Mango Flower Palette
Floral designers take inspiration from everything that surrounds them -- including the foods we like to eat. (Yes, we've been known to take a photo of a meal or two!) In this Flower School How-To Video Leanne pulls her inspiration not only from the delicious mango, but also from an amazing assortment of flowers -- foxglove, grevillea, garden roses, lisianthus, and kale -- all from Florabundance.com. Enjoy!
Video Transcription
The inspiration, amazing flowers from Florabundance.com, and mangoes. I know, what a surprise. But pair the two and you get a fabulous design.
The inspiration, beautiful mangoes. No, they aren't super ripe when you cut them. You can see the yellow flesh, not as bright yellow as you would want to eat, but perfect for designing. The flowers, everything from Florabundance.com. Got kale, Lisianthus, grevillea, garden roses, variety is Garden Romance, the foxglove, and one of my favorites, look at the foliage. Isn't it great? So many different things. Let's get started.
For the mechanics with the fruit, using the Oasis floral adhesive and shish kebab skewers. If you place those into the fruit and then secure it with a tab of glue, and I don't need that much length, so cutting it down and repeating, second in and a bit of glue, and do that on each piece and let it dry. Then the foliage. Pulling it apart, getting a nice long piece, and you can see deflexus is amazing. Give it a cut, place it in, and then wrap it around. Repeat that, placing it, repeating, placing, and it covers up your base, all done, ready for flowers. Once the mangoes are totally dried and ready, you can just place them in just where you want them.
With the mangoes in place, you can go back and add in your flowers. The foxglove framing, coming inward, repeating, and on the opposite side, pulling the eye to the focal emphasis. Then coming in with the kale to add impact right in the center, drawing the eye into the design, and when you're ready to add the rest of the flowers.
Now comes the fun. When you have your form, your line, and your emphasis, you add contrast. Maybe it's the grevillea, picks up the color so well, cutting it down, tucking it in. Maybe it's a little bit of the Lisianthus, breaking it apart, picking up the yellow from the center, adding in. And then the deep red, the Garden Romance rose. So beautiful, so long-lasting, and picks up the depth of color, pulling your eye towards the emphasis, adding little more contrast, and then adding one more to the foxglove to add a little movement towards the front.
The recipe. I started with a base of Deflexus. I ended up using four stems once I had it all filled in. Then the Foxglove, five stems, to create the framing. Then added in the Grevillea, three stems. The Garden Romance Garden Roses, three stems. And then Lisianthus, two stems broken apart to place around. The Kale, three stems to finish it off. Everything from Florabundance.com.
Combining food, mangoes and flowers, give you so much more. You'll find more creative inspiration with food and flowers on our website, FlowerSchool.com. If you have questions, you can reach us through there, but now it's your turn. Find your favorite things, create an arrangement. Be sure to take a picture and post it on social media. #FloralDesignInstitute so we all can see what you do as you do something you love.
