We welcomed ‘A Man and his Box of Flowers’ this month  as Doug  Howard  demonstrated and explained his love of flower arranging and how he came to combine this with his ‘day job’ as a barber. We also recognised how he is enjoying his retirement and how his travels and activities are providing inspiration and influence on his designs.

Throughout, it was Doug’s passion for and knowledge of foliage  ( as well as beautiful flowers) that I remember most from the demonstration – I would have been delighted if I had won several of the designs before a single flower was added  (sadly I didn’t!).

A variety of colour and texture was provided within the foliage and he also showed us several techniques of leaf  manipulation. Heuchera, bergenia, fatsia, eunonymous, aspidistra, mahonia, larch, steel grass and several different ferns and palms  are just a few examples of the foliage he used. His arrangements were then enhanced by roses, carnations, gladioli, chrysanthemums, agapanthus, gerberas, lisianthus, calla lillies and dahlias.

There was also variety  in size – from a coffee table  design using just three gerbera to his final arrangement which was a stunning centre piece on the stage.

Doug has kindly agreed that we can share the pictures of his designs.

Now a regular feature of our annual programme, almost two thirds of our membership enjoyed an evening of flowers, friendship and fun.

Flowers and accessories from Sales Table profit  meant everyone could make an arrangement using 5 stems of flowers and midelino sticks. The photos show the variety of designs and the talent we have within the Club.

Friendship: a generous and tasty ‘bring and share’ buffet from the members.

Fun:  a tombola for charity funds and a table quiz to challenge even the most knowledgeable plantsman.

Thank you to the hardworking committee for all the planning and preparation.

We know we have done well when someone says ‘I think we should have two of these a year’!

We were delighted to welcome Clare Allen of Skipp’s Florists this month as she had kindly filled in at short notice when our booked demonstrator was indisposed. Clare  presented ‘Anniversary Jewels’ with all the flowers and containers depicting the wedding anniversary colour

We started  with a grouped arrangement representing Silver wedding using  dried pussy willow, antirrhinums, lisianthus , alstromeria,  stocks, menthol and sweet dolomiti roses.  We moved on to Ruby and Clare talked about having movement through the design. This included palms,  mahonia, beech, cotinus, clove carnations, red germinii and rubena lilies. The arrangement and movement was further enhanced by mechanics of  red wire netting with sequins and voile flower heads.

A beautiful hand blown blue glass dish was the base for the Sapphire arrangement. This included baby blue eucalyptus, brunia foliage and a variety of blue flowers .  Surprisingly,  the  arrangement was enhanced by the final addition of pink phlox and dulcet roses. A useful tip:  hydrangea are so thirsty use an orchid tube!

Next came Golden;  a flat design consisting primarily of lemon and cream flowers   including alstromeria,  stocks and  crème de crème roses. Steel grass was used to ‘cage’ the arrangement. Fifty five years signifies Emerald;   lime green carnations and Bloom Anastasia chrysanthemums  were used together with ferns, baby blue eucalyptus, molucella, dracaena and glittered coral fern.

An eye-catching and glittering container for the finale representing a Diamond wedding. This was a layered arrangement using alstromeria, alchemilla mollis, white campanula, tanacetum,and beautiful Duchess paeonies.

Thank you Clare for sharing your expertise during the evening  whilst producing stunning arrangements.

By the end of the evening everyone was feeling very jealous of what a beautiful garden Daphne must have    – her variety, use, knowledge and love of  mainly home grown plant material was tremendous.

Her demonstration ‘Old Friends and New Faces’  used a variety of containers, all of which had a story attached – some from years ago and others very recent.

We have chosen two of our favourite arrangements . Firstly the horizontal one using pink stripe phormium leaves, ‘antique’roses , bouvardia, bergenia, viburnum tinus and badam pods.  Midollino sticks formed the focus of the next design round which purple carnations and scarlet gerbera were spiralled. This was finished off with choisya sundance, hebe and coca spathes.

The other four arrangements were equally  well planned and executed  with interesting combination of colours  and a wide variety of flowers including irises, agapanthus, caffia lilies, chrysanthemums and tulips.

