today we're going tohave some fun with hops. you may be wondering, why iskelly wearing giant gloves? because kelly'sallergic to hops. that's why. taking one for the teamtoday, because hops are a really neat ingredient. you can use them in alot of different ways, super-super-large-scale thewhole way down to little boutonnieres.
so today, we're going todo an overhead hanging type of an arrangementusing the bar up here. we've got hops, a little bitof lemon leaves, some dahlia, tuberose, cosmos, gomphrena. it'll be fun. that's the ingredientsthat we're working with. let's talk a little bit aboutthe supplies that we have. this is just a simplesmall board from lowe's. this type of designthat we're about to make
is something that you mightattach to a beam that already exists in the venuethat you're using, or it may be somethingthat you need to hang to be lower froma beam in the venue. so if you're using it,if you need to attach, you can use this method toattach it directly to the beam and just kind of pretend thatthis is the beam at your venue. or you can use thesame kind of materials that we're using here.
this one is a little bit narrow. it's not a 2 by 4. 2 by 4s are pretty heavy. so i like to keep my mechanicslight but still weight-bearing. we're not going to puta ton of weight on this, so this will be adequate forwhat we're working on today. if you need to attachthis to a beam, you can just simply drilla hole through the board and put a rope through.
tie the rope in a doubleknot there at the end. make sure it's nice and secure. and then you can throwthat up over your beam and get everythingconnected that way. so that's an idea, if you needto rig it on something else. so we'll get started here. i'm going to use some lemonleaf, our salal foliage, as a base. and then we're going to workin our little oasis pieces.
and then we're going to goadd in the hops around those. so do you have to do thisexactly like i do it? no. there's more thanone way to do things, and i think that's animportant distinction to make. so you might see thisand think of a way that you can be more efficientor faster or something. this sparks a littlenode of inspiration, so please feel free toadjust as you need to.
and i also wanted to mention ihave just a little delivery box that i'm using. dad and i put thesetogether, but they flip upside downreally wonderfully if you need to use themas little step stool. so this is something that ilove to have on event day, because it's multi-functionaland it doesn't take up extra room in my car. so we'll get started by justputting a little bit of this
onto our form and i'm goingto use zip ties to do this. you could use wire or tapeif you wanted to as well. that is up to you. everybody has theirpreferences there too. i'm going to put a little bitabove, put a little below. and i'm not that worried aboutcovering the form per se. i just wanted to havea little bit of a base to start out with. the hops are really going to domost of the work for us here.
but i think sometimes it's niceto have an alternate leaf shape and shade in designs,so that's why we're going to go with these. it's also prettybudget-friendly, just another reasonwhy i love it. and it really is a workhorse. the bunches are big so you canuse it throughout your event. it doesn't have a great shapefor centerpieces in my opinion, or bouquets.
but i think for installationwork it's pretty great. and there are waysthat you can use it in centerpieces and bouquetstoo if you needed to. but i prefer something that'sa little bit less stiff. but this is great forgarland-making as well. ok. next we're going toadd in the oasis. and i'm going to show youtwo different ways that you can do that.
the first thing that i haveis a little igloo oasis cage. and it has the littlethings that you can attach a zip-tie or a wireto put it on the structure. so i'm just going tospace this out evenly. and since this piece is goingto be viewed from the ground up, i'm going to focus onputting the flowers low. and these, i kind of like to runthem through the actual oasis pieces, because sometimes theselittle side pieces can pop off and i just wouldlike to avoid that.
the other option that youcan do is a little bit more budget-friendly butalso a little bit more labor-intensive. i've taken just aregular cube of oasis and i cut it intoeight sections. and you can use thiswith a little bit of chicken wire instead ofthe cage if you need to. so i have a piece ofchicken wire cut here. and i'm just going towrap it around the oasis.
and this simply keeps theoasis from breaking into pieces once you get a lotof flowers in there. and then i'm just goingto take that and attach it right to the form. you can run it throughthe wires if you'd like for just a littlebit of extra hold. and i think on this one i'mgoing to do five pieces. and i'll put the measurementfor in the finished product and the recipe forhow many flower
we use so that if you'dlike to create something similar for somethingthat you're doing, you can easily swap out thematerials and the quantities and just have a better ideaof how to quote the event out. i have raindrops. oh. all right. let's add in some hops next. let me get my gloves.
these are pretty big. i sort of imagine--they remind me of jack and the beanstalk alittle bit or something. i feel like i should yell "bombsaway" and just throw it over. i should also mention that ifyou haven't had hops before, there is the-- my skinjust breaks out in a rash. but there also is an odorassociated with hops. they smell a little bit likefish when you open up the box, so just be aware of that.
it's not a deal-breaker,but if you're pretty sensitive tosmell, it's going to be something that'sa little bit unusual, you're going to wantto watch out for. and if you can't flip it overtop of your beam, like i did, or if you wanted tohave just a little bit more drape orsomething like that, you could attach thehops with zip-ties, just going along themain vein of the vine.
