Sustainable & Poetic Flower Arrangements for the Holidays
Botanicals in the home, no matter the season, invite an essence of magic that is truly unmatched. Whether it’s decking the halls with festive wreathes for the holidays, or placing a vase of wild blooms near the kitchen window to catch summertime’s morning light, I love to bring nature indoors all times throughout the year. However, I don’t love the environmental impact. Enter, Bloomier.
Bloomier is a zero-waste flower studio based in West Vancouver, BC. To bring you elevated, elegant, and sustainable botanical inspiration for your holidays (or all-season), I’ve enlisted help from my friend Kamila, the founder of Bloomier. Kamila creates sustainable fresh and dried flower arrangements for customers near and far. In addition to wedding and event floristry, Bloomier offers a monthly subscription and delivery service so folks can enjoy the beauty of her botanicals throughout all the seasons.
In Kamila’s own words, discover what makes Bloomier different from other flower studios, plus learn her best tips for drying flowers to make your own sustainable arrangements.
BLOOMEIR: A Zero Waste Flower Studio
Contributed by Kamila Alikhani; Bloomier
The dream of working with flowers was born nearly three years ago when I took a leap of faith and got a part-time job at a local flower shop (I used to be a Business Analyst for 8 years). I was always passionate about flowers, so I had the most wonderful time working there. But it really bothered me how much waste this beautiful traditional shop was responsible for. Nothing was recycled, a green bin was mixed with tons of plastic. It was heartbreaking and so I decided to create my own flower studio.
A space where I can have a mindful sustainable approach to floristry. Something that I could offer to people looking to add the beauty of flowers and maybe a bit of the poetry to their home. I decided to focus on flower subscriptions and now it is one of the keys to our zero-waste approach, as it allows us to only source flowers which are needed for each set of arrangements. With no extra stock on hand, there are no unused flowers to throw away.
We hope to inspire people to choose sustainable options, while leading by example.
How to Dry Flowers for a Sustainable Arrangement
Try for yourself drying flowers and using grasses to make a sustainable holiday arrangement for your home. Here are a few expert tips for drying flowers.
Before you get started, it’s important to know which flowers are suitable to dry. Unfortunately, not all types of flowers can be used, mainly because either the stalks are too soft or they contain too much humidity. Examples are tulips, daffodils and amaryllises. So, which flowers can you use? Flowers with a wood-like stalk, such as roses and sunflowers, cornflowers and most grass types are perfect to dry. Consider drying ferns, yarrow, ranunculus, hydrangeas, eucalyptus, pussy willow, anemone, amaranth, lotus seed pods, poppy seed pods, honesty seed pods, and lavender.
STEP 1
Find a warm, dark space to dry out your flowers. Light will fade out the colours. The warmth will speed up the drying process making it harder for fungus to grow.
STEP 2
Tie a bit of rope at the end of the stalks and hang them upside down. It’d be great if you can hang them above a heater. Make sure that you hang each flower separately, again to prevent fungus growth. It’s like wet laundry: spread out evenly and it’ll dry out more easily.
STEP 3
And now...we wait! The flowers should dry out completely from its core and this might take a couple of days. The thicker the stalk, the longer you’ll have to wait. Your flowers are properly dried when the stalk feels a bit crunchy when you pinch it. Is the stalk still flexible? Give it a bit more time.
STEP 4
Be creative with arranging your dried flowers. You can now tie them together and hang them or place them in a vase. The only thing to avoid is placing them in a humid area, like your bathroom. This is because flowers attract humidity and that’s exactly what you want to avoid with your dried bouquet.
