I would like to introduce you to Bob and John Baisch of Baisch & Skinner, one of the largest wholesale florist distributors in the Midwest. Thank you for hosting our first meeting of this 4th year of the Children’s Garden Club.

   Let me introduce Kay Schaeffer. She is a professional floral designer and instructor and an accredited flower show judge. Today, she will educate us in becoming a floral arranger.

   Here at Baisch & Skinner, they receive fresh flowers from around the world, from Italy, the World Flower Market in Holland, Costa Rica, Ecuador, South America, Columbia, Mexico, New Zealand, Austria, Amsterdam, Guatemala, along within the United States, from Hawaii, California, Florida and Colorado.

   I hope everyone has enjoyed the tour of Baisch & Skinner. I’m sure you realized besides all the plants from Canada and around the world, they also have an extensive variety of dried plant material, silk flowers and containers – anything you can imagine to enhance a floral arrangement.

   Now that your tour is completed let me re-introduce you to Kay Schaeffer. Kay is an instructor for the SoGetSu School where she teaches Japanese flower arranging. She is an accredited International flower show judge and also does demonstrations throughout the United States. Once she get you to be an arranger, we hope you will join us for the flower show in the Childrens Garden section at the Home Show at the America’s Center, March 3-7, 2004 for what we hope will grow into a major flower show.

   People think you have to be “born” to paint, or act, or garden, or cook, or arrange flowers, but that is not true. I agree it may come easier to some, but I feel everyone can learn. Practice does help. You can learn to do creative things by thinking in a sense out of the box or taking a basic idea design and being creative.

   I do believe everyone is potentially creative with clear understanding, instructions and practice you can become a Flower Arranger.

   Today we will be giving you some basic information – decisions on what and how to use it is the hard part – so we have got some ideas for you to inspire your creativity.

   We will go through “How to or How Long should I cut the flower stems?” Advice on florist gadgets or supplies from logs or pin holders, florist clay, foam oasis blocks and wire holders. Advice on the wide assortment of containers.

COLOR SCHEME FLOWERS

   Aim at a medley rather than a riot of color when you want flowers to add to the beauty of your home. Unless yours is a monochromatic scheme, flowers that repeat one or more of the room colors will be most dramatic in enhancing décor.

Analogous room scheme uses yellow and yellow-green against an off-white background. Yellow and yellow-orange colors of a daylily arrangement in a pewter vase are in good harmony with the basic decorating colors of a room. In a room whose color scheme as mentioned, few flower colors would be unacceptable, but against a neutral wall, the warm or advancing hues for flowers will probably do most to enliven a rather quiet room.

   Reds that are pure in hue or lean toward orange will be best in both rooms mentioned here. The purplish reds would clash with oranges. Yellow is a warm color, it is always a welcome accent in rooms that employ a large amount of cool blue or green.

   Blue flowers would be analogous to the green that is part of a yellow-green decorating scheme.

A monochromatic color scheme, in various tints and shades of red, with large amounts of white serving as a cool accent. Chrysanthemums that echo the room colors stand out against a background of white glass curtains. In another area of a room, against a rose or red background, white flowers would be good.

   Fresh greens in a foliage arrangement are a possible alternate for this room, acting as a complementary color harmony in relation to the major furnishings. Also attractive would be flowers in a wide variety of violet hues, constituting an analogous color harmony.

   In a room as formally furnished, with period chairs and a crystal chandelier, a more formal arrangement might act as a subtle reinforcement of the style of décor. The container should also be formal, perhaps of silver or crystal, to suite the character of the arrangement.

   White is a combination of all colors, so it’s always tasteful to use white flowers in a room – no matter what its colors. But in the monochromatic color scheme white flowers should not be placed against a white background such as white curtains.

   Green is always good. Take a lesson from nature and feel free to use green with any scheme. Green would be complementary to monochromatic red scheme of furnishings.

   Violet hues will almost all be right in a rosy room because they are “neighbors” of red on the color wheel, with a bit of red in their composition. Violet hues combined with the monochromatic reds would produce an analogous color combination. Imagine the attractiveness of a lilac or purple iris arrangement on a white coffee table.

   We will show you how to vary the essential arrangement according to the season of the year. The color scheme, the formality or informality, flowers from the florist, your own cut flower garden, the utilization of wild flowers or even weeds.

   I think this year beyond the florist delivery, all those beautiful floral arrangements during the Holidays and the flowers at the Rose Bowl Parade, we need to salute the women and men of garden clubs all over the world.

   Through garden club sponsoring, flower shows and classes in flower arranging and judging, they have opened doors on a new world of artistic self-expression for countless numbers of people. They have a set standard of excellence universally respected.

   Once you get the basics today, you will have time to practice at home and come up with your own idea for the first flower show at the Builders Home & Garden Show at the America Center, March 3-7, 2004. Give us your name and address and we will mail you an application.

All meetings are at 9:00 a.m. – on the first Saturday of each month (except July) – at different locations throughout St. Louis County. All are Free. No RSVP’s are required, everyone welcome. The Children’s Garden Club is designed to educate, as well as bring delight in gardening and horticulture with projects they start themselves and take home to continue to grow and enjoy.

January 3, 2004	Baisch & Skinner, Inc., 2721 LaSalle Street Flower arranging
February 7, 2003	Sherwood’s Forest Nursery & Garden Center, 2651 Barrett Station Rd. Orchids
March 3-7,	Builder’s Home & Garden Show America’s Center
March 6, 2004	Sherwood’s Forest Nursery & Garden Center, 2651 Barrett Station Rd. Bromeliads
April 3, 2004	Haefner’s Farm & Greenhouses, 6777 Telegraph Road The Great Perennial Divide
May 1, 2004	Gilberg’s Perennial Farms, 2906 Ossenfort Summer Bulbs
June 5, 2004	Gilberg’s Perennial Farms, 2906 Ossenfort Water Gardening
July 10, 2004	Sherwood’s Forest Nursery & Garden Center, 2651 Barrett Station Rd. Tropical - Hawaii
August 7, 2004	Gilberg’s Perennial Farms, 2906 Ossenfort Plants from Around the World
September 4, 2004	Gilberg’s Perennial Farms, 2906 Ossenfort Moon Gardening
October 2, 2004	Haefner’s Farm & Greenhouses, 6777 Telegraph Road Pumpkin
November 6, 2004	Sherwood’s Forest Nursery & Garden Center, 2651 Barrett Station Rd. Create a Bird Sanctuary in your landscape.
December 4, 2004	Sherwood’s Forest Nursery & Garden Center, 2651 Barrett Station Rd. Holiday Plants