A recent honor for me was to be invited to be a speaker for the Garden Club of America’s 2021 virtual floral design conference. My topic was to be “Proving the Principles” and I chose to make my presentation illustrate the connection between historical eras and how design styles and inspirations are influenced by the world around, by what has come before, and by the ever present laws of nature or principles of design.

My interpretation of the Dark Ages or Medieval times was this garland made of branches and a twisted wire garland attached to a simple narrow necked vessel. The colors are clear and placed carefully inspired by the illuminated manuscripts of the day. Jasmine vine is placed over the flowers to “shelter” the design much like in an ancient walled garden.

This new technique of twisting wire as a flower support was introduced to me last fall at a garden club workshop. Roseann Christian, a dear friend and fellow floral designer, showed how to twist wires into forms that may be used in all sorts of ways.

Roseann holds a wire form made of twisted rustic wire.

I first played around with the technique in a circular fashion with the wire grid emerging from a narrow-necked vase. This is a very good way to get lots of flowers into a vase with a very narrow opening.

Then came using the grid to make the cascade design where the long wire forms can cascade from a tall vase and allow stems to be placed along cascading foliage. It’s a good way to create downward cascading flowers without using floral foam.

Finally, I arrived at my favorite way to use the wire forms—a wire garland. Garlands have been an integral part of floral design throughout history and this new technique gives the garland a totally new twist. Branches may be attached to the wire garland form and vines and ivy wound through the branches and tubed flowers. This helps to camouflage the tubes a bit and gives the design a naturalistic feel.

Once the garland is made the tubes can be interchanged and washed and refilled.

I see this as a 2021 interpretation of the traditional garland and also as a very good way to use my collection of narrow necked vases. I hope you can try it soon.