Todich Floral Design Blog

We’ve been very busy in the past weeks working on projects for clients, but having finally taken 5 minutes for a cup of coffee with a friend the other day at a shopping mall, I couldn’t help but notice the way the whole building was decorated with plants and trees inside.

If you operate a shopping mall you know the importance of having plants to liven up that space. Usually, the parts of the shopping mall that are reserved for restaurants and coffee shops need to be somehow separated from the rest of the surrounding space to give visitors a way to enjoy a relaxation break.

While the usual approach with smaller to medium size plants will do the trick for smaller spaces, sometimes the space requires a somewhat different approach. Open spaces require bigger plants to adequately respond to the size of the space around it. Depending on the theme desired you could place, for example, palm trees in a particular area and bring a little tropical heat to the atmosphere.

Naturally, other trees are a good choice as well, such as the example below:

Image credit: rubey_kay

Whatever the choice and needs, we are always happy to take on a challenge, and create a unique solution for your visitors. in fact we are in the middle of a project for a client who operates a hotel. Stay tuned, we’ll be posting photos and stuff soon.

Plants and flowers always seem to be in the root (no pun intended) of every fashion trend, as we’ve seen in the example of designer dresses inspired partly by exotic flowers. This time we’d like to direct your attention towards a remarkable collection of photographs of shoes and accessories designed exclusively from plants and flowers. We can’t wear any of these, but it would be great if we could. The collection is part of Michel Tcherevkoff’s portfolio of photos and is called “Shoe Fleur: A Footwear Fantasy”. It has been exhibited in New York in 2007, and is now available on display in Paris, June through August 2008.

The idea came about while working on on a shoot for a client, and was captivated by a prop and the way a leaf followed the contour of a shoe. He spent the next couple of hours of the evening contemplating on this and ended up playing with plant’s forms, its shapes, bending and twisting, to produce these wonderful creations.

[Via: LuxuryCulture.com]

We’ve been working in the past weeks to enhance your experience on our site. Among the many planned additions to the content on our site, we are happy to announce the release of the Todich Floral Design product gallery, which contains all the products we offer as part of our services. With no particular order or categorisation, you are free to browse all the product images. In case you like a particular design, please jot down its unique identification code (shown under each image) and give it to us when you contact us.

This is by no means the end of development in this area. There are efforts being taken to improve this part of the site even further to allow you to use quite a sophisticated interface to let us know which designs and products you are interested in. Stay tuned!

Additionally, we are preparing some additional and informative content as well, especially for the weddings section, so look for an announcement about this very soon.

In case you haven’t been informed earlier, the Chelsea Flower Show is happening again. It was opened yesterday, 20 May, and will go on for four days, ending on 24 May. The event is taking place at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London SW3. It seems tickets have been sold out online, so you may have to chance it and try to get tickets at the venue. In any case, if you want a glimpse of what’s going on live, you can see that here (live web cams on the official site).

There are blogs for the Chelsea Flower Show here, but also photos and forums if you want to discuss.

Here’s just one photo of what can be seen at the show:

There is plenty of interesting content to enjoy at the show like changing climate studies and garden displays. You can find out plenty more on the official RHS Chelsea Flower Show site.

It’s orchids again…

Would you live in a house shaped as an orchid? Apparently, there is one available for just a couple of million pounds relatively close to London. The architects took the bee orchid as a model for designing the Orchid House - a very interesting approach to country living. It’s (or should be) located at Lower Mill Estate, here in the UK. Coincidentally (or not) there are a number of orchid species that can be found there, but it was the particular camouflage of the bee orchid that generated the design.

The house, to be built from laminated veneer lumbar (LVL) ribs and clad with timber shingles is to blend well with the environment, offering flexible living spaces, with the kitchen at the very center, and the surrounding space like a ‘whorl’ of leaves encircling the seed of the flower.

As far as interior flower decoration in the house, the architects didn’t say, but orchids seem like the way to go.

Flowers have been an inspiration for fashion designers since a long time ago. John Galliano’s latest work for the Christian Dior fall/winter 2008 collection shown recently show this only too well. He took the optimism of the sixties, amped by bright colours, as his inspiration. An interesting post on Trendinista points out, what’s at first a not so clear similarity between dress design and colours and the beautiful orchids. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a couple of shots from the post which illustrate what was said all to well:

Visit Trendinista for more pictures like these.

It goes without saying that everyone one of us should do whatever we can to reduce the negative effect our lifestyles and businesses have on the environment. In fact, we’ve done a lot over the past years to ecologically improve our business operations to ensure we have the lowest possible ecological impact. Needless to say, this is far from over. There is always something new and different we can do to make things cleaner and greener. We are always happy to salute an effort in that direction. This time we salute a small company from France, called La Petite Reine.

