How to Make Beautiful Flower Arrangements

There’s three really stuck in my head:

1. "Can you tell me why you have been so sad? He took a lover on a far away beach. While you arranged flowers and chose color schemes"

2. "These days are slipping away, but the memories won’t fade. So wait for tomorrow, ’cause our time is right now."

3. "I don’t know how to speak for anyone but myself, you see, darling, there’s nothing that I can say that will save you anyway."

Those are the only lyrics I know to those songs. can any help me please?

1. Death of an Interior Decorator- Death Cab For Cutie
2.Artist vs. Poet- To Hell with the Letdown
3.I don’t want to lose you-A rocket to the moon

"Carl Linnaeus, the eighteenth-century botanist, even invented a floral clock. Noting that petals open and close at the same time each day (because they’re synchronized to how much light they receive), he arranged flowers in sequence, using the movement of petals to tell time." –Diane Ackerman.

Does anyone know of any books that can tell me what time of day certain flowers open and/or close?

Does anyone know of any flowers that open at 3:00 in the afternoon? This need not be exactly to the minute!

Thanks in advance.

Linnaeus did actually work out a clock based upon flowers to tell time, he used flowers with fixed opening times that are independent of the weather. He called these aequinoctales rather than meteorici because they respond meteorological conditions.
"Horologium florae"
The scarlet pimpernel opens its flower at 8:00 AM and closes it at 2:00 PM.
The dandelion opens at 9:00 AM and closes at 5:00 PM. The morning glory opens at 10:00 and closes at dusk.
The water lily opens at noon and closes at 2:00 PM.
Hawkbit, a dandelion look-a-like, closes at 3PM
Goatsbeard opens at noon and closes at 6:00 pm.
California poppy opens at 1:00 PM and closes at dusk. Chicory opens at 2:00 PM and closes at 5:00 PM with white waterlilies.
Four-o’clock opens at 4:00 PM
Evening primrose & moonflowers opens at 6:00 PM.
Plant list
http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/envis/doc28.html
http://www.dewsworld.com/FHowToMakeAFlowerClock.html

I have a very dear friend who lives overseas, so it’s difficult to show her what she means to me.

I’ve actually had notions of her as a girlfriend in the past… and although she is very fond of me, she’s made it clear that the ‘boyfriend/girlfriend’ thing isn’t ever going to happen.

Up to date, I’ve written letters to her, sent her greeting cards, have arranged flowers for birthdays and for no reason at all and have made many long-distance phone calls, all of which have been well-received but I’m looking for some ideas of other things that I can do to *show* her that she is special to me (even ‘just’ as a dear, close friend) – it’s the old ‘actions speak louder than words’ thing – but my imagination has deserted me(!)

One of the difficulties is that she is not very romantic and is not sentimental at all, which is completely opposite to me, so things that I would consider ‘meaningful’ have almost no significance to her.

I’d appreciate any suggestions you might have.
Just to note.. We’ve known each other for nearly 4 years and we get on very well when we *do* chat on the phone, etc – we *are* quite close, emotionally.
Actually, I’m already arranging a visit to see her (depends on $$$ issues to travel half-way round the world!)… and she says she’d like to have me visit… but as there’s no girlfriend/boyfriend thing possible, I’m not taking a 2nd mortgage on the house to get over there(!)

Oh.. and I’ve already straight-out told her she’s important to me.. and she says I’m special to her, too… so that seems to be well-understood

Well, since she has expressed there won’t be a girlfriend/boyfriend thing ever happening I would just continue as you are. She obviously considers you a dear friend since you chat to each other etc – going overboard with the gifts etc may scare her off you.

A friend of mine would like to learn how to arrange flowers and set tables for a wedding reception. Is there any place she can learn to do these in Houston Tx?

the cheapest place to look no matter where you live is in magazines,its all about what the bride likes & you can get a lot of good ideas from magazines! good luck!

i wish to buy fresh flowers and arrange them into a gift box ( with cover ). what are the materials needed?
do i use floral foam as the base?
anywhere i can find a guide on this?

Will the flowers be standing upright or lying down?

If you want to arrange them in an upright position, you will need floral foam and you may want to buy some floral wire, especially if you have flowers that tend to droop like gerbera daisies or tulips. The floral foam should be soaked in water and placed in a water proof base.

If you want to lie the flowers down around something, you can buy special test tubes with caps for each flower. These are then filled with water. Your best bet? Go to any flower shop and throw yourself on their mercy. They’ll have everything you need to make your gift box memorable.

The supplies you need aren’t expensive and can even be purchased at craft stores. Just be sure you get the right kind of foam for fresh flowers. Don’t confuse floral foam with the green styrofoam they use for silk or dried flower arrangements!

Good luck!