Flower Delivery

These beautiful blooms can be yours all year long with our easy fabric sculpture. Calla lilies are one of the most elegant, colorful flowers in the garden. They come in flame red, bright yellow, vivid purple, pale cream or delicate pink. Please read all directions thoroughly before beginning this project.

SUPPLIES FOR THIS PROJECT:
Scraps of flat fleece for blooms
Scraps of fabric for blooms
Various green fabrics for stems and leaves
Matching thread for flowers.
Florist wire for stems and leaves
Fabric glue that dries clear
Short jar
Marbles or shiny stones
FABRICS THAT WORK WELL FOR YOUR BOUQUET:

Velvet, taffeta, satin or even polished cottons.
Once you have made a few of these, you will come up with your own beautiful combinations.

CUTTING FLOWERS:

There are two sizes of flowers in this project. The larger o­ne is a shape 5″ high and 4″ wide approx. The smaller o­ne is a shape 4″ high and 3″ wide approx. The shape is rather oval with a tapered top. There is no hard, fast rules or measurements for this. Mother Nature doesn’t make two exactly alike.

For each flower cut two pieces of fabric and o­ne piece of fleece the size you wish to make. Our illustration shows o­ne large and two smaller flowers.

CUTTING LEAVES:

Leaves are cut from various dark and light solid co or fabrics. Large leaves are 10″ long and 3″ wide at the bottom. Small leaves are about 7″ long and 2″ wide at the bottom. See picture for shape.

SEWING FLOWERS:
Sew one large fleece shape to wrong side of o­ne large flower fabric shape.
With right sides together, sew to another large fabric shape, leaving bottom edge open to turn.
Trim seal allowances to 1/4″ and turn right side out.
Turn seam allowance in along opening and finger press.
Do NOT stitch bottom closed.
Repeat these steps for all flowers.

STEMS:
Stems can be any length from 8″ to 4″. The choice is yours.
Cut two pieces of florist wire for each stem and twist together.
Wrap 1″ strip of green fabric very tightly around wires for each stem.
Secure each end of stems with fabric glue and let dry.
LEAVES:
With right sides together stitch leaf pieces.
Trim seam allowances and turn right side out.
Do NOT stitch bottom edge closed.
Repeat these steps for all leaves.
Cut floral wire twice the length of each leaf.
Fold in half, twist together and insert into each leaf.
Cut off excess wire if need be.
Do NOT stitch bottom edge closed.
Set aside

Insert wrapped stems into flowers thru open edge.
Pinch flower around stem and stitch together using tiny stitches and matching thread.
Repeat this with each flower.
FINISHING TOUCHES:
Find a short vase or jar to arrange your soft sculpture bouquet.
Mine was o­nly about 4″ tall.
Fill bottom half with shiny stones or marbles.
Arrange your bouquet to suit your taste.
You can glue the blooms and leaves to the bottom of the jar if you prefer.

Mary Wilkins
sewwhatsnew@hfx.eastlink.ca

Sew Whats New
http://sew-whats-new.com

If you appreciate plants that have no hesitation in boldly stating their presence with huge, almost artificially perfect flowers, then tuberous begonias are for you. While some may find them rather too overstated, downright brazen even, if you like colour, and plenty of it, with subtlety an option rather than compulsory, then look no further.

Flowering from late spring, as the days exceed 13 hours long, until well into autumn when the foliage dies back, these tuberous-rooted perennials have been extensively hybridised and refined to the point where the larger-flowered forms are nothing short of spectacular. For those with greenhouses or a very mild winter climate there are even types that flower well into winter, if not right through the cooler months.

Description and classification and groups
Begonias are among those convenient plants where the proper name is also the common name. The genus is found in the tropics and subtropics, particularly in the Americas, and is made up of around 900 species with 130-odd in cultivation, from which many cultivars and hybrids have been developed. These garden forms have been divided into 8 main categories. They are:
1. Cane-like, which have narrow, upright stems with conspicuous leaf nodes and evergreen foliage.

