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Turn the heat up in your home with this season’s hottest flowers
This summer, why not create an oasis to indulge your home with the intoxicating scents, textures and colours of summer flowers? Flowers are the perfect mood enhancer as their colours and aromas can blur the boundaries between inside and out, giving you the relaxing feeling of outside space, even in a city.
For this summer, the look is fresh, predominantly green with splashes of orange and purple. Flowers such as sunflowers, gladioli, alliums, chrysanthemums and alstroemeria can be used to create displays that are vibrant and larger than life. Celebrate the good times this summer by creating a flower arrangement that’s colourful, vibrant and energetic.
Andrea Caldecourt from the Flowers & Plants Association is an expert in flower displays.
Join her in our studio on Friday 30th June at 3pm as she shows us simple tips to create extraordinary creations to turn our homes into floral paradises.
Host: Murray Norton
Guest: Andrea Caldecourt
MN: Hello and welcome to the show, it’s very nice to have your company and you join us today talking with. We’ve got Andrea Caldecourt from the Flowers and Plant Association with us, thank you very much indeed for joining us. And we’re going to be talking about bringing the outside in when it comes to flowers, and there is no finer person to know the inside out of flowers than Andrea. So Andrea, let’s first of all look at this beautiful display that we have before us here. I think I see sunflowers and some alliums?
AC: Well done. You’ve been mugging up haven’t you in advance?
MN: No, you told me earlier. So, first of all just take us through alliums because they’re a gorgeous plant and they’ve got, Mediterranean look about them, very exotic.
AC: Yeah, they’re very fashionable. This season, they were all over Chelsea, at the show. They come in a range of different sizes, which is great. I mean we’ve got the allium sphaerocephalum, which means ‘round head’.
MN: Oh good, a Cromwellian thing.
AC: Yeah, if you’re on Cromwell’s side rather than Charles they’re the ones for you, these little tiny ones here, and just below them are very very dark ones which is called firmament, variety’s called firmament, and it’s got a really intense, almost like black purple colour.
MN: Mmmhmm, nice, very pretty.
AC: This is probably the biggest one you can see in the corner here on this display here – that’s allium gigantium and it really is gigantic. But inside it’s got these lovely little starry individual flowers that make up…it’s so soft feel it! It’s really soft and fluffy!
MN: It’s a real pom isn’t it, a pompom.
AC: Yeah, it’s kind of tactile as well.
MN: I’m going to sit here and stroke this one.
AC: Hahaha. Somebody said as well it looked a bit like candyfloss, it looked like you wanted to eat it. Like blackcurrant candyfloss…I wouldn’t…it will actually taste of onion if you eat it because related to the onion and garlic.
MN: Oh, oh wiffy!
AC: Yeah, if you crush them, they smell. They don’t smell if they’re just standing there in the vase, they’re not too bad, but if you do crush them there is a little bit of onion smell.
MN: Yes, because it’s an onion bulb.
AC: But they’re so beautiful you can cover that one.
MN: Look at that match.
AC: Yes you’re coordinated beautifully there. And then this one here, which is slightly smaller and has, instead of the starry petal, it has little round petals, and that’s allium aflatunense.
MN: How on earth do you remember all of these?
AC: Because I have a brain that just soaks up trivia - they just go in there and they don’t come out. Aflatune is actually what we call Uzbekistan now, so this is allium usbekistane, this one here.
MN: Do you know I’m sure that’s no easier to say that the other one.
AC: No, probably not! Or spell! Now, what we’ve done here, we’ve put it in a very low arrangement with ming fern, and then there’s…
MN: Ming fern?
AC: Ming, as in, well not spelt like Menzies Campbell but as in ming..
MN: As in the vase.
AC: Yes, as in pottery. Variagated China grass around the outside, so it’s all a bit Chinese this one really, rather than Mediterranean. And this way you can really appreciate the detail in the flowers whereas in the vase you’ve obviously got more of the shape of the silhouette.
MN: That is very pretty, can you just explain how you do that, just tucked in there?
AC: Inside this spandau bowl, is just a florist’s foam pad, and if you don’t have one of those you can also scrumple up chicken wire and pop that inside and you just put the flowers inside. If you can put birthday candles into a cake, you can make that arrangement…
MN: It’s that easy?
AC: It’s literally that simple, yeah.
MN: It looks stunning, it really does, I really, of all the ones that we brought into the studio, I know this one caused the most reaction with the team here.
