4th February 2016

Demonstrator: Glenis Smith
​Her Title: 'As Time Goes By'

​A full hall greeted Glenis Smith’s return to our Club on 4 February and on this occasion her title was ‘As Time Goes By’.
 
Her first design, accompanied by music from the 1950s, was arranged in a Fortnum & Mason basket hamper and took us back to those heady days.  To a profusion of bare twigs and green garden foliage Glenis added yellow freesias, tulips in a variety of colours, mimosa and mini chrysanthemums.
 
Whilst arranging her second design on a black rectangular frame, Glenis explained how the ‘Continental’ design was made popular in Holland in the 1960s and, mainly due to their lack of available foliage; the Dutch florists used every part of the flower.  The flowers were arranged in vertical lines and, in order to cover the florist foam, Glenis used small sections of the offcut stems - just as the Dutch did.  Following this, Glenis arranged a pedestal typical of the Sixties, with ferns, bamboo, conifer and variegated privet to which she added plum-coloured lilies, orange roses and bloom carnations.  When completed, a separate linked arrangement was placed at the base.

We were shown how the Italians had influenced flower design in the 1980s when Glenis used curled phormium and aspidistra leaves as well as other garden foliage to provide the background for pink anthurium and stunning Phalaenopsis, the moth orchid; all arranged on a black urn. 
 

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Showing us an example of coloured florist foam, which has been available for some years but is not favoured by all flower arrangers, Glenis used lime green blocks completing two small mirror-image raised designs with cream and green flowers and foliage.  She included some aspidistra leaf manipulation along with the green Anastasia chrysanthemums and pale green bloom carnations. 

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Finally, we saw the South African influence with a low horizontal design on an oval black container.  Phormium, blue spruce and hard ruscus provided the base for pale pink flowering broom, purple liatrus, pink gerbera and pale pink tulips and Glenis finally added pale lilac roses aptly named Memory Lane.​

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