Thanksgiving Bouquets

During Thanksgiving break, I was assigned create floral bouquets for my Thanksgiving dinner table and take pictures for my Floral Design class here at BYU. To complete this assignment, the first thing I did was go downtown to the Los Angeles Flower Mart, the largest wholesale flower district in the United States.  Just a few minutes from home, the LA Flower Mart was the perfect place to gather my materials.  Covering six blocks of the crowded downtown vicinity, I had endless flowers to choose from.  For my bouquets, I chose a variety of colors, textures, and sizes.  I included white and purple daisy mums, orange chrysanthemums, green trick carnations, curly willows, spider mums, billy buttons, many types of foliage, and more. 

This assignment not only gave me a chance to practice my new skills, but I was also able to spend quality time with my mother.  My mom worked in a floral shop throughout her teenage years and was thrilled to explore the flower mart with me.  When we returned home with all our supplies, she was so excited she made a bouquet herself!  It reminded me of a video we watched in my Floral Design class of a son and father designing together.  We were able to give each other tips (and steal flowers from each other’s piles when the other wasn’t looking).  

Finally, I was able to impress my family and friends with my new knowledge on flowers.  While at the flower mart, I pointed out almost every single flower and my new knowledge on flowers.  While at the flower mart, I pointed out almost every single flower and was able to identify the common, genus, and species name.  After the bouquets were displayed throughout my house, I was able to describe the flowers and techniques I learned and used to everyone at the Thanksgiving table.  I was surprised how impactful little techniques can be.  Overall, this assignment was fun and gave me new experiences that I won't forget!