AC: And yet it’s really quite straightforward because it just involves cutting all the stems level and low and then making a little framework of grass around the outside.
MN: Just talk us through bringing the outside in, what does that actually mean? Does that mean sort of looking at what’s in the garden and then trying to bring that into the house?
AC: Almost yes, and particularly in the south of the country where we’ve had the hosepipe bans and gardens are looking a bit drought-stricken – it’s almost one way of feeling like you’ve got a luxuriant, verdant garden, but inside the home because you’re looking out on this sort of desiccated patch! So what we’ve got is a lot of golden sunny summery, almost English garden flowers, and we’ve mixed them so they don’t look too fluffy, with big tropical leaves, so we’ve got things like mother-in-law’s tongue which a lot of people would know as a houseplant.
MN: Yeah.
AC: But you can also use it for cut foliage and the leaves just last.
MN: Presumably you can buy these as leaves?
AC: Yeah.
MN: I mean rather than buying the plant and cutting the plant up.
AC: Well you could do either! I mean, it doesn’t feel any pain, you’ll be fine, you just saw through the bottom of it and use the leaves! And they last for weeks and weeks in water, I’ve had one in a vase for literally over a month and it doesn’t seem to be fading at all, so they’re really great value if you do buy them.
MN: Good for filling out.
AC: Yes certainly, and makes a nice strong statement with the golden yellow, and then obviously we’ve got things like this beautiful cordyline leaf here which I’ll show you, which has got a lovely streaky patterning on it.
MN: That’s real jungle that is, oooh, I like that.
AC: Yeah.
MN: We’ll just have a look; it’s got this red tinge around the edges.
AC: Yeah, and on the back it’s even darker and purplier, but yeah, lovely.
MN: So for that there, you would just…you just folded that over?
AC: Yeah, it’s just folded over. I mean if you’ve got a tall vase like this you can just literally tuck it in. But what you can also do, and it doesn’t hurt the leaves either, is just get a stapler, and just staple through, and that holds it tight in a round shape and just gives an extra look to the bouquet.
MN: It does look great doesn’t it?
AC: Yeah.
MN: Really good. OK, so let’s take us through…
AC: It’ll probably pop out now.
MN: Yes, that’s it – all fall down now! Very precariously balanced here today, so if it all disappears off the sides…
AC: It’s a bit wobbly.
MN: You’ll know what’s happened. In terms of working with these flowers here, and we’ve got lovely colours – we’ve got the yellows, we’ve got the sort of…
AC: Yeah it’s really summery and relaxing.
MN: Let’s first of all go through some of the alliums, you mentioned them through there. We can buy these from the florist; we can these to make these up. Is this an English flower as such or is it brought in from outside?
AC: In terms of its origins, most of them, like most bulb flowers, are coming from the Mediterranean, Greece, the Balkans, through to sort of Central Asia, so there’s really harsh environments. It’s where tulips come from originally. But now they’re grown all around the world, most of these will be grown either in Holland or there’s also UK grown super alliums.
MN: OK, we’ve got a question from Andy just come in by the way, whilst we’re going through all of this. Andy wants to know, why do flowers have such long complicated names? And it’s a good question, because I’d like to know as well please!
AC: Two reasons. They used to have even more long complicated names until a man called Linnaeus worked out a system whereby they have, like we do, a forename and a surname.
MN: Oh right.
AC: So allium is the surname of the family – like Norton….
MN: Thank you.
AC: …and then this one – aflatunense, which just describes where it comes from.
AC: Or Gigantium, that’s your first name, that’s Murray. So it helps you identify what family it belongs to. And sometimes it describes, like gigantium – it’s big. Or, sphaeorocephalum – it’s roundheaded. It’s all botanic latin but it helps botanists understand exactly what flowers they’re talking about. Because a lot of people say…
MN: Or which family line they come from.
AC: Exactly, because a lot of people say “it’s a something rose” – a primrose, a dog rose, you know, a rock rose, and they’re all completely different.
MN: Sure.
AC: And none of them are roses, so…
MN: And sometimes they can actually be a brand name that they’ve been named after, because they’ve become a commercial property.
AC: Yes, so this way, everybody in the world knows exactly what plant you’re talking about. But they are a bit complicated.
MN: Or in my case, I have no idea what plant you’re talking about unless you point at it – so that makes that a lot easier. In terms of making the arrangements, these we’ve seen a couple of, I mean that couldn’t be any more simple.
