J Schwanke’s Life In Bloom

"J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following... That flower feeling.

♪ At home.

♪ At work.

♪ Or anytime.

♪ CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom," where flowers and wellness go hand in hand.

We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

♪ Today on "Life in Bloom," we're exploring flowers that have been dried or preserved, including tips on drying flowers at home.

Dried Hydrangeas arranged three ways with our friend Kim Carson, a lush wreath, and a cocktail with lavender bitters.

♪ I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

While the fleeting nature of flowers is one of my favorite things about them, sometimes, it's nice to have them around for a longer spell.

For years, people have toiled for ways to extend and preserve flower life with varying success, from heirloom methods of successfully drying blooms cut from your own yard to modern methods of preservation devised by scientists.

Dried and preserved flowers have much beauty to offer, and enjoyment can sometimes be sustained indefinitely.

Join me to learn more of the magic of flowers that have been dried or preserved.

Here's a technique that I like to use for drying flowers.

We want to make sure that our flowers are vibrant.

We want to make sure that they're open.

We can also even use some flowers that aren't in the best condition.

Maybe these are a little bit older and they're starting to expire, but we still want to save them and cherish that memory.

This technique works great for flowers that are just beyond their prime, and then you'll have a fun dried flower that you can use.

It's called a bundling technique.

We'll take our flowers.

We'll gather them up so that they're all together in one bunch.

I'm going to remove any leaves that might be in here, because I'm gonna bind them together right here where the stems are.

We're gonna use our bind wire.

We're going to tie it around tightly.

And then we tie that off.

So now we've got a neat little bundle.

Let me show you again.

We can use some of these beautiful roses like this.

One of the great things to remember, too, is if your flowers have a fragrance, they may still have a fragrance after they're dried.

The scent won't remain as strong.

We can enhance it with essential oils after they're dry.

Right now, we want to get them into that bundle.

The other thing that's important is vibrancy of color.

These pink roses are pale pink right now, but they'll become slightly darker once they've dried.

Red roses like these will become almost black once they're dried.

So, we've got those gathered into a bundle.

We'll come back again with our bind wire and wrap it around there in a nice tight bundle.

I love using the bind wire, but you can also use rubber bands.

As the stems dry, they do deplete in size, so a rubber band can be very helpful.

Our next step is to create a hook.

And I just use some decorative wire like this.

We slip that inside our bundle.

And bring it up like this.

Then we can tie that off.

Now we've got a great way to hang it up in an area that's very dark and cool.

The darker the room and the cooler the room, the slower the drying process.

As these dry in the darkness, they'll retain as much color as possible.

If we use an area that's very warm and very light, we won't retain near as much color.

The reason that we hang them upside down and don't just leave them in a vase or laying on a table is that they'll become compressed if laid on a table, or if they're in a vase, they'll droop.

And so, this way, we hang them upside down, and when they're hanging upside down, they'll dry in this position.

And so when we invert them when dried, they'll look like fresh flowers.

Let's get these hung up in our cool, dark area, and we'll take a look at them in about a week.

So, now we're back about a week later, and you can see how our flowers are progressing.

We've hung them upside down, so you'll see that they're drying straight upright instead of wilting or tipping over.

That's a huge benefit.

Colors are getting darker.

Our reds are getting more intense.

Our pinks are getting more intense.

These are drying nice and stable.

We've probably got about another week or two that they could benefit from hanging upside down in a cool, dry place.

That's the best way to achieve the best color you can with your dried flowers.

Today, I want to show you an easy way to make a dried bouquet.

We'll be using some dried material from the garden and also some dried material that we bought at the craft store.

We're using an Allium pod as the structure on the inside of the bouquet.

These different textures will go together, and it's going to make an easy hand-tied bouquet.

We're starting with our tall, vertical pampas grass.

We'll add our different types of millet and dried flowers.

These have been color-enhanced so they're that wonderful minty-green color.

And then we're adding our Hydrangeas.

Now it's time for our pheasant feathers.

So, I'll wrap a wire around the bouquet and set it off to the side so that I can curl some of the pheasant feathers.

This is an easy technique, but you need to be careful.

You're running your thumb and the feather down the backside of a knife blade.

This isn't the sharp side, and as we give it light pressure, it's going to curl the feather.

It's a fun technique because it gives personality to some of the feathers, and you can use others straight.

We'll tie off the arrangement using bind wire.