and i apologize. i'm going to have to put my backtowards you just for a second, but i want to just kind ofassess and trim out some pieces in the hops thatare maybe browning or too long, just getthe shape of this. this is the shape componentfor this arrangement, so we just want to get thesilhouette looking really nice. and since these arrangementsgo so high in the sky and it's going to bedim and dark in the area
that you're working, youdon't have to obsess over every single little piece. since these aresomething that come out of the box out ofwater, there may be a little bit ofwilting and browning, especially if you're trekkingthem around in the sun. but for the most part,they're pretty sturdy. and i'll put a sourcefor these out of oregon that ships in yournotes for those of you
that are here in the states. and if you aren't, hopon community and chat with some people thatare from your area and see if you guys cancome up with a great source to find these where you are. now, this would be a funarrangement that you could-- after you've got all ofyour flowers and things in, you could add them hangingcandles down in here, like little twinklelights, or you
could do actual littleelectronic twinkle lights. and we may edit that alittle bit as we go along, but it's cleaned up and it'sin a better place-- in a better place than it was when weinitially popped it up there. the next thing that i'mgoing to kind of look for is just any obviousareas that are exposed, where mechanics are exposed. and i just want to give thosea little bit of attention before i start getting allof my flowers organized
and incorporated in there. so i'm going to pop backin there with a little bit of the lemon leaf foliage. and i think we're mostlydone handling the hops. i can handle them a littlebit, but i don't want to give them a big bear hug. so this area right inhere needs some attention. so i'm actually-- i seea good opportunity here to just adjust the waythat this vine is hanging.
and that'll helpwith part of this. and then i might tuck justa little bit of this in. and now the hops can beused as a base or a way to hold flowers in placeas well, which is fabulous, all of those stemsthat are crossing over, weaving together. grapevine is agreat thing for that as well, maybe if you needed todo a big overhead installation. grapevine acts as asimilar type of thing,
creating a net, anatural-looking net for flowers and things to rest in. and then anotherthing that i love to have onsitewhenever i go places is some moss, because youcan just quickly pull off some pieces and fill in. so i'll do a littlebit of that now, and then before i wrapup a project like this, i like to squeezemy eyes together
just like you would whenyou're putting christmas lights on a tree,just to see if there's anything that's standing out. you just kind of squeeze youreyes and look for that board. you'll see if there'sany places that need to be covered witha little bit of moss. another idea forcovering mechanics is to spray paint thepiece that you're using, so this board we could havespray painted a green color.
and that would have helpedas well just to camouflage. so if that's something thatyou're very sensitive to, that's another littleoption for you. next we're goingto add tuberose. i think i may have left this offthe ingredients list whenever i first startedtalking about them. i love tuberose. they smell fantastic. these are so great tohave in brides' bouquets
and on tables andthings like that, where people will pass them. up here, their scent is goingto be overlooked a little bit, but their shape is importantfor this type of arrangement. we need a few things thatare long and stretching, so i've done such agreat job covering up my mechanics that i can'teven see where my little oasis houses are. there's one.
so here we'regoing to use-- this isn't going to be oneof-- the big show-stopper in this arrangement isthe cosmos, so we're just going to put a few ofthe tuberose in there. and i'm using them to markwhere my oasis is hanging out, so one in here. and today, i'm working onprimarily the front side so that you're able to seeand experience putting this together.
but as you do it foryour event, you're going to want to keep walkingbetween all the sides. and you're also goingto want to create depth. so for example, you can see howi have a tuberose hanging out back here in this area. and that's to draw the eye backin and through the arrangement. if they were all on thefront at the same level, it wouldn't be quite asinteresting for the people who are enjoying the flowers.
next we're going toput the cosmos in. i love how lightand airy these are. they're a really fun flowerto include in your designs. another consideration-- i know italk a lot about the allergy of hops, but just keep thatin mind if you have people that are working for you. you don't want to putsomebody in a place where they're feelingreally uncomfortable and itchy all day, sotake that into mind.
if somebody seems likethey're sensitive to it, put them on a different task. just a good thingto know in advance. keep everybody on yourteam happy and healthy. and as far asplacement for these, i'm just keeping an eyeon evenly spreading them throughout the arrangement. and we have dahliasthat we're going to add. and whenever i putthose in, i'm going
to concentrate on making aninteresting line for the eye to follow with those. so these are justkind of little-- i guess you could call ita fill if you wanted to, but this is just our main cover. in a centerpiece, these wouldbe great as a finishing flower, because of their lightand airy quality and just the shape of their stems. but this one can transitionin quite a few ways.
it's great for, in thissituation, a fill as well. and i've left afew of the cosmos in my little bucket over here,so after i get most of the-- i go through and getall the components in, then i like to justtake a quick peek and sometimes there's an areathat needs a little bit more so i have a few left overthat i can go back in and make those adjustments if needed. but i think it's niceto get through all
of the initial placementof all of your ingredients before you perfect. and if you run out offlowers to perfect with and you're kind ofmoving things around, it just takes alittle bit more time. but no worries ifyou have to do that. sometimes it happens. so i've got my prettywhite dahlias here. since they're thelargest component here,
it's where the eye is goingto naturally be drawn to. so we're going tofocus on creating a few little focal points withinthis large, large arrangement using these dahlias. and we're going to do thatby grouping them together within different levelsand by arranging them in a little bit of a line. this is called an implied line. it's like aconnect-the-dots line.