We’ve all gotten used to having things delivered to our addresses in the cities. Many of you probably use our flower delivery services. What if there was a way to do this in an absolutely clean and environmentally safe way? The guys from La Petite Reine seem to have found an answer - human powered vehicles or Cargocycles as they call them. These are basically tricycles with a cargo space attached on the rear axle. The cargo space allows for about 180 kg of weight, or about 1400 litres of volume, to be delivered to distances of up to 30 km. The vehicle itself weighs only about 80 kg. Best of all, they are completely silent and emit no pollutants whatsoever.

Deliveries are so far available in three major cities in France - Bordeaux, Rouen, and Dijon, but the company is looking for partners in order to expand its services to other countries as well.

The road to a clean and green business is a long one, sometimes very slow even, but we will get there eventually with persistent efforts and a will to improve.

I am always amazed at the number of ways humans find to celebrate their love for flowers. Here are a couple of examples to illustrate - flowers as a motif for food, flower sculptures made from… well, flowers, and flower sculptures made from artificial materials. The possibilities are endless…

 

 

If you find any more cool examples of floral art, drop us a link in the comments. Maybe you’re a floral artist yourself - share your creations with us!

Getting married this year? Don’t wait until the last minute to plan flower decorations for the happy event. As is the case in other industries, the good stuff is hard to come by at a moment’s notice. Many top florists, including us, are quite busy and booked in advance, sometimes months ahead. It’s important to have this in mind and plan things ahead.

We know planning your wedding can be a very daunting task - and flower decorations are only a part of it. Here are a few pointers as far as flowers are concerned which may help you organise a little:

• florists are usually booked in advance, so don’t wait too long before contacting us
• many types of flowers are seasonal, so get informed about flower availability before making any major choices
• venue choice is quite important, as decoration and floral design implementation depend on the space available and accomodation configuration (seating arrangements, dance podium space, windows and lighting, entrance); floral designs are custome tailored to these conditions, so knowing them in advance will help
• if you are not completely sure about what kind of flowers and arrangements you’d like, consult with your florist early to allow enough time for ideas to crystalise (we offer free consultation)
• be honest about your wishes, however extravagant they may seem; the more information you give, the closer your vision will come to a stunning reality; we always try to create a custom tailored solution that will amaze you and your guests, but in the end, it’s your vision - we’ll simply help you to bring it to life.
• budget - concentrate your financial efforts on the most important things, those that will be visible to everyone, especially to you; again, a free wedding consultation with us will help you prioritise and save money

Let me emphasise the time factor again - don’t wait until the last minute to address flowers and floral decorations for your wedding. Start things well ahead and save both time and your nerves. In case you are already behind, get in touch with us anyway. We have been known to help our customers get out of tight schedules, without compromising quality of service or products.

BTW, we are preparing a surprise for all our soon-to-be-married friends - I can’t divulge too much at the moment, but a tool is coming that will allow you to be in charge of your wedding flower expenses (well, almost in charge anyway). Stay tuned, we’ll make an official announcement when the time comes.

Artificial flowers and plants today look so authentic that you pretty much have to touch them to be sure what you’re looking at is indeed an artificial piece. I remember once, having moved into new office space, the decorator went so far as to pre-decorate some of the space using artificial plants. Not knowing this, my new assistant actually watered the plant on the first day, only to notice days after that that the plant was actually artificial. It was placed in the pot with real earth and all, and the stem and leaves looked so real.

Artificial flowers and plants allow more freedom in decoration. First of all, they don’t wither, need virtually no maintenance (well, except some cleaning maybe), and probably most important, they come in all shapes, sizes, and variants no matter what the season is. So if you like tropical flowers, but live in a cold climate, your problem is solved. Artificial flowers are usually and mostly made of silk, as this material really produces the most realistic effect. The Chinese have been using silk flowers as decorations thousands of years ago, but it’s generally taken that the Italians have commercialised silk flowers in the 12th century (having just setup trade relations with China). By the 14th century though the French took over as master silk florists, having taken the craft to the highest limit then. Later on, the Victorian Age has brought an expansion in floral arts, both real and artificial. Materials used were satin, velvet, calico, muslin, cambric, crepe, gauze, and later wood, palm leaves, porcelain and metal.

Ecologically, artificial flowers and plants are a great product. There are no left-overs or waste materials. Everything used for making them is actually contained within the product. Needless to say, they are hand made works of floral art. At least the ones we make and install into your homes or offices. The technology of making artificial flowers and plants is advancing, giving us new materials and methods of joining parts together to look even more realistic than ever before. Replicating nature is virtually impossible, but new materials and methods allow us to make faux flowers that are stunning. It takes a lot of expertise and skill, and really pushes the artist to their limits.

We are always in touch with the latest developments and readily implement them on our products, guaranteeing your home or office space is decorated with the products of highest quality. If you’ve been thinking about decorating your work or life space, get in touch with us and let us show you how preserved, dried and silk flowers and plants can work for you.