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Lilies are one of the more popular flowers around here in Malaysia. There are many types of lilies. From the more commonly available ones such as the Stargazer lilies, Casablanca lilies, and Madonna Lilies to the rarer imported ones such as the Peruvian lilies, Sumatra lilies, African Queen lilies, and Maywood lilies. Despite the vast varieties of lilies, the care for fresh cut lilies, such as those you get from your local florists is rather similar.
The picture above shows a full bloom Casablanca Lily with its stamen intact. As you can see, all the stamens have already been pollinated. These pollens, if not removed, will stain the lily petals, your table tops, hands, or clothings. Thus, it is essential for you to remove all the stamens once the lily bud begins to bloom.
The best time to remove the stamens from the lily is when the lily bud is half-bloomed and the stamens are yet to be pollinated. You can easily pull off the stamens with your fingers. However, you would need a scissors to remove the pollinated stamens if the lily has fully bloomed (like the one in the picture).
This picture is solely for illustration purpose only. Please use a pair of scissors if you do not want to get nasty pollen stains on your hand or your surroundings. =)
A “cleaned” Casablanca Lily. (Notice there’s some pollen stains on the lily petals?)
Some lilies can have more than one bud on each stem. The timing and blooming process for each bud in a stem varies. One flower may wither earlier before the other buds have bloomed. If this is the case, simply cut the wilted flower off and allow the other buds to bloom.
Pin wrote a simple tutorial on his roses arrangement a few days ago, which prompted me to share with you about “guard petals” on roses. There seems to be a huge misunderstanding on these guard petals.
Many of my customers dislike guard petals and thought that roses with guard petals aren’t fresh. For the past 2 decades, I have received numerous complaints from our customers accusing us of selling wilting roses whenever they encountered these suspicious-looking guard petals around the roses.
Even today, many still doubt the freshness of a rose if it has guard petals on it. Now, it’s time for me to share with you the truth behind these guard petals.
All roses that grow from this planet come with guard petals, no exception. These are the outer layer petals that need to be removed from the roses prior to “using” them. The role of guard petal is to protect the rose buds from bruising during the entire harvesting process at the rose farms to handling of the roses at your local florists. Thus, it is essential for these guard petals to stay intact to ensure that the roses get all the protection it needs.
Guard petals often appeared charred and wrinkled at most edges of the petals, especially for red roses. Depending on the colors, most roses are normally accompanied by charred and wrinkled dark brown, black, or green guard petals.
1. A red rose with guard petals intact.
2. Removing the guard petals
3. Ready to use rose with all guard petals removed. (Notice the contrasting white tip from the removed guard petal? That is also a sign of freshness.)
One more useful tip on these guard petals: You can actually determine the freshness of a rose just by peeling off a guard petal.
If the rose is fresh, you’ll be able to peel off the petal easily and it (the peeling) comes with a crisp sound. A not-so-fresh rose would have guard petals that appear to be crumpled and softened. When you try to peel it off, the peeling won’t produce any cracking sound at all.
That being said, you might want to practice some TLC while peeling off the guard petals less you accidentally peel off the real petals of a blooming rose.
Well, well, well…more on floral festival. Our very own Malaysia Floral Festival has officially begun yesterday, July 18, 2008. This half-month long event will run on until August 3, 2008. “Colours of Harmony” is the theme for this year’s event, where you will witness our very own beautiful blooms parading on floats, created by local and international floral designers.
The Flora Fest Parade will be held on July 26, 2008 at Putrajaya and the floral floats will be showcased at Putrajaya Boulevard for two days. These floral floats will also be competing for awards in six categories; Premier Trophy, Theme Trophy, Creative Trophy, Parade Trophy, Jury Award, and the International Participation Award.
Other events taking place during the Flora Fest this year includes Florathon, Flora Photography Exhibition, Flora Workshops, and a series of competition for Flora Arrangement and Flora Photography. So, put your sunglasses on and get your camera ready for a celebration of our country’s rich floral heritage.
Make a date with flowers!