The stage already looked bright and welcoming with lots of daffodils and Spring flowers when we arrived for our first demonstration of 2016 with Barbara Collins presenting ‘Spring Bouquet’ – a really appropriate title as we met on St David’s Day.
Barbara used both definitions of ‘bouquet’ producing a lovely hand tie as her first arrangement and throughout all the designs used Spring flowers with a beautiful scent. She linked several of the arrangements with Spring events including a basket of flowers for Mother’s Day and a church window design using pussy willow for Easter.
Barbara’s love and knowledge of plant material was apparent throughout and we can name only a few varieties of foliage (much of which was garden material) that was included; griselinia, sennecio, Kew Green skimmia, pittisporum, cornus, bergenia, Xanadu philodendron and willow leaf hebe.
The foliage was complemented by just as many varieties of flowers. Our favourites were Sky Jacket hyacinths, Blueberry roses, multi headed veronica, Flashpoint pink double tulips and freesias.
Barbara’s entertaining presentation was full of humour, information and lots of tips for both novice and experienced flower arrangers all of which made for a well balanced and enjoyable evening for everyone.
By the end of the evening the stage looked stunning – thank you Barbara for a lovely evening.

We were delighted to welcome so many members and friends to a packed hall for our Christmas demonstration.
We were all certainly ‘ In Festive Mood’ by the end of John’s demonstration; the stage looked stunning with a variety of colour (not always traditionally associated with Christmas) , shape, texture and design. John’s knowledge and enthusiasm shone throughout the evening and all of us now have ideas on how ‘to make designs bigger!’
Thank you John for bringing our Emerald Anniversary celebrations to a spectacular conclusion.
A few pictures below remind us of a wonderful evening as we wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful, successful and healthy 2016.

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The hall looked welcoming and attractive as we arrived for our meeting this month. There was an expectant and relaxed atmosphere as over 70 members and friends gathered to celebrate our Emerald Anniversary; 55 years of Bedford Floral Art Society ( originally Bedford Flower Arranging Society). With attractive table arrangements, emerald green accessories and hand painted menu cards for everyone the tables looked very inviting. After a delicious meal, the cake cutting and the toast we enjoyed a flower arranging demonstration by Pat Davies who continued the celebratory and emerald theme with three very attractive and different designs.
The arrangements were raffled together with additional prizes generously donated by local businesses and individuals. As usual, our sales table looked stunning and members bought in anticipation of Christmas.
Many thanks must be given to everyone who contributed to make the evening so successful and enjoyable including the many members who ‘entered into the emerald spirit’ by wearing something green.
We hope the Society will continue to flourish and develop as we look forward to celebrating with ‘diamonds’ in five years.

We were treated to a wonderful evening of contemporary designs from Dulcie this month. Her passion for flowers and plant material was obvious throughout her commentary and we were also given lots of practical advice and tips e.g. how to manipulate calla lillies, making fish tails together with a smaller leaf from one black Thai cordyline, using coloured floral foam as part of a design rather than covering it with foliage.
Dulcie started the evening reading us a passage from How to do the Flowers by Constance Spry – this was written in 1952 but the comments are as relevant and pertinent to contemporary designs today as they were to the arrangements of more than sixty years ago.
The title of the presentation was ‘Simplicity’ and a common theme throughout the evening was the small number of flowers used in each arrangement but always positioned and grouped to give maximum effect.
Each of the six designs were very different but equally striking. We have included three photographs and two of them show only one component of larger arrangements. (we don’t want to spoil the impact and enjoyment for other flower clubs!)
The first picture shows the use of coloured floral foam together with fasciated willow, blue gentian, fatsia leaves and Anastasia chrysanths. Aluminium wire was used to create an enclosed space. Next we have a complete design; a vertical spathe with two placements using Virginia creeper linked by rubus triclor. The only flowers Dulcie used were mango calla lillies to create shape and flow. The colours in the final design were spectacular ( the picture below shows the middle component).
The stage looked stunning at the end of the demonstration and a comment from a member ‘ the Open Evening will have to be good to beat this one’ really sums up the pleasure and inspiration you gave us all Dulcie – thank you.

