♪ >> "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 gathering flowers together into bouquets.

We'll learn the origin of bouquets, easy ways to create bouquets, and even use one as a cake decoration.

♪ ♪ ♪ I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

There are few things more inviting than a bouquet of flowers.

If you want to make friends quickly, bring a bouquet as a cheerful offering.

Hardly anyone says no to a bouquet of flowers.

I found bouquets to be an effective calling card in all facets of living -- personal, formal, professional, or casual.

There's an appropriate bouquet for any situation.

Creating and giving a bouquet is a meaningful personal gesture and need not be at all difficult.

I'll show you techniques for beginners to connoisseurs on this episode of "Life in Bloom.

♪ Surely bouquets have been around as long as flowers themselves.

Who can resist gathering up beautiful flowers and creating a little bouquet to enjoy?

Small bouquets have been around since medieval times and have been known as a nosegay or a posy or a tussie mussie.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ A nosegay, posy, or a tussie mussie is a small flower bouquet, typically given as a gift.

They've existed in some form since at least medieval times, when they were carried or worn around the head or bodice.

Doilies were traditionally used to bind the stems in these arrangements.

Alternatively, posy holders, which are available in a variety of shapes and materials, although most often silver, enabled the wearing of these arrangements at the waist, in the hair, or secured with a brooch.

The term nosegay arose in the 15th century.

It's a combination of "nose" and "gay."

In this, "gay" meant an ornament, so a nosegay was an ornament that appealed to the nose.

The term tussie mussie comes from the reign of Queen Victoria in 1837 to 1901, when small bouquets became a popular fashion accessory.

Typically, tussie mussies included floral symbolism from the language of flowers and therefore were used to send a message to the recipient.

In modern times, the term specifically refers to small bouquets in a conical metal holder.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ So the nosegay in a tussie mussie holder is our historical reference.

The pin holds that bouquet in place, so we can turn it upside down, and it's secure.

But there's no water source, so it's not going to last very long, but -- [ Sniffs ] -- it certainly does smell good with our mint and oregano and lavender and butterfly bush.

It's lovely.

So fast-forward to today.

What do we do when we want to do bouquets for a wedding?

We want a bouquet holder that has a water source, and in this case, it's flower foam.

We would soak this, place our flowers into that, and then the bride carries this.

I love the fact that I have the opportunity to create this bouquet holder.

This is actually the prototype.

One day, they asked me what would I like a bouquet holder to be like?

And I drew it out on a piece of paper, and they sent it off to somebody and they carved one.

And then they created a bouquet holder like this that's now used throughout the country.

It's important that we have water for these beautiful bouquets because we want them to last for a long period of time.

So there's a great little history that goes with these beautiful bouquets.

So the bouquet that we have today also could be used to send a message.

There's a great little book -- this is a replica of it -- called "The Language of Flowers."

And "The Language of Flowers" was a Victorian book.

And so I'm kind of curious.

I wonder what we came up today with this one.

What's inside here?

We have some lavender inside there.

Let's look at that.

I'm sure that's in here.

[ Gasps ] Lavender means distrust.

How about that?

And we have some yarrow in here.

Let's see what it says about yarrow.

Fraternal love.

So I have distrust and fraternal love.

Zinnias mean thoughts of absent friends.

So, different types of flowers.

And you'd put those into a bouquet and then communicate with the recipient.

So it was a way to send secret messages sometimes.

And I also understand that women would sometimes send a response in a flower bouquet to their suitor, as well.

So nosegays have a wonderful history, and they help make flowers fun.

♪ ♪ ♪ A bouquet of dandelions or daisies picked for mom is perhaps a child's first experience with flowers.

Along with detecting a love of butter or forming a chain or a crown, dandelions give us a first taste of the power of flowers.

Let's create a simple bouquet for the beginner.

It's made of just a few flowers, it's easy once you know the secret, and then you can start bringing flowers wherever you go.

A canning jar is an ideal vessel for an arrangement you can make from your own garden flowers.

I like to start with a few pieces of greenery as a structure.

I've used some scented geranium and some mint, and a piece of basil.

Crisscrossing those stems is going to provide a place for the flower stems to fit in between.

Next, we'll add a piece of Queen Anne's lace.

Then we'll add our biggest flower, the yellow peony, and we'll place it off to one side so that it doesn't overpower the center of the arrangement.

We can add a rose on the opposite side.