I like to do several wrappings around so that I get a nice wide band.

That'll be beautiful inside my glass vase.

Then we simply cut it to length and drop it in the vase.

Here's my "Bloom 365 Tip," helping you enjoy flowers every day of the year.

Sometimes, we have blooms left over or blooms that we can pick from our garden.

Here's a way to save those blooms and create your own moment in time with flowers.

I have a flower press, and inside here, we have newsprint.

And then we have paper that doesn't have newsprint on it to protect the flowers.

This is some Astrantia that I pressed a couple weeks ago.

It's important to have a level of cardboard and then the paper.

Paper on top and a few pieces of newsprint on top of that to help absorb the moisture.

Then another piece of cardboard goes on top.

Let's do it again down here.

Our pansies have quite a bit of moisture, so we'll put some down there.

And then we'll put our layer in between.

And then we can place our flowers directly on that paper.

Remember to leave a space in between your blooms, too, so that they don't bleed into one another.

That's a good grouping.

Put the paper on top.

Then we'll use a few more pieces of newsprint and place that on top.

And then we can place our cardboard back on there.

Then we line up our screws.

And even everyone up and put our wing nuts on.

We don't want to screw it down completely tight.

Every day, we'll come back to our flower press and do one turn.

That way, we're slowly tightening it up as the flowers dry inside.

It's a wonderful way to save your flowers for a moment in time.

Pampas grass is a common name which may refer to any of several similar-looking tall-growing species of grass.

The botanical name is Cortaderia selloana.

Pampas grass is a tall, feathery plant that produces fluffy plumes at its tips and is used as an ornamental addition in many landscapes.

The grass often is used dry or fresh in vase arrangements, especially during fall.

It takes a little time and effort to make the arrangements last and maintain their appearance.

The flower can be white, cream, silver, pink, and even purple at certain stages of growth.

Pampas grass has become increasingly famous on Instagram due to its large boho-style backdrop the photographers can't seem to get enough of.

The plant provides texture to any flower arrangement.

Many people have beautiful Hydrangea blooms in their yard.

Hydrangeas can be dried and offer lots of opportunities for arranging and enjoying them after they've been dried.

I've asked my flower friend Kim to join me, and, today, we'll create dried hydrangeas three ways.

All of these are from my yard.

And, so, what I did last year -- So this is a year in the making, okay?

So, I monitored these.

These are my pinnacle Hydrangeas, and they were getting this wonderful green tone and then they started to get this rusty color, like this.

Yeah.

And I was watching them, and in one day, they went kind of brown like this.

Yeah.

That's so pretty, though, right?

So I wished I would have cut them a day earlier.

Yeah.

But I cut them, and then what I did with these was, I hung them upside down in my garage because they were already papery-like.

Right.

Okay?

And, so, these I took -- These two specifically, these two guys right here... Oh, that's pretty.

...I cut and put in a vase of water and let the water evaporate.

Yes.

And I cut them when they started to get a little papery.

This one's a little papery.

This one was not.

So, see the difference?

Yes.

See how this one got a little tighter and this one got bigger?

Okay.

And, so, I have some pinnacle ones, like this guy.

Mm-hmm.

And I have some mophead ones, like this guy.

Yeah.

And I put these in one part glycerin to three parts water, okay?

Mm-hmm.

And then I let them sit in that, and they lose all their color, but they're soft.

I was gonna say, the texture is completely different.

They're soft.

Yeah, they're just like a regular flower, but they don't have any color.

Oh, they're beautiful.

And this was as blue as this.

Unbelievable.

So the glycerin takes that away.

And, so, if you want to glycerinize them, they will be more soft and supple, but they're gonna be this dried color.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This was one of the glycerinized ones, and I wanted to color it, so I used some translucent paint and I sprayed it with a little bit of blue and a little bit of purple.

And then I get a nice little tonality like that.

That's beautiful.

So, you've got some different things like that.

Our first thing that we're gonna do is, we're going to make an arrangement.

So, what's your favorite memory of Hydrangeas?

When I was watching "It's a Wonderful Life."

Just for me, watching "It's a Wonderful Life" and learning of that shrub, that bush.

It's bush, right?

Right.

I mean, how can you not love -- How can you not love Hydrangeas?

I don't understand.

Right.

This was the first year I think I did it the right way, because I always hung it upside down, and they all turned this, but it was real crispy and lost its shape.

So, you took it like this and hung it upside down.

