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Creative Containers: The Secret To Amazing Fresh Flower Gifts

Fresh Flowers In Terracotta Pot

Fresh Flowers In Terracotta Pot

For many years, fresh flowers have been used in celebrating milestones, showing thanks, expressing sympathy and confirming love. Throughout those many years, new and creative ideas have come and gone in fresh flower design. Though the design techniques are ever-changing in the floral industry, containers often seem too stagnant; limited to simple glass vases or plain wicker baskets. However, over the past couple of years, florists have started to explore the use of unique and creative containers as ways to incorporate hobbies, humor, and originality into fresh flower arrangements.

When you send fresh flower arrangements the style depends on the personality of the recipient or the intended purpose. It’s just not manly to send your father a pastel bouquet in a white basket for Father’s Day. However, the same arrangement would excite your grandmother on her birthday.  When choosing a unique container in which to send fresh flowers, think about the recipient. Begin by considering their hobbies or interests and of course the occasion.

Unique Fresh Flower Containers for Women

Fact: Women love flowers. So even if you send a fresh flower arrangement in a glass vase, she will be more than ecstatic. But to really impress, try being a little creative. Many women like to garden and plant flowers in pots, especially in the spring. Most people assume that garden pots can only be used for planting garden flowers. Wrong!

Decorative Vase With Fresh Flwoers

Decorative Vase With Fresh Flowers

Florists frequently use beautiful indoor and outdoor pots to hold fresh flower arrangements. This is a two-for-one gift. The recipient gets to enjoy the vibrant blooms of the fresh flowers and later the pot can be used for a permanent plant or as a piece of home decor.

Another two-for-one idea is to incorporate a hobby or interest in the flower arrangement. Does she like to cook? Discuss with your florist the options of arranging the fresh flowers in a mixing bowl or possibly a decorative tea pitcher. This unique container idea can help make traditional Mother’s Day gifts extra special. These practical, but lovely items, will keep the memory of your gift alive long after the blooms fade.

Even ornamental vases or decorative boxes can be used as fresh flower arrangement containers. Have you found the perfect decorative vase to give as a gift but simply wrapping it seems mundane? Drop it off at your local flower shop and let them embellish it with flowers and deliver it as well. Adding flowers to a gift always adds a unique and luxurious touch. As your personal gift-giving assistant, your florist can help you add that special touch not to mention save you time and stress.

Unique Fresh Flower Containers for Men

Although many men love to receive fresh flowers, sending a man flowers is a perplexing task. After all, the flower arrangement must convey the message you intend while demonstrating a strong manly presence. Not only must the flowers present this manly intensity but so must the container. However, this does open the door for creativity and manly personalization. Begin by considering whether or not this man has any hobbies. Does he like to fish or hunt? Tackle boxes make a great container for a fresh flower arrangement. It doesn’t have to be a large arrangement either. Maybe you want to get him a tackle box but want to add a little something special to it to make it unique. A florist can add a small arrangement in the top of the box, even incorporating lures and bobbers to make it extra manly. Tool boxes can be used in this same manner. For the “tool man” a florist can include small tools in this arrangement as well.

Fresh Flower Containers for the Home

Creative Container

Creative Container

Although sending flowers as gifts is a wonderful idea for birthdays, anniversaries or any other reason, treating yourself to fresh stems is also a marvelous idea. Your local florist can supply you with fresh stems to use in your home. Bunches of lilies or even tropical blooms look great in any room in the house.

Don’t have any vases? No need to worry; anything that can hold water can hold flowers. Even a slender drinking glasses or a Mason jars make great vessels for fresh flowers. Not only is it nice to have fresh flowers around the home, but studies show that they are also mood elevators.

Needing a pick me up? Grab some fresh flowers on your way home. The smile on your face as your place the flowers in your creative container is a good indication that your mood has been elevated. Now you, too, will know what others already know about surrounding oneself with flowers – happiness follows flowers!

So get creative, not only with the containers used to embrace fresh flowers you give as gifts, but also with the fresh flowers you use in the home. Drop by your local florist today and start experimenting with all of the different ways flowers in creative containers can put a smile on someone’s face including yours.

Do you have a creative container idea? Share it with us! Send your creative container ideas and pictures to social@flowershopnetwork.com or add it to the newsletter in the reply box.

Prom Trends: Prom Accessories and Flowers

Prom Flowers: Traditional Meets Up-and-Coming

In the past, trends for prom flowers have been limited to the prom corsage or prom boutonniere. 2009 brings new creative ideas for not only corsages and boutonnières but for other accessories as well. This year, corsages and boutonnières will be as important as always, but florists all around are gearing up for the endless possibilities of accessorizing with flowers. “How do you accessorize with flowers,” you ask? Well, I’ll tell you.

