Buttonholes and botanical names

I started my Level 2 Diploma in Floristry a few weeks ago, and I am enjoying it so much. My tutors are lovely and give us lots of feedback, often making us do a design again and again until it’s better. I’m glad I started reading my huge RHS Encyclopaedia over the summer, as we will get tested on the botanical names of flowers and foliage throughout the year, although there are some names that I just can’t remember. Waxflower is ‘the one that begins “Cha”’, I say, but apparently that isn’t enough information. It’s Chamelaucium uncinatum, in case you were wondering.

Here are a few of the designs I’ve done so far. A line arrangement, a natural-tied posy, a table centre (‘It needs more flowers,’ my tutor said, ‘but it’s ok, because we know you had to make do with what we gave you’), and lots of buttonholes. I seem to have got the knack of buttonholes, which is a relief since I’ll be doing my first wedding next weekend. Eek. And if you’re concerned about the dishevelled look of the bottom gerbera in the first picture, that’s because I had to take it home on the train during Hurricane Katia. If someone was paying for them, I would have packaged them better!