Arrangements from the Garden

-J Schwanke's "Life In Bloom" is brought to you by... Albertsons Companies.

With additional support from the following companies.

CalFlowers... Design Master Color Tool... Smithers-Oasis... Sunshine Bouquet.

♪ -Today on "Life In Bloom," we'll show you how easy it is to incorporate blooms from your garden into your home and improve your health and well-being in the process.

The ever-popular peony is my featured flower.

And I'll also make a garden gimlet cocktail.

♪ ♪ I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

May our heart's garden of awakening bloom with hundreds of flowers."

We all know that gardens provide a wonderful outdoor sanctuary, but what we sometimes forget is it provides health and wellness benefits.

We can easily bring some of that garden magic indoors.

♪ With a little bit of planning and forethought, we can design our garden to provide delight whether we're indoors or out.

Today on "Life In Bloom," we'll show you how easy it is to incorporate what you already have in your garden into your home and improve your health and well-being.

♪ One of my favorite early-morning activities is to head out into the garden and pick some flowers and foliage that I can use indoors.

♪ I've designed our garden using my term "Arrange-Plant."

That means that everything that's in the garden can be cut and used in arrangements.

That's what I really take into consideration when I'm planting for the garden.

I love to cut things like hydrangeas, astilbe, peonies.

But I also think about foliage, too.

Hosta leaves are one of my favorites.

Scented geraniums and herbs also work well in arrangements and add fragrance.

I go out early in the morning with a bucket.

My bucket has cold water and flower nutrient in it.

That way, when I cut the flowers and the foliage, I can put them immediately into the water.

That's the best way to ensure my flowers will last as long as possible.

♪ Criss-cross pieces of foliage to create a structure to arrange into.

♪ Large flowers like hydrangeas can go in first, supported by the vase rim.

♪ ♪ The foliage structure helps support thinner-stemmed flowers and makes arranging much easier.

♪ ♪ People who are in the presence of flowers feel happier and less depressed.

Flowers also increase creativity.

They reduce arguments and encourage health and healing.

♪ An interesting bit of research suggests that the brain actually releases dopamine when we harvest food or flowers from the garden.

Gardening and other dirty outdoor activities engages your senses.

Research shows that when multiple senses are stimulated, the brain is more likely to remember things and better able to solve problems.

If you're playing in the dirt.

chances are you're outside.

This means you're getting sunshine, which is full spectrum light.

Full spectrum light stimulates the production of vitamin D and serotonin.

It also regulates the production of melatonin, helping you get a good night's sleep.

♪ ♪ ♪ One of my favorite things about arranging is using some of the landscaping items from in the yard.

When I plant specific items in the yard, I think about cutting them and using them alone in my arrangements.

♪ So, this morning I went out to look for different things.

I got some grasses.

I also got a piece of a tree.

I like bringing the outside indoors.

It's very unexpected.

So let's make one of those large-scale arrangements using this variegated grass and this beautiful amethyst container.

♪ ♪ My first step is to go through and clean up my stems, removing any broken leaves at the bottom or any that are dying.

♪ It's a little like deadheading, and it's kind of enjoyable work.

♪ Now we've got a nice big bunch.

And we'll cut it and drop it down in the vase.

♪ ♪ So now I've got a big arrangement.

And I've also got a couple other big vases that can go in the house.

We'll arrange those in the place where I'm going to have them displayed.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ In this arrangement, we create the perimeter urn, and I love that concept because people love to see big arrangements, but so many times when you have a really big arrangement, you lose so many flowers on the inside.

You just don't see them.

They're there to fill in.

This technique removes the central vertical axis of the arrangement, and it's empty, but the flowers are arranged around the outside, and I think that that's a really fun part about this arrangement, is it's making magic with the way we design and create the arrangement.

I've taken the wreath ring, and I've wrapped it with anchor tape about an inch apart all the way around.

That's to secure it.

Then we'll set it down inside our container.

All of the placements that we make go into the perimeter urn, so the inside of it is vacant.