AC: Tada. It’s one stem, and then big stems out here. Look at the size of those.
MN: It looks like a stick of rhubarb doesn’t it?
AC: It does, and they’re really massively chunky.
MN: Fantastic, and that is one wonderful plant.
AC: And like you say, you only need one stem of them, that’s cheered you up straightaway.
MN: I could do that flower arrangement.
AC: Yeah – you could probably do that one with a bit of practice as well.
MN: Don’t start me off….what have you put round the outside by the way because that’s pretty natty that.
AC: This is just China, it’s called China grass. So there’s a short name. It does actually have a very long name..
MN: But let’s not go into it – China grass.
AC: But you’ll find it’s China grass, and this is a variegated sort, you can have a plain sort which is all just dark green.
MN: Variegated for those that are wondering, this is all different colours.
AC: Exactly. Yes, it usually means a creamy, or pale edge, or streak to it, yeah…and then we’ve just, we’ve tucked the ends in, of the stalk and then wind it round in a web around the outside.
MN: Alright. Lucy wants to create a small flower arrangement for a dinner party, and I’m guessing at this time of year these are the sorts of things we’d be looking at.
AC: Yeah, in fact one great way which can be really speedy, particularly with something like sunflowers, is to get a dish and cut them off flat and float them, because that way you can talk to your dinner guests over the table, but you can look down and…
MN: Flower arrangements can be a pain can’t they because you’re definitely hiding around them.
AC: Yes, and I think some people are quite afraid of cutting stems very short, or they think ‘I’ve paid for all that stem, and now I’m cutting it up’.
MN: Yeah I mean what a waste of money, what are you going to do with those stems?
AC: Exactly but if it makes a better arrangement, chop it back, and we’ve got two lovely sorts of sunflower here. Got this lovely kind of traditional dark one, with a browny centre and the golden, eggy colour petals, and then this lovely Italian lemon one, which is just…
MN: I just thought that one had faded.
AC: No, this lovely kind of creamy lemon colour with an even darker, almost black eye. So you can get lots of different sorts. You can get ones where there’s no centre in the middle, the petals just go right the way round into the middle – teddy bear sunflowers.
MN: Teddy bear, oh bless.
AC: I know.
MN: It is one of those flowers that I love growing in the garden, and you can get so many different sizes – the dwarf ones, the very tall ones, and I love it when they go to seed as well afterwards. They do stay a lot longer don’t they?
AC: Yes, and I’ve got one here that’s started losing its petal already so if you do that, you can yank all these petal off, and what you get is a second flower almost, and you can use that within another arrangement, and get sort of two sorts of life out of it.
MN: Oh I see, so once you’ve lost this lot….actually when they do go to seed as well you can see the seeds start to fall.
AC: Oh yes, yeah. And when you see the fields of them down in the south of France, that’s what they’ve been grown for, they’ve been grown for the seeds and the oil, not being grown as cut flowers.
MN: In terms of cut flowers, if I bought some flowers, that had all the petals on it, where would you then cut it again? Would you cut it again before it goes into a pod?
AC: Yeah once you’ve bought it always cut about an inch off at an angle, with something really sharp – sharp scissors or a sharp knife, whichever you’d prefer. We’ve stripped all the leaves off here so yeah, strip all the leaves off.
MN: So you don’t have leaves in the water?
AC: No, exactly. Because it makes the water full of bacteria, yeah, and it shortens the vase life of the flowers.
MN: OK
AC: And sometimes if you prefer the look, just take all the leaves off higher up as well. I mean I quite like naked stems; I like them nice and clean. But some people like to keep the leaves on; it depends on your preference really.
MN: OK, Andrea like flower arranging naked, we know that now.
AC: Yes, hahaha.
MN: Cut the stems off by an inch, and in water – cold water, warm water, freezing cold water, with lemonade in? Perennial questions…
AC: Not with lemonade in…yes. Tepid water’s best because the flowers find it slightly easier to take up when it’s not freezing cold. Always use cut flower food. For various reasons.
MN: What is cut flower food? Do you mind me asking?
AC: Yeah it’s a powder, or you can get it in a gel form now, and it’s a mix of antibacterial, antifungal, it has a balance, a pH balancer in it, because flowers like water that’s slightly…thank you, that’s slightly more acid and a lot of our water can be very hard an alkaline, so that helps with that, and it has sugars that are suitable to feed a flower, which caster sugar isn’t.
