean for your question about berries and are they poisonous, and which berries are not poisonous? What's the rule of thumb on this?

KK: The rule of thumb is if you didn't grow it yourself and it's not a recognisable fruit, don't eat it

MN: Fair enough

KK: Basically unless it's a blackberry, a blueberry or a strawberry don't. Unless you really know what you're doing I would not advise you to do it particularly keep them away from small children and pets because they can cause a lot of damage.

MN: The plants that we've seen down here have got two things going for them as far as I can see here in the studio. One is obviously the evident colour, the brightness but also we've got a scent coming off these. Scent is really important in the house and to have a natural scent. I mean the dill, the smell we're getting off that is fantastic in here, so

KK: I'm glad you like it. I've got one more thing I want to show you

MN: You'll have to be very quick

KK: Alright, this is really quick. Ok

MN: The proverbial greased weasel going on here. Let's see if we can get this done in

KK: Alright

MN: Oh this is very clever

KK: Now what I've done here

MN: These look like test tubes

KK: They are test tubes, and what I've done is I have wired them. Could you wire that one up for me?

MN: Yes I'll wire that one up for you

KK: Now this is something you could do at work. If you can't have very many flowers at home, or even if you just can't find the time and the space to do it there's no reason to go without. These are little test tubes that I've got some red wire round. I've pinned them to a board here but obviously you could pin them to anything you like at home. Let me just wrap that round there

MN: Ok

KK: Now, so there's your vase and what we're going to do, that ,that

MN: That is quite spectacular

KK: Now nothing to it and doesn't it look fab?

MN: And you just put some water in it?

KK: Single stems, that's all you need

MN: Well that looks fantastic. What are the sort of autumnal colours that we should be looking for?

KK: These are a perfect example of the autumnal colours which I think make a different change to autumn but something really vibrant, something really interesting. If you are looking for more information on flowers by the way, do have a look at our website regardless of whether its weddings, seasonal flowers, whatever you need

MN: And that address is?

KK: Is www.flowers.org.uk

MN: Excellent, Kate as always thank you. You're an inspiration

KK: I'm glad you enjoyed it

MN: We just need you to go round every home in the country and brighten it up. We hope we're doing that. Kate thank you very much, thank you very much for your questions, and we look forward to seeing you again soon.