Corsages From Your Own Roses
Roses are without question the most loved of all flowers. Florist shops carry them twelve months of the year and send out countless corsages of them every day. For this purpose, though, garden roses are even more varied.
The gardener who grows roses actually has several advantages over the florist. In a shop, most of the flowers are in the same stage of development and in a few standard colors only. The gardener, however, can walk outdoors and cut an assortment from tight buds to fully open flowers. The variety also will be greater.
Garden roses also have a natural grace, whether it be the first shrub roses that open in May or the airy floribunda Betty Prior that blooms indefatigably all summer and fall. June is the month of maximum production but some flowers can always be found front May until Thanksgiving.
Many other garden flowers combine well with roses. Forget-me-nots, astilbe, coral bells, valerian and babysbreath are only a few of the June perennials. During the summer, mignonette, verbena, cornflowers, candytuft, sweet alyssum and such annuals are pleasing contrast.
Rose foliage is excellent for corsages. A lighter appearance can be given to those of large-flowered hybrid teas by wiring each bloom to one leaf. Contrasting foliage could be substituted for other flowers. The style of the corsage is also influenced by the choice of foliage. The shiny leaves of ivy geranium are somewhat stiff and tailored; small-leaved Vinca minor is appropriate with floribundas or rose buds, and feathery tips of asparagus or delicate maidenhair fern give a dainty effect.
Just as roses alone, or in combination with other flowers or foliage, set a style, so also do ribbons. Certain types of corsages do not need this added decoration. Satin ribbon compliments elegant hybrid teas such as Countess Vandal; dull textured grosgrain is suitable with certain kinds of foliage. Width, texture and color must all be considered in selecting ribbon, if a bow is desired.
Roses should always be cut with a knife - not with scissors. It is essential to pick them the day before the corsage is to be made and worn. Evening is the best time, in order to avoid wilting.
After the flowers have been cut, thorns may be broken off or stripped off with a narrowly folded newspaper. Then the roses should be placed in a deep container of cold water. This is moved to a cool dim place such as a cellar for conditioning. Twelve hours are desirable. At corsage making time, excess foliage is stripped off and stems cut to workable length.
The finished corsage will keep fresh if it is wrapped in cellophane or waxed paper and kept in a cool place. The refrigerator may be too cold. A temperature of about 45 degrees is ideal.
Roses - any corsage for that matter - should be worn with the flowers toward the face. There are two sensible reasons. Flowers naturally grow upward and therefore look better worn that way. Then, too, flowers are most flattering to the face.
Many a man does not consider it sissy to wear a flower in his buttonhole. It is one way he can brag nonchalantly about the roses he grows, and it helps to start the day off right, too. Some of them even have tiny lapel vases which hold water and thus allow the rose to be worn straight through the day instead of being discarded at lunch time. Lacking this, he will be wise to choose his rose bud at night, cut it off with a pocket knife and put it in a glass of water until morning.
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