MN: See, this is the thing that people always put in: lemonade or caster sugar, or…
AC: You’re more likely to have a fermenting bacterial mess in the vase. And also, the new formulations of flower food have almost like cleansers in so you can use them in cut glass crystals and they won’t stain the vase.
MN: Mandy I hope that answers your question, thank you very much Mandy who was just asking questions about cutting flowers and what to put them in.
AC: Basically, I mean, always cut an inch off because this bit will have dried up when you’ve taken it home but you can cut it as short as you like. Be brave and cut it really short, if that’s what you prefer. Like we’ve done there.
MN: We’ve got some great arrangements here. We’re going to go into detail about putting a couple of arrangements together, and we’re going to do that for you very very shortly. Now, when it comes to buying flowers, we tend to think of buying flowers for other people, but well we’ve got some other thoughts on that because we took to the streets.
Vox pop audio plays
MN: So there we go, people buying flowers for themselves. I suppose people do buy flowers for themselves. Some say they did there, some say they didn’t.
AC: Yep, over half the flowers that are bought are bought for our own homes, and that’s a real change in the last 10 years, a real shift.
MN: I guess that what we’re saying there is that the home is becoming where we’re doing more, if you look at the lifestyle shows that are around, you know, it’s always doing up your house, it’s always doing the decorating, doing the gardening – that ties in very much with that, doesn’t it, that fashion?
AC: Also people know when they give flowers to other people how much they appreciate them and how much it makes them happy, and why shouldn’t we ourselves feel that happy every day by treating ourselves to some flowers.
MN: Yeah. Question just come in – what’s the hottest flowers this season?
AC: Hottest flowers?
MN: Yeah.
AC: You’re looking at them here!
MN: These are the ones!
AC: Oh yeah.
MN: You were at Chelsea?
AC: Yes.
MN: You saw the displays that were on there and this is a kind of flavour of what was really hot there at the time?
AC: Yeah, certainly. The alliums were really big, purple flowers definitely, and a sort of a wilder look as well coming in, which we’ve got here with these sort of arrangements although they have the strong structure of the leaves, the flowers themselves are quite loose, they’re not arranged carefully or tightly.
MN: It’s a rugged look isn’t it?
AC: Yeah, very rugged.
MN: So there’s your question answered, thank you very much indeed for that. And now we did talk about sunflowers, and we did talk about the alliums, what else have we got up here that we can have a real good look at?
AC: We’ve got lots of a much maligned flower, the chrysanthemum, which everybody goes “Ooooh, chrysanthemums, we don’t like those, really cheap and common!”
MN: Can’t even spell it, never mind say it half the time – chrysanthemums
AC: Chrysanthemums, which are wonderful. These are part of the chrysanthemum family.
MN: No these are daisies?
AC: These are daisies if you want to call them daisies.
MN: Well they’re daisies by my book!
AC: It’s going to upset the previous person but these are matricaria, which is a bit long. They’re related to the stuff that they use in migraine treatments fever for you.
MN: Oh right…
AC: So when you have migraine treatments, this is what they take the substance from.
MN: We don’t recommend you go chewing these, at all.
AC: No, because we don’t know where they’ve been grown and what they’ve been grown with, but I mean, they’re lovely – they’re very dainty and fluffy. These are also chrysanthemums.
MN: They look different don’t they?
AC: Yeah, very spiky, they’ve got lovely big…
MN: They’ve got different lengths of petal on it as well.
AC: Mmm, yeah, and that one particularly called, this one’s called deli star, it’s very kind of spiky/starry looking variety.
MN: Whilst we’re looking at those, actually, my hay fever, which is kind of in and out, happens and doesn’t happen, is not with us at the moment thank heavens because I might have probably blown everything off the table by now. But Lucinda has a question, and it’s about her allergy to flowers, obviously it’s a pollen allergy. Are there certain flowers that are more likely to trigger that off, and are there certain flowers she can get that won’t affect her?
AC: Yeah, there are, lilies and sunflowers, grown now that are completely pollen free.
MN: Oh wow.
AC: And they’ll usually, when you by them, be labelled up as such, and that’s what they’ve been bred for, it’s so people with allergies can enjoy flowers, so…there are flowers that don’t carry a lot of pollen anyway, but if you’re looking to be really certain, certainly the sunflowers and the lilies that are pollen free.
MN: Sunflowers, lilies, right.