There were lots of very happy ladies this month as several of Lionel’s arrangements consisted of ‘duos’ so there were more raffle prizes than usual! They were all beautiful but also of a size and design that we could learn from and try to reproduce at home. Lionel’s love of plant material and gardening (especially the challenge of getting a cutting to take!) was obvious and a very wide variety of foliage was used throughout.
The first arrangement was in a traditional jardinière with golden privet, conifer, purple lisianthus and tangerine gerbera. Lionel’s presentation was entitled ‘In Touch’ and he used a glass container for the second design. Rubus, fern and variegated forsythia were used as the background foliage, Anthuriums were positioned ‘away from the other plant material’ to give the impression of flight and then hypericum berries were clustered in the centre.
Lionel reminisced with tales of his childhood and the family tricycle as he produced his ‘Touch of nostalgia’ design using yucca, white hebe, choisya ternata, ballota and euonymous before adding lime green carnations which followed the movement of the yucca stems. We were ‘In touch with the Orient’ for the fourth design using oriental style containers. Dry material gave height with wonderful hosta leaves, bergenia and phlomis leaves. This arrangement was completed with magnificent cymbidium orchids.
A vertical design using roses was next with a broad base of foliage (principally crypotmeria and skimmia) A horizontal arrangement was added to the front– using mainly the same foliage and flowers with the addition of some bottle brush. .
A Touch of wood was the last design using a central piece of wood with complementary arrangements either side. This had a link with the theme of gardening which had run through the entire presentation. A wide variety of texture, form ,colour and foliage was used including harlequin berberis, variegated wiegelia, white marbled laurel, phormium leaves, garden hypericum, echinops and fatshedera. Montbretia, gladioli, lilac stocks, pink lilies, pink carnations and red button chrysanthemums completed a beautiful final arrangement which included colours of all seasons.
Thank you for an enjoyable evening Lionel – hope the journey back to Braintree was uneventful.

A lovely Summer’s evening and we were again transported to foreign climes with Jane Fox’s ‘ Come fly with me’ presentation. We started off with an arrangement representing a flight in ‘Just Jane ‘- a restored Lancaster bomber. Jane explained the history and restoration. Palm pods represented the aeroplane’s wings with pale delphiniums for the blue sky and white lilies for clouds. The design also included fatsia and laurel leaves together with hydrangea heads, avalanche roses and alliums.

After a calm flight we arrived in Barbados with Jane telling us lots of interesting facts and experiences from her holiday there. But we were also looking forward to the next WAFA World Show which is being held on the island in 2017. A beautiful piece of driftwood, palms, pittosporum, hosta and croton leaves formed the background for loves lie bleeding, lilies and pale pink roses.
We were off to the beach next with a beautiful yellow design (sand and sun) using antirrhinums, sunflowers and yellow fresco roses with cream carnations (to lift the other colours) against a background of palms, cotoneaster, choisya and hosta foliage. The container this time was made of lily grass decorated with jacaranda seed pods and the design incorporated canes bound with rope to give height and a piece of driftwood.

A vision of flying fish playing in the waves was the inspiration for the fourth design. Foliage including
fishtail palms, pittosporum, croton, fatsia and sweetheart plant leaves were used with strelitzia, larkspur, burgundy carnations and orange Gemini gerberas to produce a stunning arrangement.
Sunsets on holiday always seem to be memorable as was the next design based upon a sphere of wicker. Cotinus foliage, Joseph’s coat of many colours and black Thai leaves formed a background for hypericum berries, tangerine high and mighty roses and anthuriums .
Coming home is always very important and the colours of Britain were represented in the last arrangement using conifer, pine, laurel, pittosporum and hostas with green goddess gladioli, Anastasia chrysanthemums, and euphorbia.
The use of a wide selection of flowers and foliage produced a stunning stage display at the end of the evening and together with Jane’s obvious love of floral design and her informative and knowledgeable commentary ensured everyone had had a very enjoyable evening. Thank you