Plants
What Does Slow Flowers Mean? Slow Flowers incorporates principles similar to those of the Slow Food and Slow Gardening movements applied to the floral industry. It’s about choosing blooms and foliage that are in season and sourced locally, foraging outside for branches, berries, pinecones, foliage and flowers to help fill out an arrangement and helping to make the floral industry more sustainable. It also can be about slowing down and envisioning what you’re going to use in your arrangement, thinking about the places where the blooms and leaves came from and taking the time to create a beautiful arrangement. Prinzing likens the benefits of her time arranging flowers this way to those of meditation. While she’s usually busy multitasking, when she takes time to create arrangements it’s her sole focus.
How to prep cut poinsettia stems. Prinzing recommends sealing poinsettia stems with water that’s at least 140 degrees. She boils water in a tea kettle, pours it into a Pyrex vessel, takes it into her studio, snips her poinsettia stems and then plunges the ends in the water for 30 seconds. “It cuts off the flow of the sap that clouds the water and affects other plants, and it seems to super-hydrate them,” she says. “This is also a good trick for reviving them if they start to wilt.”
8. Shadowland ‘Waterslide’ Hosta (Hosta hybrid) With rippling foliage that’s silvery blue, Shadowland ‘Waterslide’ hosta almost looks like a water element in a garden bed. The unusual leaves hold their color all season long and complement the lavender-colored flowers that bloom in late summer. It goes dormant in winter. Use it in mixed plantings to contrast with deep green, chartreuse and purple foliage plants. Caution: Hostas are toxic to pets and livestock. Where it will grow: Hardy to minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 37.2 degrees Celsius (zones 3 to 9) Water requirement: Moderate to high; keep soil consistently moist Light requirement: Partial to full shade Mature size: 15 inches tall and wide
Freshen the water. If your arrangement is anything like Prinzing’s, taking everything out to change out the water could ruin the arrangement. Instead, she advises placing the whole thing in your sink and using a gentle sprayer on it for about two minutes. Eventually all of the old water will be replaced by new water and your arrangement will still be intact. “Typically I freshen daily, especially in cooler months when the heat is on. Fresh water is the key!” she says.
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