I've got another large peony, and it has a short stem.

So shorter stems and bigger blooms can fit down in the center of the arrangement, right on the edge of the container.

We'll add a stem of heliotrope to the center.

This is a dark lavender flower, so placing it in the middle is going to help create depth in our arrangement.

We'll take a couple other roses in on either side.

Remember, the roses don't have to match.

Whatever's blooming in the garden is perfect to add to your arrangement.

If I feel like my arrangement isn't full enough, I can add a couple more pieces of greenery.

A piece of lemon balm fits in here nicely.

I'll add one more piece of Queen Anne's lace as an accent flower on the other side of the arrangement.

The canning jar provides plenty of water, and we'll want to check the water level and add daily.

Now it's ready for you to enjoy or share with a friend.

♪ Today's mechanic is actually something I picked up at an antique store.

It's from 1938, and it's a flower frog.

You'll notice how it kind of has a pillow shape, and it's got a circle on the bottom.

It could actually be set down inside a vase, or it could sit on top of a vase, and then you could stick flowers through it.

And so we're going to use this to place our flowers together and then have our stems come off the bottom.

We'll be able to set it into this vase when we're done.

Some people like to do this because they feel like it gives the flowers a little bit more of a spread.

But then once it's over with, you're going to have to remove the flowers out of this and keep this.

I wouldn't want to throw it away.

I'd want to use it for other things.

And what happens is, that we actually stick the stems through the holder to hold them in place.

And then we're going to gather up the stems in our hand below.

So as we go through this process, what happens is the flower frog keeps those stems in a specific spot and doesn't let them move too much further than that.

And it starts to make the flowers stick out a little bit further.

That's the idea and the premise behind this concept.

I'll add a few pieces of greenery, and then we'll add our flowers.

♪ ♪ ♪ So we started with our foliage in the flower frog cage.

Now we'll start to add our stems.

One of the things to be cautious about is, the little squares in the flower frog are a specific diameter, so sometimes we have to cut the flower shorter to make them go in.

♪ Because we're making what some people refer to as a two-sided bouquet, we'll put longer stems in one side, longer stems in the other side, and our focal flowers will drop down in the center.

I've used a couple of different flowers in the focal area.

We use the sphere chrysanthemums and a peony.

Our longer vertical flowers are our foxglove and our spray stock.

These delicate little allium are perfect for this bouquet because it gives it a great garden touch.

I simply work slipping the flowers in between the cage.

And what the cage does is, it actually gives the bouquet a more airy type appearance.

It keeps a separation between the flowers.

The challenge is that, when the stems come together at the bottom, they're going to be wider and broader.

So it's going to be a thicker stem on the bottom of our bouquet.

♪ ♪ ♪ Slipping a few scabiosa pods, jasmine vine, scented geranium, spray roses, and garden roses help complete the garden effect of this bouquet.

We'll cut the stems short because they still have to remain in water.

There's no water supply for this bouquet.

Once all our flowers are in place, well bind it off with craft wire.

That's going to hold the flowers together underneath the cage.

♪ It's interesting for us to try different ways to arrange flowers.

Some ways are more challenging.

But the great thing is, we learn how history helped bring us forward to easier methods.

There are things we do today that are great for our flowers.

Having a water supply ready and available so flowers can last a long period of time.

Having a bouquet holder that's ergonomically correct for our brides to hold on to.

Having beautiful flowers that are going to last longer and using flower nutrients and flower processes to make them last longer.

All of those are important.

I hope you enjoyed this look back at an old-fashioned way of creating a bridal bouquet with our antique flower frog.

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

You may have seen the ends of stems smashed on television as advice for better water uptake by certain flowers.

This behavior is in no way helpful to the stems and seems to be demonstrated only for shock value.

The interior of every flower, stem, or branch is made up of vessels that carry the water and nutrients from the bottom of the stem to the tops of the flowers.

Smashing the stem simply shreds, destroys and mutilates this delicate vascular system.

A 45-degree-angle cut is much more beneficial, not to mention less destructive, mean, or otherwise unseemly.

♪ So, today, we'll make a hand-tied bouquet using our painted succulents.

Spray in a well-ventilated area.

Succulents are durable and take on paint well.

I think they look great with a metallic finish.

Keep the nozzle 12 to 18 inches away from the succulent when spraying the paint to prevent freezing.

