Karen Axel AIFD of Tapestry Flowers in San Francisco, Calif., submit this tip to anyone looking to avoid “greening in” their oasis before or after making an arrangement. I simply wrap the oasis with one or two ti leaves (depending on how big the dish is), using greening pins, and voila! no greening necessary! It takes just seconds and flower stems easily insert right through the ti leaf to create your design. I specialize in party and wedding flowers and use this for all of my arrangements - it is a huge time and product saver! You can make airy or lush arrangements and only need to use the flowers for the design... no unnecessary greens or moss are needed to hide the oasis.

I started this by using huge sycamore leaves from a tree outside my studio, and I began to overprune my tree to satisfy my need for leaves. I decided to look for something on the market I could buy over and over, to save my poor tree, and ti leaves were the perfect thing.

Do YOU have a great floral design idea or tip that you would like to share with your fellow AIFD members? We’d love to receive it. To do so, simply send your tip along with any appropriate artwork (illustration, photographs, etc.) that depicts your concept to Eric Grammer at ericgrammer@assnhqtrs.com.

In each future issue of Focal Points we’ll publish acceptable - we want new ideas - suggestions. Ideas that are published will give the contributor 5 CEUs towards maintaining accreditation.