July 20, 2008: Flora Run (Florathon) - Merdeka Square, Kuala Lumpur
July 26, 2008: Flora Fest Parade - Putrajaya Boulevard, Putrajaya
July 26–28, 2008: Static Display of Floats - Putrajaya
29 June - 21 July: Floral Photography Exhibition
Here is their official website for you to drool over the wonderful photos taken during last year’s event.
The Singapore Garden Festival is back! The much-anticipated floral event in the region will be featuring some of the top award-winning garden and floral designers from all over the world, namely, New Zealand, United States, Canada, France, China, United Kingdom, Norway, India, Australia, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.
 Some exhibition highlights include Landscape Gardens, Fantasy Gardens, and Floral Windows to the World. By the way, there will also be an Orchid Show for all of you orchid lovers out there!
Festival Dates: July 25, 2008 - August 1, 2008
Festival Venue: Suntec Convention Centre, Singapore
Opening Hours: Daily 10am to 10pm
Ticket Price
Adult Ticket: S$6 (Mon-Fri), S$12 (Sat & Sun)
Child, Student, Senior Citizen: S$3 (Mon-Fri), S$6 (Sat & Sun)
Family Ticket (2 Adults & 3 Children): S$18 (Mon - Fri), S$36 (Sat & Sun)
Visit their official website for more information.
 The “Vase Bouquets Collection” finally made its debut! This is one of Lefiores’s eco-friendly solution to curb the ever-increasing paper and plastic usage in Malaysia’s floral industry. I for one, strongly believe in living towards a more sustainable lifestyle. Every choice that we make, no matter how insignificant, matters. Saving the environment means ensuring a brighter future for generations to come.
Now, there’s a greener way of sending flowers to your loved ones. If you are used to sending hand-tied bouquets, you might want to know how sending flowers in vases helps you to save more money and save our environment. Here are 5 reasons why you should send flowers in a vase.
For starters, our Vase Bouquets collection consists of dendrobium orchids and imported long stems red roses. These bouquets come together with signature glass vases. Delivery within Klang Valley (Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur), Melaka and Pulau Pinang is free, yup, even after the petrol hike. For Singapore deliveries, please email me directly at ammie@lefiores.com.
Tell your loved ones how much you love her and the earth by sending a vase bouquet today. Together, we can make a difference towards a greener Earth!
by Chantelle Lim
 01 Jul 08 - 1st occasion where I received a bouquet of flowers loosely wrapped with tissue paper which made it necessary for me to do something about it.
1 bouquet of lovely roses of premium quality + 1 vase (leftover from the last time I got a vase of roses) + 1 Chantelle = creativity kicked in till 1.45am.
I had a mission: to take the best shot with the best arrangement. Great deal of fun and with much success. Ode to my dear friend, Ammie, who gave me those roses, I took on with me 1 very important point. Receiving flowers in loose or in a vase brings about great flexibility as oppose to flowers in a bouquet. You can arrange the flowers a million times till you are satisfied. For me, I think I could never attain satisfaction for this cos at different angles and arrangements, the beauty is unique by itself.
True enough, having to wake up at 6.30am for work deterred me from achieving perfection or satisfaction. Falling in love with it, I brought it to work so it was working with this new owner (me) whom I think those roses perceive as fickle-minded, having toyed with it a trillion times. And still not giving up. I’m so proud in to have become its owner. Just like in food, only a cuisine connoisseur will appreciate food with great detail.
Only a flower fanatic will appreciate these premium roses. In this case, my director had a wonderful remark - “These roses are very different from the usual and very beautiful”, having to buy roses for 6 months every Sunday for her church’s centrepiece, thereby gaining tonnes of knowledge. I’m also learning more and liking every bit of it while becoming more of a vase person.
*****
Coming up next: A series of rose pictures taken by Chantelle.
These photos were taken from KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport). There are about 5 floral arrangements scattered around the departure terminal. These arrangements are so depressing, it’s an eye sore to the public. I can understand why they used orchids because orchids last longer, but the arrangements are so proportionately off, with no sense of aesthetic at all. The foliages are badly arranged and messy to say the least.
Considering that KLIA is the first main point of contact with tourists from all over the world for Malaysia, I believe the airport management could do a better job than putting up such messy floral arrangements.
 
 
How do you rate these floral arrangements?
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