American Floral Trend "Garden Club"

 

City College of San Francisco Student AIFD Chapter along with 12 other SAIFD Chapters were requested to create designs for the 2012-2013 American Floral Trends Forecast program.  The program was presented at the American Institute of Floral Designers National Symposium in Miami, Florida on July 15, 2012. The program was presented and led by Talmage McLaurin who is the publisher of Florists' Review Enterprises.  Each college had a student representative present the design on stage with Talmage.  Julie Harris spoke about the " Garden Club" container design and Oxana Sanukova spoke about the "American Gypsy " wedding bouquet .   These American Floral Trends of Rural Route, Garden Club, Sea to Shining Sea, American Gypsy and New Victorian were also explained and shown in the January, 2012 issue of Florists' Review magazine.  http://www.floristsreview.com/home

The biggest challenges for us were conceiving a fresh and innovated design that translated the Trend and getting the props and mechanics to another state.   Each college was provided the concepts, color swatches,  possible flowers combinations and elements for their Trend.  The concept for "Garden Club" is a progressive and modern approach to the local garden clubs of America.  Think in terms of micro and vertical plantings, modernized garden tools, colorful garden boots, gilded wood, spheres and stylized birds to name a few of the Trends characteristics. Below is the process of the design in the workroom at Miami. The students did a phenomenal job working individually and as a team.  I had a smile on my face from ear to ear during the program.  It was so exciting and joyful to see all the students interact with Talmage on stage.   This was a wonderful experience for everyone.

 Julie Harris and Imelda Iraeta (above)

Brightly colored garden hoses are available to the consumer in many hardware and garden stores.  We decided this would be a fabulous prop and material to use in the design.  The hose was sculpted in a sphere using matching cable ties.  This material is great for movement and line.  Also, it works well for shipping.

Geometric forms are a characteristic of this Trend and the repetition makes a strong statement.  The spheres fit snug inside the containers without any additional mechanics.  Curving lines and a modern sleek look work well with the containers and the Trend.

 Oxana Sanukova (above)

Monobotanical compositions are another characteristic of this Trend.  We decided to use composite rose designs which reinforce geometric forms and add a garden feel to the display.

The rose petals are glued to cardboard which was wired to an embellished wreath ring.  The wreath ring was wrapped with double sided satin ribbon then angle hair and aluminum wire were wrapped over that for additional accents.

Yumi Ota, Kanako Copeland, Oxana Sanukova, Imelda Iraeta (above)   

Final prep work for the display and then lemon leaves were glued to the back of the wreath rings to hide mechanics.

  Imelda Iraeta and Julie Harris (above)

We used only two colors (green and orange) from the color pallet of this Trend to keep it clean, simple and modern.  The last steps are to wire the composite rings to the hoses, transport to the staging area and then set all displays an hour before the show.  This design is a lot of fun and I encourage you to experiment with the hose and make your own creation for the "Garden Club" Trend.