Living West Michigan
The Short Cut...Shortcut! - Living in Bloom with J Schwanke
Clip: Season 1 | 4m 38sVideo has Closed Captions
Life in Bloom's J Schwanke demonstrates how a "short cut"!
Life in Bloom's J Schwanke demonstrates how to "short cut" flowers to make an flower arrangement flourish!
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Living West Michigan is a local public television program presented by WGVU
Living West Michigan
The Short Cut...Shortcut! - Living in Bloom with J Schwanke
Clip: Season 1 | 4m 38sVideo has Closed Captions
Life in Bloom's J Schwanke demonstrates how to "short cut" flowers to make an flower arrangement flourish!
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- Now it's time to talk with the one and only Mr. J Schwanke about one of my favorite things in the world and that is flowers.
Let's see what he's showing us today on "Living in Bloom."
(upbeat theme music) - So we've bought a bunch of flowers.
Now what do we do?
That's one of the biggest questions that I always get.
And I wanna make sure that I give you some good steps that are gonna help you create a beautiful bouquet.
We buy a bunch of flowers and we bring it home from the flower seller.
And in that bunch of flowers, there's typically a little packet like this.
This little packet is for a liter of water and there's instructions on the back so that we know exactly what to do.
So I save liter bottles just like this so that I can use those to create flower food water for my flowers.
I'll cut this off.
And so this whole packet goes inside that liter of water.
Now some people wanna be a little bit frugal about it and not use the whole packet, or maybe they want to use more than that.
That's not a good idea.
Always do it per the directions on the back of the packet.
I shake this up and then I add it to my vase.
I already have water in here today because I got ready to show you this, but this is great to keep in the refrigerator so that it'll keep it cool and I can use it to top off my bouquet.
Now this is our vase.
These are our flowers.
That's not gonna work.
So let's figure out exactly what we're gonna do.
My favorite trick is called the shortcut.
And the shortcut is also a shortcut for making beautiful flowers.
So this is gonna look great if my flowers are about that long.
So I've measured those with my hand.
I'm gonna take my bypass cutter which is the best thing to cut flowers with.
I never use a scissors and I always make sure I remove any of the leaves that are gonna fall below the waterline.
So after I've cut it, I'll grab a few of those leaves out and then we drop it into this bouquet.
Now you'll notice that it went out a little bit far and I wanna show you that it's okay to make a second cut.
It's okay to come back in here and say, "You know what?
I wish that was just a little bit shorter."
And we'll drop it down inside there and see, look at how much better that looks.
I've got those flowers a little bit shorter.
Or if you have one flower, you can even bring that out and trim it off a little bit shorter and stick it back in as well.
This is a great trick because the shortcut is always an easy way to make sure that we'll have beautiful flowers every time.
Every day, because our vase, we can't see that water go in and make sure to check it with your finger.
If it needs more water, get our trusty vase of flower food water and go in and top off the flowers.
I love a bouquet like this because it's full of beautiful long lasting flowers.
We have roses and chrysanthemums, we have alstroemeria, which is also known as the restaurant flower 'cause you see it all the time in restaurants because it lasts so long.
Statice, daisy pompoms and even a carnation, dianthus green trick.
We're gonna be able to enjoy 'em as long as possible.
So remember, the shortcut is a shortcut to beautiful bouquets and a great way to be "Living in Bloom."
(upbeat theme music) (upbeat theme music) - Celebrating vibrant people, captivating places, and remarkable things.
This is "Living West Michigan."
(upbeat theme music continues)
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Living West Michigan is a local public television program presented by WGVU