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.

>> With additional support from the following... >> I'll show you ways to enjoy flowers for the holidays beyond the traditional red and green in this episode of "Life in Bloom."

You'll learn how to arrange hydrangea blooms, create a silver-and-white centerpiece, decorate with unexpected colors, and make it snow.

Well, sort of.

I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

Welcome to the holidays and winter here in Michigan.

I've always enjoyed the change of seasons, and that's why I love living in the Great Lakes State.

It provides an amazing opportunity for a winter wonderland that makes the holiday season so beautiful.

I love the change of seasons, especially when it comes to winter.

Snow has a magical effect on the natural world that can't be denied.

A focus on winter and snow in your holiday arrangements can help them transition beyond the traditional holiday season.

I'll show you a few different techniques to reflect the season.

We'll also look at palettes that go beyond traditional holiday colors for projects that are fun for the holidays and beyond.

So, for today's project, we're making something in a big bowl.

But I want to put something in the center of the arrangement.

So, basically, what we're going to do is put our different types of flowers all around the edge, and we're going to emulate the silver container that we have.

I've built up a flower-foam platform in my silver container.

There's a third of block of foam on the bottom and two full blocks on top.

All of those have been soaked with flower nutrient.

I'll start with some Atlas evergreen.

I have one of these trees in my backyard, and it's great because it has a wonderful winter appeal, and it drapes nicely.

I love the silver aspidistra.

It matches the Atlas fir perfectly.

What I do is loop the leaf around and stick the stem through the opposite end of the leaf and then into the foam.

It makes it look like a loop of ribbon.

It lasts for weeks.

Then we'll add our eucalyptus.

I like that the eucalyptus adds a fresh fragrance.

The Atlas fir doesn't have very much of a cedar smell, so the eucalyptus is going to be the fragrance for this bouquet.

I'm crazy about the Yin Yang chrysanthemums, and I love them because of the black center and the white contrast.

We're using the clusters of the Yin Yang spray chrysanthemums all around the bouquet.

I want a foliage with a wintry texture.

So, this silver tree fern is a great addition.

I break off small pieces and make a cluster, and I can add the full clusters all the way around.

I like how they fit into a grouping because I have relief between the textures.

The white mini carnations give great texture, and they're a great relief because they bring a contrast of white to the rest of the all-silver bouquet.

Because the aspidistra leaves are fat and already look like ribbon loops, I'm adding two widths of sheer silver ribbon.

I'm poking them in using a bamboo stake.

I love the way that these come off the bolt and already have a loop to them, so it's simple to adhere them in a couple places and still have that wonderful flow.

The diamond ribbon is a great accent.

I don't need very much to make it look like trails of diamonds running through the arrangement.

With the perimeter style of this bouquet, we still have a vacant space in the center where we can place an object.

A tree like this would be beautiful on a buffet.

Or we can also use a votive... like this.

It's a beautiful candle that sits in the center, and we get great reflection from the silver all the way around.

If you didn't have an object, you could put a sphere of roses in the center.

There's lots of different options when we create a perimeter style of bouquet.

It's a great way for us to celebrate winter using beautiful flowers and foliages.

Protea and Leucadendron have been so popular, but this is a new way for us to work with them.

We're going to be taking our Protea and Leucadendron, and we'll be coating them with a winter snow and with some halogen glitter.

That'll ensure that they look as sparkly as real snow does when it's in the sunlight.

Let's get started with these pieces and get them snow-covered.

You'll notice I'm applying a light coat so that I can still see the colors of the flowers through the snow.

Now we need a little bit of sparkle.

That's going to look great.

We'll do it to all the different types.

I like to use the spray adhesive because the snow is heavier, and so it really attaches it well.

The glue for glitter is perfect for the second glue application, because it won't weigh down the snow after it's been placed.

We filled our pedestal vase with two blocks of soaked flower foam.

I've soaked it in flower nutrient.

Then I've added a collar of moss around the outside.

That'll help conceal the foam.

Then we'll add our Protea.

We'll finish by adding the Leucadendron in between.

We're leaving a space in the center where we'll set the cylinder vase.

We'll place a candle down inside... ...and set that into the middle of our arrangement.

It's a wonderful winter centerpiece.

I love the way that the Protea color shows through the snow.

That's what makes it so interesting and magical.

This is a simple project, and it's fun to do with kids, too.

Six spider mums -- we use the glue for glitter, apply it, dip it into the glitter, place it in the arrangement.

Follow that process with each one because you want to spray and immediately dip the spider mum into the glitter so that it adheres.

Place them into the arrangement.

And I've chosen a few silver ribbons.

I add those with my stick, giving it nice loops.

If you follow these steps, we've got a beautiful arrangement, and you can create it in less than ten minutes.

Narcissus papyraceus is one of a few species known as paperwhite, a perennial bulbous plant native to the Mediterranean region.

Paperwhites are part of the genus Narcissus, which includes plants known as daffodils.

Paperwhites are frequently grown as a houseplant, often forced to flower at Christmas.

The stems are mid-green and grow upright.

Mature height is usually one to one and a half feet, though this varies by variety.

Unlike other Narcissus species, paperwhites do not require chilling to promote bloom.

The bulbs begin to grow as soon as they are planted, with flowers appearing in three to four weeks.

Paperwhites thrive in moist, peat-moss-based potting mix.

