I like to browse through flower related compositions, blogs and web sites, searching for articles of interest to digest and comment on. There is so much information available to us, that at times it can be a bit overwhelming. Whether looking for information on floristry, flower meanings, flower delivery, the latest designs of flower bouquets or flower trends, there is sure to be plenty of articles of interest to satisfy the keenest of flower enthusiasts.
Here is a short list of some of the best informative blogs and sites I have come across that I would like to share with you:
Recommended Blogs to follow, read, peruse and enjoy:
Of course they are! We all love flowers and the feelings that they evoke, their shapes, colours and scents, the way that flowers are used for so many occasions and celebrations, to say thank you and sorry. To commiserate and show sympathy and to congratulate. Flowers today are as popular as they ever have been and these wonderfully inspirational blogs, articles and web sites just go to show that the spirit and the powers of flowers is blooming.
I hope you find them as interesting and enjoyable to read as I have.
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28 Jan 2011
The Clare Florist 32nd Birthday Celebrations Continue...
In celebration of Clare Florist’s 32nd anniversary of serving the public with the highest quality fresh cut flower bouquets, we are pleased to announce that we will be handing out specially designed New Year bouquets to Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres Charity, in conjunction with FedEx UK, who will deliver the bouquets free of charge.
Clare Florist will be gifting 32 'Maggie’s' bespoke hand-tied bouquets to the Maggie's Cancer Caring Charity. The Charity will then decide who will recieve one of the 32 bouquets from the deserving people who have helped them in a variety of ways to make each of their centres the success they are today.
Our expert florist Kerry has also designed a special 'Maggie's Bouquet' - which is to go on sale with 10% of it's price going to the Maggie's Charity.
Maggie’s runs a number of Cancer Caring Centres around the country, designed as a place for people to turn for help with any of the problems, small or large, associated with cancer. Under one roof, people can access help with information, benefits advice, psychological support both individually and in groups, courses, and stress reducing strategies. Visitors do not need to have an appointment or be referred, and everything is offered free of charge.
We wanted to do something really special and positive to celebrate yet another year under our floral belts by making 32 years in total. What better way, than to donate a uniquely designed bouquets of flowers to chosen recipients of Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres and at the same time highlight all the excellent work that Maggie's carry out every day!
The 32 bespoke fresh flower bouquets all safely packed up and ready to be delivered by the good people at FedEx UK to 32 lucky recipients selected by Maggie's.
As part of our 32nd Year birthday celebrations, we are happy to be working with Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres and FedEx UK.
For fantastic prize winning opportunities, fabulous flower information and magnificent offers and product news!
25 Nov 2010
Flowers and Perfume
Perfume is the mixture of essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives and solvents used to give the human body, living spaces, animals and objects a pleasant scent. The aroma compounds that make up a perfume can be artificially manufactured or taken from plant or animal sources. Perfumes have existed since early human civilisation.
Flowers and blossoms have long been used in the making of perfumes - as a source of essential oils and aroma compounds. Flowers and blossoms are the largest source of fragrant compounds or aromatics used in perfumery. These include the flowers of several species of roses, jasmine and freesia as well as narcissus and scented geranium (to name but a few).
A common technique for obtaining aromatic compounds from plants, flowers and blossoms is the process of distillation - Where the raw material is heated and thefragrant compounds are re-collected through condensation of the distilled vapour.
Once extracted the various pieces of the 'perfume puzzle' are put together. The person who makes up a perfume is called a perfumer. The perfumer will blend all of the essential components to assemble a perfume, this is anything from ten to hundreds of different ingredients.
The proper preservation of perfumes involves keeping them away from sources of heat and storing them where they will not be exposed to light.
How to make perfume from flower petals:
You will need...
Fresh flower petals - rose or lavender are a traditional choice
salt
large bowl
metal pot or saucepan
distilled water
muslin cloth
funnel
glass bottle for keeping the finished perfume in
Four simple steps to make you own perfume...
1)Remove the moisture and fragrance from the flower petals - Place the petals into the large bowl and sprinkle some salt over them. Give this a good mix with a spoon (it doesn't matter if the petals get damaged as this can actually assist in the process). Leave to rest for about an hour.
2)Boil the petals - Put the rested petals into the metal pot or saucepan and add a couple of cups of distilled water to them. Bring this mixture to the boil on a stove or cooker, once boiling, reduce the heat and partially cover with the pan lid and leave to simmer for 2-3 hours. Then remove from the heat and allow the petal mixture to cool.
3) Strain the petal mixture - Place the muslin cloth inside the funnel and pour the petal mixture through into the bowl. Give the left over petal mixture retained in the muslin cloth a good squeeze so to get all of the petal essence.
4) Transfer the perfume into a suitable bottle - Use a funnel to pour the extracted petal fragrance (perfume) into a suitable bottle. Enjoy!
This perfume will last for only a few weeks as it contains no preservative. If the perfume begins to look funny or mouldy, do not use and throw it away.
For fantastic prize winning opportunities, fabulous flower information and magnificent offers and product news!
5 Nov 2010
Guy Fawkes Night and Diwali;
This year Diwali (the beginning of the Hindu New Year) will be celebrated on the 5th November, thus coinciding with Guy Fawkes Night - So expect there to be fireworks!
We are all familiar with Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night as it is sometimes known. It is the annual celebration to mark the failed gunpowder plot of the 5th November 1605.
Remember, remember the Fifth of November, The Gunpowder Treason and Plot, I know of no reason Why the Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot.
