Using a pumpkin for a vase, designer creates a flower arrangement
Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Oct 24, 2005 by Kathryn Clayton Deseret Morning News
To create a floral masterpiece, you need the analytical ability of a structural engineer, the eye of an artist and the knowledge of a botanist. And sometimes, you need a sense of adventure.
We were looking for someone who was willing to build a bouquet using a pumpkin as a vase in honor of the season as well as pass along flower-arranging tips to our readers.
Debbie Brackett, director of floral services at the Grand America and Little America hotels, took on the challenge. In just over 40 minutes, she created a masterpiece overflowing with flowers of different colors, textures, shapes and sizes.
We met up with her in “floral central,” a room in the basement of the Grand America with a design table, shelves filled with vases and buckets of flowers on the floor.
She chose a pumpkin with a lot of depth, eliminating the need for foam to hold the flowers in place. (Another way to support flowers if you’re using a shallow vase that has a wide opening is to build a tick-tack-toe grid over the opening with florist tape, she said.)
Brackett starts by adding a preservative to the water (she uses Crystal Clear Fresh Flower Food). She snips the bottom of each stem and pulls off the leaves on the part of the stem that will be submerged in the water.
She puts in the greenery first because it acts as a support for the other flowers. She adds the flowers, one at a time, filling in beginning at the lower part of the arrangement and working her way up. She also likes something to hang down over the side of the vase