Floral Friday: Sunflowers on the Porch

I’m on the porch in celebration of the sunflower . . .

And joining my blogging friends for another edition of Floral Friday!

You can find the links for their beautiful floral inspiration at the bottom of this post.

 Sunflowers were our common theme for this week’s Floral Friday edition.

Sunflowers convey warmth and symbolize adoration, loyalty and longevity. They have a cheery sun-like appearance with their open faces framed by yellow petals, also known as “rays”. Who doesn’t feel instantly happy when they see a sunflower?

I can almost always count on the grocery store having a bundle of affordable sunflowers no matter what the season and I wasn’t disappointed this week!

To build my arrangement, I started with an enamel handled tray and wet floral foam.

When using wet floral foam, use the “float soak” method and place the floral foam bricks on the top of a solution of fresh water with floral preservative. Let the floral foam gradually absorb the water until it’s fully saturated. Plunging the floral foam in the water traps air bubbles and will prohibit the transfer of water from the foam to the flower stems.

I placed the wet floral foam on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any excess water. Trim your wet foam bricks with a knife to fit your container or tray. My wet foam is wedged tightly together in my baking sheet so they were secure, but use wet floral tape and tape the foam to your container to keep it in place if needed.

To keep the baking sheet from slipping on the enamel tray, I used a favorite trick, applying some denture adhesive cream to the bottom of the baking sheet. I keep a tube on hand and use it for nonporous surfaces to secure them temporarily.

I’ve used denture cream for candle holders to keep tapers upright as well as on the bottom of an appetizer cone to adhere it to a cake plate to keep it from toppling over.

Note: I’ve only used Fixodent brand denture cream on metal and ceramic/porcelain surfaces. Avoid using it on a hand painted surfaces and test in an inconspicuous area first before applying to be safe.

I started with the some greenery I cut from the shrubs to build the arrangement.

Cut your greenery in the morning when the stems are fully hydrated and not water-stressed from the heat. To keep your foliage and greenery from wilting, condition it first, allowing it to sit in a bucket of room temperature water and some floral preservative overnight, or at the very least, several hours. If you don’t have any floral preservative you can make your own using this easy formula.

In addition to some greenery from the shrubs, I cut some coleus from the planters to enjoy the burgundy foliage as a contrast to the sunflowers.

I added the sunflowers next to the arrangement as focal flowers and then alstroemeria as filler flowers. Additional greenery came next; I used a combination of variegated foliage of the abelia shrubs and burgundy foliage of the lorepetalum.

Join me on the porch with the sunflowers. . .

I found a ‘Fleur du Soleil’ handpainted watering can in the NC mountains several years ago. It migrated from the Potting Shed to the porch for some additional blooms.

Mr. Marshal’s Flower Book:

Alexander Marshal’s Florilegium, or flower book, is one of the most exquisite and fascinating historic works of botanical art. The only surviving compilation of flower watercolors from seventeenth-century England, it has been admired for centuries for its dazzling color and its incredible attention to the intricacies of a varied array of plant species.

A highly skilled, although self-taught artist, Alexander Marshal was a horticulturist and famed entomologist who believed the cultivation of plants was essential to the study of the natural world. He created his masterpiece over a period of thirty years, and in the nineteenth century, Florilegium was presented to King George IV to be housed in the Royal Library, where it has been preserved ever since.

Gracie is my shadow these days and came out to the porch to see what I was up to. . .

I had to coax her out from underneath the table with the promise of a treat.

Visit my talented blogging friends to see their floral inspiration this week:

Shirley at Housepitality Designs

Pam at Everyday Living

Lidy at FrenchGardenHouse

Thank you for your visit!

Sharing with:  Metamorphosis Monday