AC: And obviously the foliage you’ll be fine with anyway, and there’s loads of great foliages that you can mix up into a bouquet.
MN: Good question, and they’re labelled, if you go to the florist, or you go to the flower sellers they’ll be able to tell you straight away, point you in the right direction. It’s great that they’re growing them, that they’re pollen free if you like.
AC: Yes.
MN: Goodness knows how they do it but it’s fantastic! Take all the pollen out bit by bit.
AC: I don’t know how they do any of it it’s all-amazing.
MN: Bouquets here as well.
AC: Yeah.
MN: They’re very clever, and again, isn’t what I’d’ve deemed the traditional bouquet.
AC: It’s a very new style which is quite layered so you’ve got one thing, and then a layer of another thing, and a layer of another thing, so it’s very strongly structured. Here we’ve got the allium gigantium, and the matricaria – the little daisies, making a sort of loose fluffy colour, and then this one is another allium, this beautiful kind of pinky lilac, this is the American allium, allium unifolium, which means it has one leaf, which apparently when it’s growing up to have one leaf..
MN: Unifolium.
AC: But American allium, that one.
MN: So American allium, then these..
AC: Gigantic allium!
MN: This big one and the top, and that makes a very…how have you bound that together at the bottom there?
AC: That’s all, all the stems are going parallel, so the stems run along like this and then you just tie them together, and then this is like a sort of…
MN: It’s like a webbing is it?
AC: Yeah, like a papery sisal, on a strip. We’ve just wound that around, and then pinned it down the front with pearl pins. Which’d be lovely for a wedding!
MN: I was going to say, for a summer wedding, you know, I mean, not me, you.
AC: Not me either really!
MN: No.
AC: I love the bouquet it’s just the whole wedding thing is making me nervous!
MN: OK, have the bouquet, don’t have the wedding. But in terms of that modern look, that would be…
AC: Yes, that’s very new.
MN: It’s kind of minimalistic but all there.
AC: Yes because it moves it on from the hand-tied mixed bouquet that a lot of brides have, and it’s very different to the kind of structured, over-the-arms bouquet, so it’s a different choice there.
MN: Sure, beautiful. Josephina has a question for us, Josephina’s question was about flowers she said, “Are flowers a little bit like clothes? They sort of come in and out of fashion? And if that’s true, what is in fashion and what’s gone out of fashion?”
AC: It is. If you looked at, say, five years ago, dahlias were a real allotment flower, they were an old man’s flower, nobody liked them. Now, dahlias – so fashionable, very trendy…
MN: They are the rock and roll.
AC: Yeah, real hot vibrant colour. It’s something that the Flowers and Plants Association looks at regularly, because we look at the trends that are happening in interior, and on the catwalk, and colours can change as well, we’re into more neutrals and softer palette, or people start liking very vibrant colours mixed together, and we watch that closely and adapt the trends accordingly.
MN: And these are the trends of the moment – it is violet, it is a great colour [inaudible]. I knew that all the way along. OK, I’m going to put this little posy down there, because I’ve been holding it for far too long now, I’m getting attached to it. I love this sort of layout that you’ve put here – so simple. I saw you putting this together.
AC: In about two minutes!
MN: Yeah, it was that easy. Just going to turn this tray round so we can get the camera to have a good look.
AC: For a slightly more tropical, Caribbean wedding that one. Two big palm leaves, Kentia palms.
MN: You’d get away with this in Spain – Alicante?
AC: Yeah, definitely, it’s perfect for that kind of thing, all the expats out there, a big allium, a yellow, it’s a lovely yellow santadeskia, but you can also call it Kalla or Airem.
MN: Airem. I know it as airem, actually that’s got this wonderful, it’s very difficult, I’m not sure we’re going to be able to pick that up, but if I can just hold that open there, when you look inside it there’s just so much more to it, right in the centre you’ve got this really dark maroon colour.
AC: It’s called black-eyed beauty, this variety, and it has that very dark centre, it’s absolutely lovely.
MN: That’s absolutely fantastic, what a great flower.
AC: And then the three almost tiny, miniature versions of those alongside the same flower, just a different variety.
MN: Very nicely done. And so simple to do. And with this backdrop, this is, I’d call this fern but it’s not.
AC: Palm.
MN: Palm.
AC: Yeah.
MN: That palm is the backdrop there, it just really holds it all together doesn’t it?
