(mellow piano music) - [Narrator] J Schwanke's Life in Bloom is brought to you by, Albertson's Companies.

With additional support from the following companies, the Ball horticultural company, Cal Flowers, Design Master color tool, Golden Flowers, Sunshine Bouquet, and theribbonroll.com.

(mellow guitar music) Today on Life in Bloom, you'll get a small taste of what life in bloom looks like.

We hope you'll agree that adding flowers in your life can be an easy, rewarding, and life enhancing endeavor.

(mellow guitar music) I'm J Schwake.

Welcome to Life in Bloom.

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment.

I want to give that world to someone else.

What is a life in bloom?

It's a life that celebrates and embraces the joy that flowers can bring into your life.

(mellow guitar music) Flowers for every room in the house?

Many of you will need no convincing of why this would be beneficial to your life.

You already love flowers.

For those who may be doubtful, there are many scientifically documented reasons why accruing flowers is beneficial for your overall wellbeing.

Studies have shown when there a flowers in the home, there is less arguing, less depression, that people enlarge their circles of friends, and that seniors retain more cognitive memory.

Beyond that, what happens when someone gives you a bouquet of flowers?

What's your physical response?

You smile, you feel happy, it's intrinsic.

It's part of what flowers bring to our lives.

Flowers make us feel happy, whether we're receiving them, or especially when we're giving them.

The act of arranging flowers is actually soothing in itself.

Then, we double that effect when we give those flowers to someone else.

Life in Bloom will show you easy ways to incorporate flowers into your life every day.

(mellow guitar music) You don't need a lot of flowers to have flowers around the house.

The reality of having single flower arrangements is actually quite exciting.

It's a great opportunity for us to get a flower out of the garden or pick up one or two flowers from a flower seller.

We can also use different vessels and arrange them all around the house.

Let's take a look at a few unexpected things we can use to hold a single flower.

How 'bout an ashtray?

I collect mid-century objects.

This ashtray is a great vessel for a single flower.

What we'll do is we'll add some water.

We can place two sticks.

Then we'll use a gerbera daisy.

The thing about gerbera daisies is they don't like to float.

We'll cut the stem and then we'll suspend it in between those two pieces so it holds it up above the water, but the stem is down into the water.

(mellow guitar music) We know about bubble bowls.

We got roses or a sunflower in these, or even this covered dish.

We have our gerbera daisy down inside.

With the close covering, it's gonna allow the flower to last longer.

(mellow guitar music) How 'bout some shot glasses?

We've all got a few shot glasses around the house.

We can simply take tulips and drop our tulips right into those shot glasses.

It's a fun way for us to arrange them and have one at each place setting.

Plus, the tulips will open up and they'll look great.

(mellow guitar music) A single flower like a red carnation is a great combination to the lemon ball I grew in my yard.

I found this little rock and it has three holes in it.

I can fill those little holes with water and place my flowers down inside.

Even a single flower like a bertaia looks great.

This is a banksia, and I've placed a few rocks down inside the bowl and then filled it up with water.

The rocks help support the flower and it's interesting scalloped foliage is a great accent too.

(mellow guitar music) Single flowers are a great way for us to spread these around the house.

We can put one on the nightstand, we could have one out on the patio, putting one next to the sink, all sorts of different places that we see all the time can be filled with a single flower blossom.

That's Life in Bloom.

(mellow guitar music) Sometimes people feel uneasy, maybe even intimidated when it comes to arranging flowers, but I'm here to share with you three tools you need that will make flower arranging happier and easier for you.

Our first ingredient is water.

All flowers need water.

If we add flower food to that water, it's even better.

I always suggest using cold water.

It helps us reduce the bacteria levels.

Cold water is always best.

Then, we add our flower food.

This one is for a quart of water.

We've measured our water accurately.

Two quarts of water, two packets, following the manufacturer's directions on the back.

We simply take these and add them to our water.

Two quarts, two packets.

Powered flower food dissolves in water.

It's always good to mix it up.

Now, we have properly prepared water.

(mellow guitar music) Our next step is the tools.

I prefer to use a knife, but many people like to use a bypass cutter.

A bypass cutter is a cutter where the blade actually bypasses the other side.

It's also known as a pruners, and it's ideal for cutting flowers.

When we cut our flowers, we want to cut them at an angle so we expose more surface area so that the water can go directly up the stem.

I can also do that angle with a knife.

Never use a scissors because a scissors binds the stems and actually crushes the vascular system of the flower, precluding it from taking water up the stem.

Think about what happens when you cut a straw.

