Specimen in Stone
In this Flower School How-To Video, we spotlight individual floral specimens in a sculptural stone container. With one bloom of each variety—heliconia, anthurium, dahlia, bella donna, and centaurea—the design highlights the unique beauty of each flower. Minimalist and intentional, it’s a study in form, texture, and floral appreciation.
Video Transcription
Today, a specimen in stone, one of my favorite vessels using one of everything I could find. Well, not everything, but one of all my favorites. Let me show you how it's done.
The vessel, one of my favorites, it's not waterproof, so I have lined it with a little plastic liner. And then for support, using a floral armature, using floral netting, tucking it in multiple layers, and then I just wedged it in place, no tape needed. Then just add water pre-mixed with flower food, ready for your flowers.
When you work with a variety of flowers, it adds immediate value. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. You don't need a lot of anything. This belladonna, local grown, tucking it in, and then going ahead and adding the buds as well, because it adds visual value. A little bit of movement. You can see it spins around. As we get everything in, it'll start staying in place. Maybe a fabulous dahlia. Isn't that great? Tucking it in a little bit lower. Bringing back the bud. A heliconia, yes. Combining temperate and tropical. Giving a cut, setting it in place, finding the spot, maybe single anthurium. You can see when you're working with specimens, you just do one of each and dot them around using a central binding point.
As I finish, I think about texture. A bit of centauria. Is that not texture? Oh my gosh. Tucking it in. Maybe bringing it towards the front so it shows well, finding the perfect little spot up, shifting things around and echinops another perfect textural item. Tucking it in and each item that you add helps the next one to stay in place. So like the heliconia that spins, I place it up and then add in. Notice how that locks it. Then I can tuck in another, and then coming back with galax leaves one of my favorites to help break the light of the container and give a little bit of a base to all the flowers.
The recipe I worked in ones, yes, one of everything. Let's start with the Belladonna one, stem plus the buds, one Heliconia, one Dahlia, one Anthurium, one Centauria, one Echinops, one, one, one. And then five Galax to finish it off.
If you're a gardener so many times, you have one of this and one of those, this type of specimen design is perfect. You'll find more creative inspiration on the website, FlowerSchool.com If you have questions, you can reach us through there. But now it's your turn. Go gather one each of your favorite stems. Create a design, take a picture, post it on social media, and #FloralDesignInstitute. That way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.