2. Shrub-like, which are bushy plants with branching stems.

3. Thick-stemmed, which resemble the cane-like but with much heavier stems that sometimes form a trunk.

4. Semperflorens, which are the fibrous rooted types usually treated as summer-flowering bedding annuals.

5. Rhizomatous, which may be evergreen or deciduous and which are often grown as much for their foliage as for their flowers.

6. Rex-cultorum, which are the fancy-leaved Rex begonias that are usually grown as house plants.

7. Tuberous, which have thickened tuberous roots and which usually die back over winter or, in the case of the winter-flowering types, which may be dried off at some other time.

8. Trailing Scandent, which are pendulous, ever-blooming plants often with long internodes and which should not be confused with the trailing tuberous begonias.

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There is a general misunderstanding about orchids that they grow with much difficulty. Some even hold that they bloom o­nly in near greenhouse conditions. But this is not a fact as many types of orchids can flourish even in an ordinary environment, provided the essentials are religiously followed.

So it is not condition that is crucial but the extent of care that needs to be higher. With suitable standards of care orchids may grow as indoor window plants.

The Orchidaceae family is a large family that has nearly 750 genera, about 2000 species. More over there are some thousand species that are artificially made hybrids. These are divided in two types, terrestrial and epiphytic, the former grow o­n the ground while the later cling to rocks, trees or shrubs. Most of them are terrestrial.

Like most terrestrial plants the terrestrial orchids also have thick and fleshy roots with fine fibrous roots connected to them. They provide nutrient food to the plant. As against this epiphytic orchids also have aerial roots along with the base root. These aerial roots help them climb and creep along a reasonably damp surface. These roots are cylindrical and thick.

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Anyone with even a passing knowledge of plants knows that daphnes have wonderfully fragrant flowers. And because some of them – usually the most scented – flower in winter, they’re the sort of must-have plants that are usually among the first planted in any new garden.

There are around 50 species of Daphne, many of which are choice garden specimens. They are widespread lot, ranging from Europe and North Africa to temperate and subtropical Asia. Most of them are evergreen or nearly so, but a few are deciduous, often flowering before the foliage expands.

The plant everyone calls daphne is Daphne odora, particularly the cultivar ‘Leucantha’ , which is often misspelt ‘Leucanthe’ . This shrub, a native of China and Japan, sells in vast numbers, mainly o­n the strength of its perfume, but also because it’s a reasonably hardy evergreen bush. It grows to around 1.5m tall with leathery, deep green leaves up to 80mm long. From mid-winter o­n into spring it produces clusters of small, starry, pale pink flowers. Several flower and foliage forms are available and the variety with yellow-edged leaves, ‘Variegata’ (sometimes called ‘Aureomarginata’ ), is often hardier and easier to grow than the species.

Daphne odora can be quite particular about soil conditions and is slightly frost tender in cold winter areas. It does best in cool, moist, humus enriched, well-drained, acid soil in sun or light shade. Work in plenty of compost or similar organic matter – it’s impossible to use too much – and feed regularly with liquid fertilisers and an occasional side dressing of acid fertiliser. Kept healthy, D. odora develops quickly and is attractive even without flowers, but it isn’t a long-lived bush. You can expect to have to replace it at least every 8-10 years.

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Roses the most delicate and tender plant, that gives soothing fragrance and holds beautiful look, needs a bit of extra care to charm for a longer span of life. The leaves that tend to fade or fall, intimate you to pay a little more attention to your roses and get ready to provide proper treatment to them.

Generally the rose leaves, due to temperature rise, hot air blowing, excessive sun rays, lack of watering or inadequate water sprinkling or even mishandling, fall down the water. They should be immediately taken out or else they may cause damage to the entire bush. Having removed the fallen leaves you need to start your treatment.

Be careful to keep water supply constant as you hold the stems under the water tap or running water from any other source. Use a well sharpened knife or scissor to trim each of the stems nearly two centimeters. Be a little prompter to replace the trimmed stems cut the pot or in the arrangement so that the cutting ends might not dry up. If dried, they will not get as energetic growth as expected.

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