The California State Floral Association (CSFA) will be holding its annual event October 11 & 12 at Mayesh Wholesale Florist Inc in Riverside. Also held at the event is the Top Ten Floral Competition which crowns the California champion that will move on to the Sylvia’s Cup national competition. Click on the above image to get the full listing of events.

Results are in from the 2013 San Diego County Fair Floral Design Competition. Pictures of the winning arrangements will follow their names. For the complete gallery scroll to the bottom.

In third place, was Sam Chiem.

In second place was Junko Yamamoto.

The winner of the 2013 San Diego County Fair Floral Design Competition was Sidney Heffner.

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Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the 2012 San Diego County Fair Floral Design Competition. After attending all three iterations of this design competition and at least a dozen other competitions, I was surprised to see a standing room only headcount. It was very well attended.

I will be writing this up in more detail when I get the official pictures. By the way, if you were at the event, George Speer, who runs the event, handed me the camera and made me the official photographer. If you were there, I was the one constantly moving around tIf I kept making you move or got in your way, sorry for that!

Results:

1st Place – Sonja Longley
2nd Place – Karyn Wlocewski (also won People’s Choice)
3rd Place – Karen Kroemer-Spiess

Congratulations to these talented ladies!

To see pictures from the competition, visit our Facebook page here:

Competition Pictures

We have reached that time of year again. The 2012 San Diego County Fair has opened and will run through the Fourth of July. That means the 3rd annual San Diego County Fair Floral Design Competition as well! For those of you that have never been before, you might ask, “What is a floral design competition?”

A typical floral design competition consists of two rounds. The first is the designer’s choice round. During this round, the floral designer must complete an arrangment consisting of fresh flowers and supplies that they have chosen. There are usually limits on what types of flowers and supplies used. The finished arrangement must also fit into a stated theme. The fun is only starting as they move into round two the “Surprise Package”. For the “Surprise Package” round, the designer’s are all given the same flowers and supplies. Under the pressure of a running clock, they must complete an arrangement that fits within the stated theme of the round. This is when you see how truly creative designers can be. I’ve always found it remarkable how different the arrangements can be even though the designers are forced to use the exact same materials. So, if you’ve never watched a floral design competition, this is something that I would definitely recommend.

To see our photo gallery from the 2011 competition:

Gallery #1>
Gallery #2

If you would like to watch the competition, it is Sunday, June 24, 2012.

Since everyone seems to love candles so much, we are going to add another candle tip. This one is quite simple but will help those that frequently burn candles.

When you extinguish a candle, it is usually accompanied by smoke and the smell of smoke. Also, the wick can be difficult to relight. To extinguish the candle, take something non-flammable and push the wick into the pool of wax. Not only will this extinguish the candle, the wax coating will prevent the smoke and accompanying smell. Also, when you go to relight the candle, the wick will be primed with wax and be much easier to ignite.

Take a look at our selection of Candles while you are here.

Checkout our other Tips of the Day.

Hope this helps!

Floral competitions generally have 2 parts: Designer’s Choice and Surprise Package.  There is usually a theme for the designs and there are of course size limitations.

For this competition, the designers were given 45 minutes to complete the first portion based on the theme ‘Riding in Style.’  They came with their flowers fully in tact, their armatures or containers set, and their tools ready.  It’s fascinating to see the designs come to life, especially in this case because they had to incorporate ‘Riding.’  We saw tires, steering wheels, little toy cars, checkered flags, and various carriages and wheels.

The Surprise Package is great because none of the designers know what to expect.  They are all given the same materials: flowers, greens, ribbon, tulle, chenille (pipe cleaners to those of us outside of the industry), flat wire, oasis, pew holders, and in this case wire hangers and a chair.  They had 30 minutes to complete their design.

The goal was to use the materials present to create a floral design that would decorate the chairs for a VIP benefit dinner sponsoring a racing event.  A few of us discussed this part of the competition afterwards and decided next time the Surprise Package should include Match Box cars….ooo! or maybe toy tires to tie into the ends of the ribbon.  I think it could work.  This was a tough theme!

After long deliberation and tallying, the winners were announced:

1^st place: Suzie Bowen

2^nd place: Sonja Longley

3^rd place and People’s Choice Winner: Masako Lesure

I did make it into the other parts of the fair, but I stayed away from those fried concoctions everyone is so crazy about.  Maybe in another 20 years…I’ll stick to flowers for now.

See you around the store!

Stacey

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A typical floral design competition consists of two rounds. The first is the designer’s choice round. During this round, the floral designer must complete an arrangment consisting of fresh flowers and supplies that they have chosen. There are usually limits on what types of flowers and supplies used. The finished arrangement must also fit into a stated theme. The fun is only starting as they move into round two the “Surprise Package”. For the “Surprise Package” round, the designer’s are all given the same flowers and supplies. Under the pressure of a running clock, they must complete an arrangement that fits within the stated theme of the round. This is when you see how truly creative designers can be. I’ve always found it remarkable how different the arrangements can be even though the designers are forced to use the exact same materials. So, if you’ve never watched a floral design competition, this is something that I would definitely recommend. Click on the following picture to get a full page PDF version of the event brochure.