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Design pictures provided by
Smithers-Oasis.
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July 30, 2010 - In the August/September issue of Canadian Florist, we promised even more holiday decorating and design tips from our On the Level with Neville columnist Neville MacKay. Here are some additional tips from the floral designer.
MacKay shared his colour predictions for the 2010 holiday season in our print edition here. As far as flowers go, MacKay says that spring flowers will be a hit once again. Don’t shy away from blooms like tulips – they are perfect when used in white and red. Other stems you can add include roses, amaryllis, forced daffodils and a lot of hydrangea – MacKay predicts that the latter will be huge this year.
There’s no doubt that Christmas can be all about tradition for some people, but florists can’t be afraid to incorporate little tweaks and accessories to take a tried and true design to a
whole other level. MacKay says you’re in the position to experiment with a variety of products, especially when you get lucky and the customer tells you to “just put something together for me.” He offers a few simple design tips that he’s used in the past: “Put a couple of green apples in a centrepiece with green spider mums, some green tea roses and sparkle that up a bit with a couple of raspberry bands of flat wire around the apples. It will look like Christmas ornaments and that will change the design to something that people say ‘wow, what have you done with that?’”
MacKay remembers a customer from last year who was delighted when he incorporated a bundle of carrots into her design. “Orange was her colour. The carrots were bound with aluminum wire and bright orange circus roses and mango callas. It wasn’t the sort of thing you’d think of for Christmas, but it worked for her,” says MacKay. That same customer came back to his shop and requested the design again for the upcoming season. He's found that shoppers want this type of personalization. “We shouldn’t say well, five carnations, two stems of mums, a pillar candle stuck in the middle of it. Next – and then do 50 more. People don’t want that. They want something that they can say, ‘this was specifically designed for me.’ Or, ‘I found this.’ People love to find things.”
When it comes to the younger consumer, MacKay advises that florists use fun and flashy materials and accessories to add more interest to a design. “When you can, just take a little bit of bullion wire and do a veiling over a product. I did it to a plant the other day. Just imagine doing a silver bullion wire over a pink poinsettia as veiling. It just upgrades it to the next level,” says MacKay.
Now is around the time when florists are placing their holiday orders and attending buying shows and MacKay says you need to go into these situations with a plan. “If you’re not sure of a product or look, don’t go crazy so that later, you’ll think, what am I going to do with all this product now? Look at things you can use as transitional materials from one season to the next,” says MacKay. “I go heavy with the coppers in the fall and rustings so that I can turn it into a copper tone to use it as a Christmas design, god forbid I don’t sell it.” He says this method certainly applies to permanent and dried botanicals as well as containers. If something is still sitting on the shelf come October, MacKay will brainstorm how he can upgrade it or change it, without doing a lot of work, to turn it from a fall item to a winter seasonal product.
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