As for Diwali; In India, the beginning of the Hindu New Year is celebrated in the festival of Diwali, which operates according to the lunar calendar. Lasting for five days during the new moon period that ends the month of Ashwin, Diwali is an official public holiday in India and is of great significance to the predominantly Hindu population. It is often referred to the Festival of Lights or Deepavali.
Traditions involve decorating homes with lights, setting off fireworks and handing gifts to friends and family. Flowers are also central to Diwali celebrations and those who observe the festival will often make rangoli's from various different types of flowers. The rangoli is essentially a geometric floor design, which often comprises floral arrangements including carnations, roses and orchids of various colours, that is used to attract the attention of Goddess Lakshmi.
For fantastic prize winning opportunities, fabulous flower information and magnificent offers and product news!
17 Sep 2010
The New Clare Florist Web Site
Yes flower friends, it has arrived!
The flower experts here at Clare Florist have unveiled our brilliant bright fresh new website makeover; All ready for the Autumn Season.
We are sure that you'll agree the new look in simply stunning. The launch of our new site coincides with the commencement of our new Autumn Flower collections which includes some fabulous new bouquets and gift sets for all occasions.
Here is a taster of some of the beautiful bouquets that we have to offer you - They are sure to brighten these shorting days and will look and smell amazing wherever they are placed.
The Clare Florist Team have decided to try our hands at making flowers today! Yes, that's right making flowers - out of paper - So I thought I'd share our flower origami with you.
It certainly made our weekly meeting more interesting, everyone had a go and got really quite involved.
Our first attempts (especially mine) left a lot to be desired, with our flowers looking like; well waste paper to be honest!
Being the determined Clare Florist Team that we are, perseverance
was the key and after a while our origami flower experts turned out to be Claire and Dave who ended up competing to make the best origami lily.
With the paper folding in full swing, we soon had an origami
Lily Arrangement. The first paper flower bouquet that I have seen.
We'd love to see your attempts at origami flower making - it is harder than it looks. To get instructions on how to make the origami lily flowers go to:
We'd love to see your origami flower folding efforts - so when you have made yours, why not take a photo and post it on our facebook wall, post us a twitpic on twitter or post it to our blog? You could even upload a video of you making your origami flowers to our Clare Florist YouTube channel.
Become a Fan, or as it is now "like" Clare Florist:
and to follow us
on:
For
flower fun, fantastic prize winning opportunities, fabulous flower information and
magnificent offers and product news!
Congratulations to July's second Tuesday of the month twitter #randomfollower competition winner;
Mrs Maier from London who has won a Free bespoke bouquet designed by our expert florists; And here it is on proud display (Thank you for the picture Mrs Maier). You to could win fabulous flower prizes! All you have to do is...
Become a Fan, or as it is now "like" Clare Florist:
and to follow us
on:
For
fantastic prize winning opportunities, fabulous flower information and
magnificent offers and product news!
9 Jul 2010
Fun time Flower Friday! With Special Offers...
Hello flower friends of Clare Florist, it's that time again... Fun time Flower Friday!
We stumbled upon this fabulous 'FlowerPower' drawing application;
Don't forget Clare Florist are offering 30% off our entire Summer flowers range and you will also receive FREE Thorntons Chocolates!
We are also continuing our second Tuesday of the month; pick a #randomfollower on twitter competition. All you have to do to be in with the chance of winning a FREE bouquet is to:
Then on Tuesday 13th July we will select a follower at random and send them a beautiful bouquet - please spread the word.
This Sunday sees the Football World Cup Final taking place at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa. As we have wonderful Dutch connections; with many of our flower growers and distributors coming from Holland we would like to take this opportunity to wish the Netherlands all the best and hope they come up victorious and holders of the prestigious World Cup Trophy.
Our Best selling bouquet this week has been the: Burst of Summer Bouquet and with 30% off and FREE Thorntons chocolates it is fantastically good value!
Don't forget to become a Fan, or
as it is now 'like' Clare Florist:
and to follow us
on:
For
fantastic prize winning opportunities, fabulous flower information and
magnificent offers and product news!
7 Jun 2010
Clare Florist Bespoke Sporrans - The New Look for Kilted Weddings!
Clare Florist were asked by Dobbies garden Centre to design some sporrans of flowers and a handbag for the bridebecause they were doing some promotional work to promote their stand at the Gardening Scotlandevent that takes place at The Royal Highland Centre Edinburgh.
We are confident that the positive response we have had will mean this is a new fashion trend for weddings all over Scotland.
Also, I was going to the emirates rugby sevens at the weekend so, one got made for me too. An Englishman supporting Scotland!!!
Don't forget to become a Fan, or as it is now "like" Clare Florist:
and to follow us
on:
For
fantastic prize winning opportunities, fabulous flower information and
magnificent offers and product news!
26 May 2010
Flower Fun! Introducing Tulip Racing!
The Team at Clare Florist are always looking at fun ways to see, discover and promote flowers..
We have set up a new You Tube channel for everyone's enjoyment:
Here you will find some fun flower video clips, some flower arranging demonstrations, some of our old and new advertising and also product videos - that will assist you in choosing the perfect bouquet for your requirements. You are able to subscribe to our You Tube page to keep up to date with all the goings on here at Clare Florist.
We hope that you enjoyed watching our first fun video as much as we enjoyed making it!
Don't forget to become a Fan, or as it is now "like" Clare Florist:
and to follow us
on:
For
fantastic prize winning opportunities, fabulous flower information and
magnificent offers and product news!