It squishes it closed.

If we cut it with a knife or we cut it with a bypass cutter, we get a great clean cut that allows plenty of water to go up the stem.

(mellow guitar music) A vase is our final step and there's smart vases and there's vases that aren't as easy to arranging.

A vase that has a narrower neck, for example this one, where they hold the flowers together, that's easier to design in than one like this that makes it splay out.

This cube has a slightly narrower neck and that makes it easier to arrange flowers.

As we drop our flowers down into it, our stems criss-cross and it allows our flower heads to be held together closer.

(mellow guitar music) It's also important to remember that no leaves fall below the water line.

Leaves under the water can cause bacteria quickly so keeping our water as clean and fresh as possible will ensure our flowers last as long as they possibly can.

(mellow piano music) (mellow guitar music) The great thing about gerberas is that they're so many different varieties, not just color, but styles and shapes as well.

Here you'll see a normal gerbera daisy, but they can be large with a double center like this, or the gerbmini.

Simply a miniature size of a regular gerbera.

The gerando has a rounded shape so that the blossom itself almost looks like a sphere.

Then there's the gerspider with a shaggy-like appearance with its petals.

The other interesting thing is the center of the gerbera.

Many gerbera varieties have a black center while others have a light center.

Here we have two white, showing the differences between the center of the gerbera.

(mellow guitar music) Gerberas do not benefit from flower food.

The fuzzy stem is made of softer tissue and degenerates faster.

Gerberas benefit from very clean water.

Gerbera daisy colors have various meanings, much the way roses do.

Orange is the sunshine of life, red for unconscious love or fully emersed in love, pink for admiration, adoration, or high esteem, yellow, cheerfulness.

That's the great thing about gerberas, they're so many to choose from.

(mellow guitar music) One of my favorite things is a flower crown.

That's a crown of flowers that you can wear on your head.

You've seen them in pictures where brides wear them with big open roses like this and hydrangeas and beautiful grasses, or we've seen then with little flower girls.

Maybe wear their berries or beautiful stock blossoms.

If you think back to the '70s, we did flower crowns with daisies on them.

It's a fun way for us to wear flowers and make us feel good at the same time.

We can even make one out of all foliage.

You can't help but smile and be happy when you have flowers on your head.

Let me show you how easy it is to make a flower crown.

We use aluminum craft wire, a flexible metallic wire.

Create a loop at one end.

We wanna make sure that it goes all the way around our head.

We'll be creating this using a craft covered wire.

This craft covered wire comes on a big spool so we have plenty to work with.

(mellow guitar music) For this project, we'll use some short pieces of foliage and any type of flower that you'd like.

Today, we're using gerbera daisies.

We use the bind wire to affix the foliage to our metallic wire.

We'll start with an aspidistra leaf and we'll start at the end that has a loop on it.

We're wrapping around in one continuous motion, adding gerbera daisies and foliage.

As we add a piece of foliage and add our gerbera daisy, we want to make sure that our wire stays tight and we continue to move in the same direction every time.

(mellow guitar music) Once we get to the other end, we'll bind all of our ends together, cut off any excess stems, and then take our small end and go back to the beginning and find our loop and go through that loop with that end.

That completes our circle.

(mellow guitar music) Wrap the end with any excess bind wire.

I always like to use an anti-transpirant when I'm finished.

This is a product that helps seal in the moisture and it will make our flowers last as long as possible.

I'd advise putting this in a refrigerator until it's time to wear it.

(mellow guitar music) Today, my flower friend Kim Carson is stopping by.

We met through our love of flowers and I've given her arranging tips.

Kim is sharing a recipe with us.

Kim, I am amazed because I've known you for a long period of time.

- That's right.

- [J] You are different now.

(woman laughs) (host laughs) - I look different on the outside and I'm pretty much the same on the inside.

- You are completely the same and that's what I love about you.

I thought it would be great for you to make a recipe for us.

- I can't wait.

Once I lost 115 pounds, I had to start eating differently.

This is a really nice summer salad.

I like making this salad because it's fast, it's easy, it's quick, it's nutritious, it's tasty.

I'm gonna start with a vidalia onion.

I just diced it as you could see.

(mellow guitar music) We're gonna put this in here.

We're gonna get ready to mix them.

I'm gonna go ahead and take this mango.

A lot of people, they're afraid of mangoes.

They don't know what to do with mangoes.

- I always heard you were supposed to eat mangoes naked.

(woman laughs) - I haven't tried that yet, (man laughs) but it might be worth trying.

