The Parkland Garden club recently held a monthly meeting at St. John’s UCC, Fogelsville.

The topic of the night’s presentation was “The Elements of Spring” and focused on the principles of flower arranging design.

The presenter was Renee Tucci, a leader in the industry of design.

She was inducted into the American Institute of Floral Designers in 2016, Professional Floral Communicators Int’l in 2018 and the American Academy of Floriculture in 2022.

She is also an educator at an AIFD Education Partner in Bucks County and volunteers in various positions on the Regional and National AIFD board of directors.

She has participated in the Philadelphia Flower for the past 16 years.

She now teaches floral design and is a freelancer in design as well.

She is the author of the book “Framing Floral Techniques.”

Renee demonstrated four flower designs for the club that evening.

She discussed the eight elements of design, as well as using the senses for seeing, touch and feeling with the flower design items.

She discussed the importance of cleaning and prepping the stems and stripping the leaves down the stem.

She advised to keep the texture of several of the items the same.

She used hydrangea stock and demonstrated how to open a carnation for the design piece.

She also recommended Green Trick dianthus.

Her first piece was a spiral bouquet where she placed the stems next to or around each other as she then places and turns the bouquet to obtain a spiral effect.

She used eucalyptus, pre-stripped, around the collar while rotating.

She used waterproof florist tape to secure the bouquet and then trimmed the bottom stems slightly.

The second design was to demonstrate the use and importance of “Form.”

Renee made a linear and upright flower display starting with green fan palms.

She then used liatris, delphiniums, iris, mini calla lilies.

She used bamboo skewers if needed to strengthen the bottom of the weaker stems.

She stated that you could also use chenille stems (pipe cleaners) pushed inside the opening bottom of weaker larger hollow stems to secure as well.

She also displayed how to open tulip flower petals.

The third design was to demonstrate the use and importance of “Line.”

She described it as a path that directs the line in a design where the eye travels to the end, which is the focal point.

She used Gerber daisies which are currently trending in floral designs.

Renee used rustic wire and coiled it with pliers to add effect.

The fourth design was to demonstrate the use and importance of “Space.”

She stated that there are two kinds of space, “Positive,” which takes up fully and “Negative” where you can see through.

She also discussed a “Void” where nature and properties of the items used create the void in the piece.

She discussed “a Sahara Form” which is made of dried flowers and does not need water.

For those items that need water to sustain the arrangement, she uses water in a water (test) tube.

She covers the tube with yarn.

The tubes are then attached with two bind wires.

She used some Veronica which is a trending flower piece in arrangements now as well.

All the beautiful designs were raffled off to lucky club members,

Guests are always welcome!

For more information about the Parkland Garden club, visit www.parklandgardenclub.com.