if you were looking upat the stars at night, how all the differentconstellations you sort of use the stars as yourpoint to form all those differentconstellations, it's similar here, what we'redoing with these flowers. and if this arrangementis going to go at a point where there is kind of--it's at an entry point, maybe, where the eyewould be drawn up, you could-- at the centerof your arrangement,
you could focus on taking oneof these larger flowers up high. you're going to want to keepan eye especially underneath, though. this is really where guestsare going to view and enjoy it, so you're going to want to addsome in there at varying levels too. if you have abride who's getting married in the fall thatjust really loves peonies, you can definitelyshow her dahlias.
i call them the peony of fall. and usually oncethey've seen one, they're excited about them,especially the big dinner plate ones. they're becoming a little bitmore well known with the girls. but some peoplejust don't know what they are and haven'tseen them before, so a little bit ofeducation goes a long way. and a word on dahlias.
they can be pretty tough ifthey come wholesale, i think, to keep looking fresh and great. so i recommend finding alocal source if you're able to and the associationof cut flower growers is a great place to go for that. you just really lose a lotof the life of the dahlia, since they are ashorter-lived flower. their vase life typically youcan expect to be from maybe two to four days i would say.
so if you think about thatthey were cut at the farm and then they were shippedand then they came to you, they've already used up quitea bit of their life expectancy, so i think it's a good idea ifyou're able to get those local. and if you hop oncommunity, there's a little discussion goingon about wholesale dahlias and some things thatpeople have been trying. i haven't experimentedwith the wholesale methods, with chemicals and thingslike that to maintain them.
i just didn't want togo there, because i have some great localsources, so it just felt kind of like a waste to me. but they're sharing somepossible solutions and things that you can do tokeep those alive there. so next, this is gomphrena. i'm just looking for my oasisand popping it in there. this is a nice little kindof fun little accent piece. and again, don'tforget underneath,
and like i mentioned,the other side as well. and i pulled one moreingredient that i was thinking about puttingin this arrangement. and it's just a bitof queen anne's lace as our finishing flower. so after i work in thegomphrena, we'll go there next. some of these piecesof gomphrena i'm having a hard timefinding my oasis spot. so you could haveon hand-- i like
to travel to installs witha few water tubes filled up. so you could have those onhand just to pop your stems in and then you can use the grid ofyour hops and put your flowers in that way if you have morethan you can do with the oasis, or if you would just preferto do that instead of oasis. it's kind of a matterof preference, i think. found it there. let's move on to our lastingredient, the queen anne's lace.
we're just going to use this tosort of finish it off and add a little bit oflightness to the design. so i want this tocome out further than all of theother ingredients that i've put inhere so far, since it is the last light, airy piece. and again, i'm justspreading these out like i did with thecosmos, pretty evenly. but if you wanted to use themto accent a specific line
or grouping, you could payattention to that as well. i'm going to stepaway for a minute and just take a quick peek,see if there's anything that i want to change or edit. and then i'll be back to showyou the finished product. we'll be right back. and i'm back to wrap up. i went ahead and i justdid that little squinty eye and looked for any pieces ofthe mechanics that were sticking
out and i covered with a littlebit of moss and a few hops up there. and then i justwanted to show you before we sign off for todaytwo little examples of something you might like to use orinclude in a design like this and the sources for those. this is a little candleglobe from accent decor. and then this is from-- i gotthis in new york at the flower market whenever i was there.
so i'll show you--i'll put links to these things in your notes. but i just wanted to show youhow i attach them real quick. i just use a simplepiece of floral wire to put those together. and i just make a littlepaper-clip-like piece to attach everything. so if you use a gauge wiremaybe like between 16 and 20, you should probably be--you'll be in good shape
with something like that. 16 is a little bitheavier than 20, so just depending onhow heavy your piece is that you're using. but i just wrapthat up there, find a nice strong piece of the hopsvine, and attach it like that. i like these covered globes justbecause the flame is completely covered and youdon't really have to worry as muchabout fire and things
like that with something thatis completely covered on top. these ones are alittle bit-- you just have be a little bit careful. maybe put them a little bitlower in your arrangement or your design. candles do generatequite a lot of heat, so even if it doesn'tcatch on fire, it might cause it tobrown or something like that, so justsomething that you
want to keep in mind ifyou decide that you wanted to put some lightingto this arrangement, you want to keep it pretty low. and just fishing wire is whati like to attach those with, but it's good to prep allthose things in advance, because whenever you'redoing a big install, oh, time just flies. so if you have all of yourfishing wire pre-attached, you can just storethem that way and then
they're alwaysready to go and you don't have to rewire each time. so that is the oversizedhanging arrangement. i hope you enjoyed it and ihope that it encourages you in your next design. so we'll be back soon withanother project for you to try. thanks so much for watchingand we'll see you soon.