(woman laughs) (mellow guitar music) You know what I like to do is I kind of like to see if there's any juice I can get out of this.

- [J] Got it.

- Just a little bit.

I kind of squeeze it a little bit, make it all smushy.

Then I'll go with the tomato.

(mellow guitar music) This is an avocado.

People don't know how to choose avocados.

They choose them too hard and then they say they don't like avocados.

You don't wanna get it too soft where it's mushy and you just want a little bit where it gives.

Then I take a lemon and I don't really measure.

Try to get out as many seeds as you can.

If you go in there, it's not gonna hurt you.

I probably won't squeeze the whole half the lemon in there.

Just about that much.

Just enough to get it a little lemony.

You know what I like doing?

I love getting my own cumin seeds.

- I saw this.

- They're so aromatic.

You get a lot of cumin seeds and you can get it way cheaper and I grind them myself because the smell is so much more pungent.

I like a lot of cumin so I probably would put on more than that if I were at home.

This is some chili powder.

Little bit of chili powder.

This is some garlic.

- [J] You said you can use fresh garlic as well, right?

- Fresh garlic as well.

What I'm gonna do is I'm going to kind of just toss this together.

This is it.

This is a nice little summer salad.

I like putting it in my little antique bowl here.

- [J] I like your little flower bowl.

- This may be my summer dish.

If I wanna eat something in the summer, that's what it's gonna be right there.

It's a mango, avocado, tomato, onion, cumin, chili pepper, lemon salad.

Little bit of garlic powder.

- [J] Let me taste.

- [Kim] Taste.

- Taste.

Kim, that is so fun.

(woman giggles) It's summery, right?

This is a Kim Carson delightful.

- Original.

You get the sweetness from the mango.

The mango and the spices that you add as well as the tomatoes and the avocado, there's different textures, there's different flavors, there's just different explosions in your mouth going off all at the same time.

- I love it.

We can garnish it.

- Yes!

Let's do it!

- With a few little nasturtiums.

- I picked these.

- I love that.

- [J] I didn't grow them organically.

- You could put these in a clear bowl and then put these flowers on top.

Oh my gosh.

- These are peppery.

- [Kim] These are good.

- [J] I love a nasturtium.

- Almost like horseradish.

- A little bit, yeah.

We have a tradition here at Life in Bloom.

- I love it.

- It's a flower crown.

- Because I love to wear a flower crown, I love to put flowers on my head.

- I'm trying to think of which one I wanna put forward.

(mellow piano music) (mellow guitar music) - One of the great things about a life in bloom is having and garden, and we've planted a new garden here, but I have a certain way that I go about it.

You're familiar with the term arrangement, which is when we take flowers and create an arrangement with those flowers and foliage's.

I've coined a new term.

It's called arrange-plant, which means that when I go into the garden and I decide what plant I'm going to put there, I'm making a conscious decision that it's something that I can cut for arranging.

Flowers that go into the garden or flowers that can be cut and are stable for me to have in an arrangement.

The other thing though is it's not just about flowers, it's also about foliage.

The different trees, bushes, shrubs, even hastas.

Those types of things I've consciously planted so that I'm gonna be able to cut at them.

(mellow guitar music) As the seasons change, spring, I have tulips and bulbs that come up, summer, I've got beautiful annuals that are out here and perennials, and fall, that's when the color comes out, and even winter, I can come out and grab fur trees or conifers.

There's always something in the garden that I can go out and grab and bring in the house and arrange quickly.

(mellow guitar music) If I wanna take some flowers to someone, I can pop out into the garden and clip a few things and create something to take over to them.

That's the great part about arrange-plant and part of Life in Bloom.

(mellow guitar music) As you can see, a life in bloom isn't just for florists or those with a green thumb.

We hope you've been inspired by some of the simple ways you can bring flower joy into your life.

For Life in Bloom, I'm J Schwanke.

See you next time.

Alstra Perrius said you remembered as I'll still marry you.

I'll still marry you.

Exactly.

(women laughing) I got a little lei for you honey.

There you go.

And you get flowers too.

You need to show up more often.

(women clapping) - [J] J Schwanke's Life in Bloom is filmed in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

- [Narrator] J Schwanke's Life in Bloom is brought to you by, Albertson's Companies.

With additional support from the following companies, the Ball horticultural company, Cal Flowers, Design Master color tool, Golden Flowers, Sunshine Bouquet, and theribbonroll.com.

(mellow guitar music) Closed caption funding provided by Chrysal.

For everything flowers, recipes, projects, and more information, visit ubloom.com.