Yeah, I did it.

And it's -- I didn't know that it could retain the color until I watched your show.

And then I ended up, this year, putting it in a vase and then just let the water evaporate, right?

Correct.

Correct.

And then it retained its colors.

So, I used a little bit of pampas grass in here with that.

Yeah, that's pretty, too.

Isn't that fun?

Now we're going to build a garland.

In a garland, inside it, you have to have something that gives it the stability.

Mm-hmm.

And that's this wire.

And this is how long our garland's gonna be, okay?

Oh, wow!

But I have to be able to get around it to wrap it with the bind wire.

Mm-hmm.

So, what I do with this end is, I just curl it back so that it gives me a little bit of room.

Yeah.

Then -- So, let's see.

I'm gonna grab a couple of these guys.

And I'll let you -- You're gonna be able to feed them to me.

Okay, okay, okay.

And so I trim off their big stems.

We gather them up and lay them on this.

♪ And then I use -- The stems are laying here.

Right.

And I just got to get in there and grab them -- grab those stems like that.

Yeah.

Secure them, right?

You're scaring them.

Right.

So then a couple more.

Yeah.

There's some more.

Keep them coming.

[ Laughs ] Perfect.

Oh, see?

You're the best.

You're the best sous-chef -- flower sous-chef I've had.

[ Laughs ] That's awesome.

So, then, just making sure you're always going in the same direction.

'Cause if you don't go in the same direction, it'll unwind on you.

You got to keep winding this around in the same direction, which it's not any big trick.

But see, with this coiled up, then -- You can just keep -- I can get my hand around it.

♪ You know, it's weird, because this is so -- it feels -- I'm always so delicate, like, when I'm, you know, trying to get the dust off of them and everything.

Right.

But they're not I don't think as delicate as I thought.

Blow dryer.

Oh, good idea.

Blow dryer to get the dust off.

Good idea.

Yeah.

Super easy.

Because we have a wire in there, too... Yes.

...we can form it.

So say we wanted to run it down a table and serpentine it a little bit.

Oh, man.

Or something like that.

Just a beautiful arrangement, wouldn't it?

Yeah.

So, Kim, these are our panicle hydrangeas.

Yeah.

Alright?

'Cause they go like that, right?

Yeah.

They go like a point, right?

And so we are making a wreath with those.

Oh, isn't that beautiful?

Okay?

Oh, man.

So, it's just a wire-wreath form.

You can get this online.

Yeah.

Okay?

Or at a craft store.

And then we're gonna use cable ties to put this together.

Wow.

Easy.

Okay, to try and make it a little easier.

So then what we do is we lay those on here.

And I generally try and lay three together.

So, then, you want to keep it in place.

Yeah.

And you want to keep it tight when you go in there.

And then tighten up as much as you can.

Then I come back and I cut this.

And I cut these, but I leave them longer.

Don't cut them real short.

Is that to support the flowers?

'Cause then they won't slide out of there.

Okay.

Okay?

♪ You can hang it on your front door.

Sure.

If you hang it on your front door, you're probably gonna shorten the base life a little bit.

Mm-hmm.

Because of the sun?

Because of the sun and the wind and the elements.

What do you think?

I love it.

I love it.

Isn't that fabulous?

It's fabulous.

♪ Now that we've completed our garland, we've completed our wreath, we've got our arrangement in, let's have a cocktail.

I'm ready.

Okay.

Alright.

Many years ago, I was introduced to preserved flowers, which are different from dried flowers.

These are all real flowers that have had a preservation technique that makes them feel and look like fresh flowers, yet they're preserved, and they'll last for a year or more.

They have color that's been enhanced on the inside, and they feel like a real flower.

So, we're going to use these preserved flowers today to create something inside this bowl.

It's gonna be an arrangement that we would set on a coffee table and look down on.

So everything is gonna take place inside the perimeter of our glass space.

Let me show you how it's done.

We'll start first with a hanging amaranthus.

And you'll notice how I'm spiraling this around the inside of the container.

Then I'm using pampas grass.

I'm taking the pampas grass and gently bending it, and I'm actually breaking a little bit of the stem so that I can get it to make a nice curve.

♪ We'll also gently curve our foxtail fern and wrap that around inside.

Then we'll add our dark, tropical, vertical leaves.

I'll also slip some in the side so that we can see them through the outside of the glass container.

♪ ♪ Now we can add our flowers.