I've wired the succulents so that I can insert them into the bouquet.

So what we're doing is taking a 22-gauge wire.

We're simply going to run it through the stem on the back side of the succulent so it goes through all the way.

We run the wire through to the middle and then bend it down.

♪ We use floral tape to tape it off.

The great part about succulents is that they have such a great water reserve.

These can be pulled out of the bouquet afterwards and then planted.

♪ It's a wonderful keepsake that you can have after the bouquet is gone.

So, we have our four succulents with our taped wires, and they'll fit into our hand bouquet?

We'll be using some dark Milva roses, scabiosa pods, Craspedia yarrow, Hypericum, scabiosa, banksia protea pods, gerbera daisies, calla lilies, and hanging amaranthus.

It gives us lots of texture in the bouquet.

♪ I laid my flowers out on the table so I knew which flowers I was going to use.

That way I could add them to the bouquets in groupings, collecting them together in my hands.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ You'll notice that my very last insertions are my succulents.

Because they're on the thin wire, I can slip them down into the exact place I want them once the entire bouquet is created.

They're the focal point of the bouquet, and I really want to draw attention to them.

If I wanted them to be more subtle, I could put them in earlier.

But in this case, we're adding them almost as topping to our entire bouquet.

♪ ♪ ♪ The accent of the green burlap ribbon looks great with the hanging amaranthus to form a casual cascade on the bouquet.

Our vase will act as a display piece as well as providing a water source.

I love the way the metallic colors play off the warm tones of these flowers.

That's the beautiful part of this succulent savvy bouquet.

♪ Astilbe is native to mountain ravines and woodlands in Asia and North America, known by the common name false goatsbeard.

They are widely adapted to shade in waterlogged conditions.

I innocently planted them on the four corners of my backyard fountain to much success.

Who knew?

Flowers of at least some astilbe subspecies have a strong and pleasant aroma.

Some species, including astilbe rivularus, are used in traditional medicine.

They are often grown in gardens for their feather-like spike flowers of white, yellow, pink, magenta, or purple, which rise above clumps of fern-like leaves from mid to late summer.

These fragile-looking flowers are incredibly durable and last a long time in an arrangement or a vase.

♪ I love bundt cake.

And one of my favorite childhood memories was my Great Aunt Kay's sherry cake.

And I was able to find my Aunt Alice's recipe card for sherry cake to create this beautiful bundt cake today.

I'll share the recipe with you online.

But a bundt cake is designed perfectly to accept flowers as a decoration.

I have this great little vase.

It's going to fit down right inside my bundt cake.

We're going to create our decoration away from the bundt cake so we don't get it wet.

We'll fill our glass with water.

And we're not going to fill it all the way to the top.

Because once we put our flowers in, it could overflow.

Instead, we'll create a little bundle that we'll drop down into that vase.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ So, we drop our glass down inside... and then we add our flowers.

It's the perfect way to decorate a bundt cake.

Today, I have three arrangements to share with you from viewer Sean Bair.

These are big, beautiful arrangements.

Sean is not afraid to use a good quantity of flowers, which I love to do, as well, when I have the opportunity.

I love a flower arrangement that commands your attention, and these are flower powerful arrangements.

This colorful, spectacular arrangement completed with dahlias is definitely a showstopper.

Thanks again, Sean.

Remember, I love to see how you've been inspired by the show.

Send in your creations of all shapes and sizes.

Simple bouquets are enjoyed just as much as elaborate arrangements.

Remember to please yourself.

We call viewer arrangements "Schwankes," a nickname given by fans Brad and Kelly.

Send in your Schwankes to J@uBloom.com.

That's the letter J at the letter U bloom.com.

And watch for more Schwankes on upcoming shows.

Gather a bouquet of flowers at your next opportunity.

Maybe you'll remember how it felt to do so when you were very young.

Perhaps you'll have the chance to share your creation with someone special.

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

So, today is the day that fireworks start in Michigan.

I hate it, and so do the dogs.

So, you know, but fireworks are gonna start.

But doesn't it look like fireworks?

It's like a firework arrangement.

Oh, cottonwood, this one.

Oh.

If you see snow behind me, it's cottonwoods.

♪ Da da, da da, da da, da da ♪ See, look, it's like pssh pkww pkww pkww!

♪ The firework of flowers.

♪ >> "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.

♪ Closed-caption funding provided by Holland America Flowers.

♪