Plants can also be grown in containers of water.

Cool temperatures between 50 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit and indirect light will help to prolong the bloom time.

People love paperwhites, but a problem with paperwhites is that they get really tall.

And then sometimes even the blossom falls over.

So, my grandpa taught me a long time ago, when you're starting your paperwhite Narcissus, for every bulb that you have, put in a tablespoon of gin.

So, for this one, I put in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 tablespoons of gin.

And then I added my water.

Then I allowed my paperwhites to completely absorb all that water before I added water again.

And you'll notice my buds are starting to set right now.

And my paperwhites are going to be nice and short.

Because of the pine tar, it stunts the growth of the paperwhite Narcissus.

It's something my grandpa figured out, and I'll never know exactly why, but it works every time.

The other good news is you can use cheap gin.

So, buy the cheapest possible gin you can and add that to your paperwhites.

Don't forget that you can do a little selection, too.

This one just has two little paperwhites in it, and I like decorating a great, little container like that with a band of ribbon.

I can just wrap it around and tie it into a knot, the same way that I did with the red one.

This makes a great, little gift.

So, maybe you do 10 or 12 of them and have them available for the babysitter or the mail person or your pet sitter.

It's a great way for them to take home and enjoy fresh flowers.

I'm going to use a blue bowl that I have, and we're going to incorporate pinecones and some great-looking pine to give this a blue-purple feel for the holidays.

We'll start with our block of foam.

Now, normally you might place your block of foam in the bouquet like this.

I'm going to place it on its end so that it goes from side to side.

Then we'll bevel the top.

And then we'll secure it to the bowl using our clear tape.

You can also use Scotch tape, which works well.

The great part about this special anchor tape is that it's waterproof.

And because we placed our foam up on one end, I want to make sure it's nice and secure in the bowl.

Then we can add our greenery.

This is some beautiful textural spruce.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

We're going to use these stems in a long manner.

We'll pull off the stems to create enough area to insert it and then place it directly into the foam.

Because it's got great, long, sweeping tendrils, we're going to be able to use those to great advantage in the centerpiece.

Next, we'll tuck in a few pieces of dusty miller.

Now we can add our ornaments and our pinecones.

Our pinecones are great Austrian pinecones, but they don't have a stem.

So, we use a taped wire and wrap that through the pinecone and bind it off tight on one side.

That leaves us a great stem that we can place into the arrangement.

For our ornaments, we're using shatterproof ornaments.

I'm going to trim off the little hangers, but it's great because they have great colors, and they're not going to break on us.

We can use a wired wood pick.

We'll place that through the hanger.

We'll thread on another couple ornaments and then tie that around our wood pick.

We've then created something that can be placed right directly into the arrangement.

We're going to pull the wire out of both ends of the side of the wired ribbon and twist those two wires together.

That's going to prevent those wires from pulling back through.

Then we can go to the opposite end and grab one side of the ribbon.

And we'll gather this back.

Now, this is a super-high-quality ribbon, and it's very thick and dense.

So, you just have to do it slowly to work its way down.

You don't want to break the wire.

If you break the wire, you're not going to be able to create the effect.

Then I can take both ends and use the wire that I have left and tie it around that end to secure it.

Then we can add the ribbon in between our flowers and our ornaments.

With our gemmed ribbon, it's a beautiful ribbon.

And I want to expose as much of it as possible.

So, we'll just cut a dovetail on either side.

We'll tuck it in to the arrangement.

Because it's made of silk, I'm just actually tucking it in between the flowers, making sure that it doesn't touch the foam, because I don't want it to soak up any of the water.

It's the perfect way for us to celebrate the holidays with nontraditional colors and nontraditional flowers, like hydrangea.

Pinecones are a favorite symbol of winter, and we can easily change up their color with a bit of spray paint.

We can also apply glue for glitter and dip the edges in coordinating glitter.

It's fun to play with unique or unexpected colors for your winter craft projects.

So, now we'll arrange our pinecones, along with a few ornaments and some decorative wire, inside this great-looking apothecary.

You'll notice that I have some pinecones that still have a matte finish.

I didn't glitter everything, so we get a nice serendipity nature that's going to go on inside there and really make it look like a collection.

We'll start with a piece of decorative wire.

I'm just going to take that out... ...and swirl it through the vase.

You can add an ornament or two at the bottom and some of our smaller pinecones.

Just going to arrange everything so that I like exactly where everything falls.

Mixing and matching the colors.

And occasionally we'll just add a full-sized ornament.

Our lid fits on top, and we can accent it with some ribbon.

Because we've used the glitter and all of the fun, festive colors, we could use something modern like this that would still have a very strong traditional Christmas feel.

Or we could make it really contemporary using the pink and chartreuse green.

I'm going to use that one today.

We'll cut it at a dovetail.

And we'll tie it around that great handblown apothecary top.

Just do half of a shoelace bow.

So, creating it as a shoelace and then pulling the ribbon through rather than making one loop on the other side.

So, now we have the single loop.

So, it looks like half of a shoelace.

The ribbon's wired.

So, we can shape it.

Thanks for joining me for this special episode of "Life in Bloom."

I hope you've enjoyed these holiday projects that reflect the winter landscape and the magic of the season.

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

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

>> Visit J's website, 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.

>> With additional support from the following... Closed-caption funding provided by Holland America Flowers.