AC: Yeah and then tied with a bit of rugged string just to make it look tougher, butcher, a but more rugged, rather than something that’s very delicate.
MN: Rustic.
AC: Yeah, rustic, very outside-in!
MN: Very much so.
AC: Garden twine, that’d do the job just as well.
MN: Yeah – that is a beautiful arrangement – I really like that. It works so well. OK so a couple of arrangements there. Just would you go through the one arrangement here, I know that it’s sort of delicately balanced at the moment, just the sunflowers with the bamboo sort of knitwork that you’ve got there.
AC: Yes.
MN: Did that take hours to do? Because it looks like a real sort of scaffolding construction job.
AC: No, very speedy. This is snake grass or horse tail but it does look like bamboo, and you could use bamboo the same. They’re hollow, they’re very light, basically just stick a few stems in alongside the sunflowers, and then some crossbars wired on, this is a bit of florist’s wire but you can use any sort of wire or string or tying mechanism, a bit of wool. And then these ones are just poked in in between so it’s almost like a game of Ker-plunk!
MN: Ohhh the days of Ker-plunk!
AC: Oh, I’m showing my age. Yes so they’re just sort of stuck in between the stems so it’s really quite speedy it just looks more complicated that it is but yeah, anyone who feels that they’d like to move the next step on and try something a bit more creative, that’d be an ideal one to try later. Or this one, even simpler, it’s just a really big, big old stick and…
MN: Wedged in there?
AC: Yeah, wedged in there, and then we’ve wound the callons around it.
MN: So they’re, they’re holding it there.
AC: Yeah.
MN: Can we move that one out so we can just have a closer look at that one? I know that’s going to mean that we’re going to upset the apple cart but again we’re talking here as much about the flowers as we are the arrangement and the arrangement here, I wonder if you can pick that up, just on the one side here – see that we’ve got the sticks in there and these are attached on, so that they stay to the main sticks.
AC: Yeah, they’re just tied, yeah. And it has a very organic natural flow then to the arrangement, you’re not…
MN: I suppose you could make that more seasidey, you could go and get some driftwood and do it with that.
AC: That’d be good yeah, if you live near the sea yeah.
MN: Would work well. Again, very simple arrangement, but I would think in most people, if they’ve got a modern apartment, that would look great in there.
AC: Mmhmm, and really quite straightforward and simple pottery container, and one big branch.
MN: Excellent. We have a question in from, I think it’s from Josea, I’ll get a confirmation on that name, but, it’s Josea, it is, and Josea’s question is about dried flowers – she loves dried flowers, but doesn’t know how to make them and get flowers dried. Is it easier just to buy them than to try and dry them?
AC: Why does she love dried flowers? They’re so beautiful when they’re fresh and they look so pale and desiccated when they’re dried!
MN: Alright, get off the dried flowers! Get into the real ones!
AC: Yeah, enjoy the fresh ones! It is easy to dry some, if they’re not too fleshy, and if they’re not too rounded – I mean obviously you’d have a hard time with an allium, but certainly something flatter….sunflowers might but it’d be a bit tricky.
MN: My sister used to do pressed flowers, I could never quite see the appeal in that either, because they’re just squished on the page but hey – horses for courses.
AC: Yes.
MN: When it comes to doing these arrangements, I guess for inspiration you look through magazines and…where do you get your inspiration from?
AC: From very cutting edge florists, there are some doing amazing constructions out there, like art in flowers. Regular going round the trade shows looking at new varieties, often just seeing a new variety that can spark an idea off. And looking at trends in other areas in other areas of designs, so something in lighting might trigger something where you could have a structural shape, it’s keeping your eyes open all the time really.
MN: A question just in about the hot weather, and with hot weather indoors. Got these lovely flowers that are generally outdoors that are now indoors – how do you keep them looking fresh, how do you get them to last a long time, particularly with the hot weather? I mean, during the day you’re going to go out, you don’t want to leave your windows open. You’re going to come back – flowers are going to be wilted a bit, it’s going to be a bit warm and humid in the house.
AC: Yes, certainly put them as far away from a window as possible in this weather.
MN: What – direct sunlight not a good thing?
AC: Yeah. Keep them somewhere cool if you have somewhere cool, often maybe bathrooms or kitchens might be a bit cooler because of the tiling and the tiled floors, so they’re often a bit better. Certainly yeah, keep it away from the windows, and check the water levels because they can really be thirsty at this time of year so do check the vases and make sure they’ve not drunk all the water.
