Читать книгу Just Add Water - Cynthia Gaylin Bigony - Страница 28

PREPARING

your flowers

Once you have your flowers and greens in hand, it’s time to get them ready. Tempting as it may be to startarranging them in your vase,preparing the flowers and greensfirst helpskeep your arrangement beautiful andclean, and last longer. Remember that any lowerleaves on the stems that touchthe water in your vase will

introduce bacteria and give flowers a shorter life span.

First, use scissorsto cut the stems of your flowers and greensto a manageable length. I leave on any plastic wrapping or rubber bands that may come with the flowers as I cutto ensure the stems will be trimmed tothe same length. I can easily remove the plastic or

rubber bandsafterward.

Next, remove all the lower leaves (and snip away any thorns, toavoid prickles)on the stem that are not partof the arrangement.This means all the leaves or foliage that could be submerged in the water once you putthe stems in the vase.You can cutthe leaves

off with scissors or use your hands for soft-stemmed flowers.

Then look atthe flowers and checkthe petals for anyunsightly or damaged ones. Ifthey are safe to remove, gently wiggle offthese petals. For roses, remove the guard petals, whichare the brown,

wilted outer petals of the flower, right above the sepal.

Finally, recut the stems on a diagonal so there is more surface area for them to take in water.Again, this lengthens your flowers’life

span. Now you’re ready to begin designing.

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GETTING STARTED