Traditional Prom Corsages

Red Calla Lily Boutonniere

Red Calla Lily Boutonniere

Traditional prom corsages and prom boutonnieres were created using roses or mums and adorned with a thin silk or satin ribbon for decoration. Boutonnieres and corsages were both worn on the shoulder of the prom-goer, which for a girl in a prom dress is very uncomfortable and inconvenient. Over the past couple of years prom corsages have made a transformation. Florists now create prom corsages to be worn on the wrist, making it easy to take on and off and much more suitable for a teenage girl.

Modern Prom Corsages

As for prom corsage and boutonniere decorations, 2009 is the year of accessories. Forget the ribbon. Rhinestones, feathers and just about anything you can think of can be incorporated into your corsage or boutonniere. Most florists these days even have a “create your own design” option, so you can pick out all of the flowers and decorative details you want for your corsage or boutonniere.

Prom Wrist Corsage

Prom Wrist Corsage

Modern prom trends are all about embellishment; not only with the wrist corsage and boutonniere, but with other accessories as well. For so long prom flowers remained limited to the traditional corsage or boutonniere. With more accessory options and creative assembly, flowers now can be incorporated into a multitude of prom accessories. Small flowers such as mini-roses and button mums are being added to simple and boring hair pins to make beautiful and elaborate hair accessories.

Don’t Stop At Corsages – Prom Accessories Are In!

Don’t stop at just the flowers though, add some rhinestones for extra sparkle and maybe a little ribbon as well to create that trendy adornment for your hair. Florists and hairdressers are working together to create new and unique prom hairstyle trends. One such prom trend is to match the ribbon length to the girl’s hair length. Prom tiaras can also be embellished with flowers and other accessories as well. Beautiful sparkling tiaras can be woven with strands of miniature flowers adding some delicacy and feminism to a bright and shining tiara. Not wearing any hair accessories this year? You don’t need to wear an up-do just to incorporate flowers into the hair. Flowers can be bound together in small groupings or just singly wrapped to simply stick behind your ear on prom night.

Prom Flower Jewelry

Flower Ring For Prom

Flower Ring For Prom

Embellished flower jewelry is a trend for prom 2009 as well. Florists are making wrist corsages look more like bracelets. They are also creating rings, earrings, and necklaces with flowers for prom as well. Prom flower rings are the cutest and most unique idea for 2009 prom trends.

Prom Flower Rings

Florists simply take a flower of your choice and make it into a ring. Miniature flowers like spray roses look the best and most size appropriate for the finger. These rings can be adorned with rhinestones and other materials just like any other prom accessory. Prom flower necklaces are also a big trend for this year. However, depending on the prom dress, a flower necklace may or may not be appropriate. Strapless prom dresses are the most suited to the flower necklace trend. As with the other prom flowers, you can work with your florist to decide which flowers and embellishments to use.

Prom Flower Earrings

Talk to your prom florist about creating matching earrings. Creating flower earrings for prom is a rising trend for 2009 and beyond. Although prom earrings are a new floral creation requiring special florist tools, they are extremely unique and rising in popularity. As with the flower rings and flower necklaces, petite blooms also are more appropriate for the prom flower earrings. This trend requires a little more planning and discussion between the customer and the florist since special earring hooks are necessary. Once the florist has the hooks they can then create the actual earrings with whatever blooms and embellishments the customer chooses. Personalization is the key to these trends and florists have responded with the “create your own design” service. Many florists are offering customer the option of creating their own personalized prom jewelry in a convenient setting.

Prom Flower ..Shoes? Yes!

This year like last, prom flowers are also being incorporated into shoes. Yes, I said shoes. It seems like a crazy idea. However, the final product is quite beautiful and discretely fabulous. Not many people think to accessorize shoes, but especially with the extra-strappy heels that are being worn these days, incorporating flowers into prom shoes is effortless. Shoes can be embellished in a couple of different ways. Tiny blooms can be glued into the shoe straps, creating a “band of blooms”. This makes the shoe look as if it were made out of flowers, and is guaranteed to turn heads on prom night. Flowers can be grouped to just one part of the shoe as well for more of an impact . These are dainty and discrete embellishments that just add a touch of glamour to an already fabulous pair of shoes. Endless opportunities abound when you incorporate flowers into your prom accessories.

Making prom your own is as simple as creating a personalized look with your accessories. If you have a new idea or have questions about incorporating flowers into other prom accessories, you can contact your local florist for ideas or suggestions. Who knows? You and your florist may start a new trend!