MN: Talking about water, hosepipe bans are very topical at the moment, and I know we’re then talking about plants that are growing rather than cut, but in terms of hosepipe bans, how do you get over that problem really? I’m guessing you get a water bucket for starters and try and save as much as you can. But in terms of how much you water, is it little and often? Are there times you should water and shouldn’t water?
AC: You should water at the beginning of the day, in the morning, and then they can drink it up through the day, and a lot in one go is so much better than little and often. Little and often will make the roots all grow to the top of the soil, and you want the roots to go down as deep as possible. So a good, thorough soaking, less often, is better. A lot of the commercial growers have got their own reservoirs because of this, you know, lack of water, so they’re keeping all their water, they’re making sure that they recycle their own water, so that they’re less of a drain on the water table.
MN: Good. Question from Karen, which is regarding flowers and surviving in the heat. Which plants and flowers actually survive better in the heat? Are some of these hardier than others?
AC: My particular favourites – cacti and succulents. If you really…
MN: I was going to ask about cacti actually, it’s been a long time since I saw them, and there used to be some cacti that would just burst into flower at certain points.
AC: Yes, yep, mine on the kitchen windowsill is just ready to go. I love them. Some, if you don’t like the spiky cacti, the succulents, they’re often very smooth, glossy – some have flowers. They grow a bit faster.
MN: Are those the ones that look like gorgeous little succulent earlobes almost?
AC: Yeah, or little baby toes or something, yeah. Or you can get some that are…
MN: Little baby toes! You’ll want to bite them!
AC: Get some that are big and spiky. These are great too, mother-in-law’s tongues.
MN: Uh huh,
AC: They’re tough as old boots, and they’ll survive a bit of neglect.
MN: Mother-in-laws or mother-in-laws’ tongues?
AC: Mother-in-laws’ tongues.
MN: Both.
AC: I don’t have a mother-in-law so I couldn’t comment on how tough they are.
MN: Nor do I, let’s leave that one alone shall we? So, there we go, mother-in-laws’ tongues.
AC: They’re great, or cacti and succulents.
MN: While we’re talking about decoration of vases, we’ve been looking at these beautiful chrysanthemums, mother-in-laws’ tongue, and these…
AC: Matricaria...or chrysanthemums.
MN: Chrysanthemums, daisy-looking chrysanths. Underneath, I notice what you’ve done here, I can see what you’ve done here, it’s very good. This bit of bark for this, wrapped round with a bit of wire round this vase. Is that because you didn’t like the vase or is that because you wanted this more outdoor rugged outdoor-in look?
AC: Yeah, it brings a bit of a, it’s almost a kind of nature table look, so it’s got the rugged bark, you could use cork bark, you can buy birch bark in sheets as well, that would look very nice.
MN: You could wrap it all round.
AC: Yeah, wrap it all round, or glue it on, or you tie it on with a bit of this..
MN: Rugged string, bit of twine.
AC: Yeah.
MN: Alright, we’ve got some great ideas here. Well one that I haven’t really spoken to you much about is this one at the front here. I love these little flowers here.
AC: That’s another chrysanthemum Murray.
MN: They’re tiny. They are absolutely sort of packed really tight.
AC: Yeah, they’re like little buttons almost.
MN: You do want to touch them and squeeze them.
AC: They are very tactile, this one’s called a santini chrysanthemum, and these little button types are very typical, they’ve almost got a little lace collar around each one.
MN: Alright, we’ve talked about just about everything, the only thing I haven’t included yet is the gladioli at the back here.
AC: Well done!
MN: See, there’s some glads at the back here, and these are lilies.
AC: These are alstroemeria, they’re sometimes called Peruvian lily, and they are like a very tiny lily, and they’re lovely spotty, freckley insides. They’re wonderful. About five or six years ago, hardly anybody in Britain knew what they were, they were really uncommon, and now you can get them in all the florists, the supermarkets, market stalls, and they’re lovely, and they open up beautifully, and they match rather well with the sort of sunset colours of the gladiolis as well.
MN: Well, we are very much out of time. Thank you very much indeed for your questions that have come in today. Andrea, thank you as always, you’ve given us the inside-out on bringing the outside-in…see what I did there?
AC: Oh, very good.
MN: That was very clever there, wasn’t it. Now hope you’ll come and join us again next time with the Flower and Plants Association. Until then, enjoy your flowers wherever they may be. Bye.
