Bo and Aloe

23 March 2025

I was excited for this week's floral challenge. At last week's floristry teacher's training session Debby showed us two designs using aloe vera as the base medium. Currently in floristry we are all looking toward sustainable practices, and cost-effective options for retail and event floral design. While there are products available to replace floral foam they either aren't very economical (and therefore not sustainable in my opinion, even if they are more eco-friendly) or they just don't work like foam does.

As I said previously, I'm trying to be more environmentally responsible with this challenge, and experiment with different mediums so that I will feel confident enough to use them if the situation arises. A good florist should be able to think outside the square and find creative ways out of disaster situations. I'm storing experiences away for future reference.

This week I took up the aloe vera challenge, and quickly discovered that it would have been better with larger, thicker leaves. Not sure if I just need a bigger pot for it together bigger, not more numerous...

Anyway, here's what I managed. The week before I retired a blender whose best blending days were behind them (in favour of a Ninja that is the duck's guts), and opted to keep the glass jug to put succulents in. The succulents will have to wait for a bit longer.

The Heliconia are extremely happy in my garden at the moment. What started as one small clump gifted to me when I went to collect some Cattleya orchids that I was buying off Marketplace has pretty much taken over the greenhouse and is extending beyond. I really need to get in there and thin it out a bit - I can't actually walk in there anymore, I just step and lunge. So, of course, I had to use Heliconia. I went for the idea that I forgot to put the lid on the blender and now everything is spraying out. I managed to get some of the Heliconia flower pieces to stay under the water to unite the container with what's up the top, and once a couple of the frangipani flowers fell off I floated them on the surface too. I'll be interested to see how long the Heliconia last in the aloe. Last week's foliage only design looks exactly the same by the way. If you're looking for longevity tropical leaves are the go.

I don't have any new images to share from my Diploma assessments just yet, so here's some from last week of Bo. He's up on the bench because when I crouch to his level he always come close to me. Like, sit in my lap close to me. I think he may have learned this from my day care kids - whenever I sat down and made a lap a kid often sat on it. He was high enough that he wasn't tempted to try and jump off, although he did kind of want to, but no amount of, "Just relax and give me a smile" served to calm his frazzled nerves. I'm glad he didn't piddle on the bench!

I reached out and scratched his head and his tongue would dart out. Every. Time. One of those shots was what I chose to submit. The other two I have entitled "Indignant" and "I'm sorry. Can I get down now please?"