Garden Rose Corsage

Welcome to the Flower School .com video library. I'm Leanne Kesler, Director of the Floral Design Institute. And today, we're going to make a fabulous corsage with a garden rose. Contemporary and on trend for today. 

For those of you that have been florists for many years, you've watched the evolution. Corsages used to be nothing but wired and taped. And our fingers got so sore. Then we evolved to where there was more use of the cold glue, Oasis floral adhesive. Today, you can even do so much more with all the decorative wires. And that's the mechanic I'll share today. 

To begin, you want to cut your rose flush with the calyx. Don't cut off the sepals. You need those, you lift the sepals out of the way. And then reach in and cut it flush so it's nice and flat. You don't want any stem left. We just need the head. Then, taking a length of the quarter inch flat wire, cut that off. Then using a jeweler's plier, twist the end. Pull it in tight on itself, so it can't snag, just curling it around. Then, even just manually, give it a little twist. You can bring it up and around, creating a stem for your flower. Last step, on the top, cut this to a very, very sharp needle point. I'm angling it into a needle point. I have the beautiful stem that's twisted, then the needlepoint, that point then pierces right in to the base of the rose and up into the head. 

Amazing how easy that is. Think about it. Just piercing the wire into the base of the rose, but as it dehydrates, it's going to shrink. You want to make sure that you bond it permanently to this faux stem. What I do is, using the Oasis floral adhesive, just glue directly over that insertion point. And then you want to let that set because that's going to lock it in there. Now I also want to add a little bit of a bow because that will help protect the side petals, so that it lasts throughout the event without any problem. For that, I just take a bit of glue, place it around the sepals, little bit on the petals, but just putting dabs of glue on the back. Then using a number nine ribbon, just number nine sheer, tying it into a bow, and then sliding that right in to the base, making sure that it latches on where you have the glue, and then holding it til it sets. 

You could stop there, which is super simple. Pin it on for a very contemporary corsage. Or if you'd rather, go ahead and add a little bit of texture to enhance. Tiny bit of astrantia, maybe a leaf or two from ruscus, cutting it down. And then using your Oasis floral adhesive, just a bit of glue right on the end. Pre-gluing so that it starts to set. It always holds so much better if it has a minute to dry. Then just sliding that in, adding a little bit of colorful interest, and then adding in the astrantia to give it a nice contemporary texture. And you'll have a beautiful, beautiful corsage to wear. 

Coming from the era where every single corsage was wired and taped, it just almost seems too easy. But how grand is that? Wouldn't you love to make corsages that were so quick, so fast, and so fabulous? For more creative inspiration, check out the website, Flower School .com. If you have questions, you can reach us through there or by telephone at 503-223-8089. And of course, I'd love to see what you create. Take a picture, post it on social media, and tag Floral Design Institute, so we all can see because now it's your turn. Have fun, and do something you love.