I love that these are preserved carnations.

They look just like fresh white carnations.

♪ We'll accent with our peach-colored rice flower.

♪ Then we can add our roses and our small button pom poms.

Those look great 'cause they're like little cushions throughout the arrangement.

♪ We'll finish up with our pieces of maidenhair fern.

They're gonna be on the edge and kind of go over the lip of the container.

That helps draw our eye inside the vase.

♪ This is a wonderful way to use preserved flowers.

It's a great way to create a little secret garden for our life in bloom.

Kim, it was fun making stuff.

[ Laughs ] It was fun.

But now we need "Flower Cocktail Hour."

For sure, for sure.

So, I was trying to figure out something that would go in the dried vein.

And lavender is one of the things that we dry so much.

And so I made lavender bitters... Yum.

...so that we could use that in today's drink.

It's called the Lavender Blanc is the name of the drink that we're gonna have.

But the lavender bitters is really fun.

So, you start with dried lavender, and then you do the zest from an orange, and you do cloves, and you do ginger, and you do honey.

Oh, man.

And then you place it all in a container and let it infuse with vodka for about two weeks.

Oh, that sounds so good.

Right?

And so then you strain it off, and then you have bitters.

♪ We are going to use -- We're making a drink for two, okay?

So, we have an ice-fill thing.

So, we have two jiggers of dry vermouth.

Okay.

And then we're gonna have a white-wine aperitif -- 2 ounces of that.

We're going to add our lavender bitters.

And how much are you adding of those, do you think?

About a tablespoon per one.

Okay.

Okay?

And then we're gonna shake that.

♪ And we have our little rocks glasses.

[ Chuckles ] And then we're gonna finish it with tonic water.

You do that so well.

[ Laughs ] No experience, right?

Years and years of practice, right, right?

Then we're gonna garnish it with some fresh lavender that I just picked this morning in the garden.

That is so cool.

Isn't that pretty?

Yes.

Okay, now, before it's "Flower Cocktail Hour," it is flower crown time.

Oh, man!

Right, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[ Laughs ] So let's see.

You look beautiful!

[ Laughs ] You look beautiful.

There we go, there we go.

Right, right, right?

It's perfect, right?

It's perfect.

Okay.

So, cheers... Cheers.

...to the best hydrangea helper I have ever had.

[ Laughs ] I think that's awesome.

And the best teacher as well.

Awesome.

Now it's time to share some flower fan mail.

Today, I have two beautiful bouquets to share with you from a viewer known as Swamp Gardener.

Kind of mysterious, but I love it.

I love this combination of cosmos and a beautiful, hand-painted container with a covered bridge.

And then there's an elegant, tapered vase with an umbrella-like structure of garden flowers that includes zinnias.

Thanks, Swamp Gardener.

I love to see pictures of your flower arrangements.

We call them Schwankes after a viewer's nickname.

Send them to [email protected] -- the letter "J," "@," the letter "U," bloom.com.

And watch for more Schwankes on upcoming shows.

Extending our enjoyment of flowers by drying or preserving them to have in our home can give us a lift for weeks and even months, especially if there are times when we can't have fresh flowers around.

For "Life in Bloom," I'm J Schwanke.

Oh, wow.

And that's where the flowers go, so that I will also recall and take care of them.

Do you ever walk by your flowers on the counter and say, "Thank you for giving me so much beauty?"

Oh, absolutely.

I talk to them all the time.

"Oh, my God.

You're so beautiful."

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Me too, me too.

I talk to them all the time, because it's just like, "Oh, hey.

How's it going today?

How are you feeling today?"

I want to check in on everybody.

And I touch them.

I like to touch and just let them know that I'm here, like, "Oh, my gosh, you're so beautiful."

Yeah.

"Thank you for giving me beauty today."

It even smells good.

Yeah.

And it tastes better.

Right.

It's lavender.

It has that lavender flavor.

Mmm.

It's very refreshing.

It's better than smelling the lavender.

[ Laughing ] Drinking the lavender is the best part.

"J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is filmed in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Visit J's web site, ubloom.com, for flower projects and crafts, complete recipes, behind-the-scenes videos, J's blog, flower cocktails, and more.

♪ "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following... That flower feeling.

♪ At home.

♪ At work.

♪ Or anytime.

♪ CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom," where flowers and wellness go hand-in-hand.

We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

♪ Closed-caption funding provided by Holland America Flowers.

♪