Innovative floral arrangements for the home

• Get that new look in arrangements

By Kaui Philpotts
Advertiser Homestyle Writer

Lemon leaves create a base for a sunny floral arrangement of roses, lilies, orchids and berries. Arrangement is by Kendall Oda, of Rainforest at Ward Warehouse. Do the unexpected when arranging your flowers. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

Unexpected and accidental are the key words for the new looks in floral arrangements, whether they are arrangements you buy or make yourself. Think loads of stemless blooms bunched tightly in unusual containers. Sculptural branches and succulents twisting through your flowers. Vegetables in a vase.

And the most innovative floral work being done today is coming from unexpected sources: event and wedding designers, hobbyists and volunteers at such places as the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

The flower arrangements seen at Neiman Marcus, with branches dripping with moss or glass vases filled with pink rose petals, are another good source of ideas for home arrangements.

One of the new designers is Anny Heid of Creative Floral Solutions on Maui. Heid likes to mix store-bought flowers with what she finds lying around the island — everything from banyan roots to palm flowers, lemon leaves and vegetables.

Heid, who lives on a protea farm in Olinda, began working with tropicals in the late 1980s when she did floral arrangements for the Kapalua Bay Hotel. She later moved to the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa in the more opulent early 1990s.

"It was a chance for me to re-educate myself," Heid says. She made a habit of checking out what was being done at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. At the time, revered designer May Moir was still working with her crew of volunteers doing new, seasonal arrangements from little-used plant materials.

Today, a Heid arrangement is likely to be variegated croton leaves filled in with green orchids and anthuriums, softened with the heads of papyrus.

She recommends including foliage when working with tropicals. She also has no problem cutting stems down within an inch of their lives and massing flowers for more impact.

While she drools over the beautiful, antique vases used at the academy, Heid will often use something as simple as empty spaghetti-sauce jars wrapped with coconut bark or rice paper and tied with twine or raffia. "One Christmas I used Chinese newspaper tied with red ribbon," she says.

Other favorites are square cracker tins she finds in Chinatown, teapots and green ginger jars.

Another thing that works, Heid says, is the massing of many small containers of flowers.

"Use what you find in farmer's markets," she advises, "and always use what's in season."

Michael Miyashiro of Rainforest, the Honolulu florist, tries to avoid using a lot of baby's breath, mums, carnations and leather ferns. Instead, he says, he likes to look at an arrangement and be able to tell what season it is.

"Often I put together colors you would never consider wearing," he adds. He has been known to combine red roses with reddish brown maple leaves and other orange or red filler leaves.

You don't want flowers that look contrived, Miyashiro says. "Don't put them into odd circumstances or wire them," he adds.

He is also a big fan of flowers in clear vases filled with water. His current favorite is the basic glass cylinder. These allow you to see when your flowers need fresh water, which helps to keep your flowers going longer. "All you need is fresh water," he adds. "No pennies, no vinegar, no chemicals."

Get that new look in arrangements

Start by assembling a floral kit: a clean, sharp knife, clippers, frogs or chicken wire, floral foam, waterproof tape, ornamental stones, raffia or string, moss. Then try out these novel approaches:

• Buy a bunch of Gerber daisies or mums with large heads, cut off the stems and float the flowers in a low glass tray or clear glass bowl.
• Take a large glass cylinder, fill it with husked coconuts from your supermarket and stick in two or three cut monstera of palm fronds.
• Fill a tall glass cylinder with green apples, lemons, artichokes or eggplants.
• Pick up baby coconuts, durian or breadfruit, pineapple and banana flowers from Chinatown and fill a wooden bowl.
• Add tree branches in interesting shapes to your floral arrangements.
• Take square ceramic pots (available at Home Depot), fill them with potting soil and plant flat succulents at the top. They will appear to just be peeking out of the top.
• Mix succulents and flowers with complimentary colors, and put them in Indonesian market baskets.
• Put together small pots of the same bedding flowers in a container. Or try this with herbs.