And it allows us to use less product but make it beautiful because we're using all the flowers and foliage in the focal area.

Glads are perfect for this arrangement.

You'll see that gladiolus works so well for this because of the linear formation of the blooms.

It allows us to fill in space in lines throughout the entire perimeter of the bouquet.

I cut the stems sharp and place them into the middle of the wreath frame.

I stay away from the tape.

And sometimes I even go in the middle of the locking brackets.

This helps to add support for the overall mechanics of the perimeter urn.

The glads towards the back are longer, and the glads towards the front are shorter.

In the back, there's very little flower placement and very little foliage.

If you wanted this to be seen all around, you'd have to add the short glads in the back, as well.

But I think glads are fascinating because they grow in an apical shape, meaning that they grow from the bottom of the stem opening up all the way to the top, and when you take the tip out of the glad -- if you have a glad end like this and you pop the tip out -- what that does is it causes a surge of ethylene that makes all of the other blossoms open all the way to the top.

It fills up the space of like five flowers, one stem.

We have a great flower that really is a huge value for us when we want to fill our home with color and flowers.

♪ We're adding long, vertical greenery and then bushier foliage towards the bottom.

♪ We'll use a few antique hydrangea around the base to fill in.

You'll notice that the colors are more muted so that the bright pop of color comes from all the gladiolus.

It looks like a huge bouquet of gladiolus, but yet the inside is empty.

That's the magic of this technique.

Because we've created this in a wreath form, there's a limited amount of water supply.

We can set that wreath ring on top of an urn, and it would last for about 18 hours.

With this urn we've chosen, the wreath sets down inside the urn.

So we could add water, and that would give it a longer-lasting ability.

The perimeter urn is a perfect way for you to utilize your design skill to create magic with an arrangement.

♪ We can enjoy our garden with more than our eyes.

We'll use dianthus today in our delicious pink rosé wine cake.

I've grown these organically, so I know they're safe.

We're going to trim off the calyx, and that will leave us the little petals that we can use inside our cake.

♪ Trimming the calyx at the end just allows us to remove it, and then we have the petals.

♪ ♪ Now we're ready to use these in the recipe.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Here at "Life In Bloom," we want flower cocktail hour to be as beautiful as it is delicious, and today's garden gimlet doesn't disappoint.

We'll start with basil.

I love the blue African basil.

And we'll muddle it.

♪ Along with a little bit of simple syrup.

♪ We'll add some ice.

♪ Then we use a jigger of gin.

This is a special flower-infused gin.

♪ That'll be perfect.

♪ Then... we'll add about 2 tablespoons or so... of lime juice.

♪ ♪ ♪ Now, here's where the beautiful part comes in.

We've got ice cubes that have flowers inside.

♪ We'll finish it with sparkling soda.

♪ ♪ A beautiful garden gimlet.

♪ ♪ You can bring your garden indoors and frame the flowers and foliage with frames like these to create art for your walls.

You can use different leaves and different flower stems that will have interesting shapes.

And we'll place them between the two pieces of glass.

♪ ♪ Individual blooms... like these hydrangeas... can be deconstructed... to create fun patterns.

♪ ♪ ♪ There's a locking bracket on the top that you shut.

And then it's ready to hang.

We'll do a few more sizes.

♪ I like choosing interesting shapes and patterns.

The flatter the flowers, the better.

♪ A whole rose might not work as well, but we can deconstruct the rose and use the petals to add color.

♪ ♪ A stock blossom will lay flat.

♪ This is also known as matthiola.

♪ ♪ Dusty miller leaves have a wonderful skeleton-like appearance.

♪ We'll add a couple fishnet-stocking coleus leaves on top of that.

♪ We'll catch the blue side of those blue African basil leaves.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Peonies are native to Western North America, Europe, and Asia.

♪ Peonies are one of the most popular garden plants.

If planted properly, they are a low-maintenance plant.

Once planted, peonies take several years to develop.

Peonies are long-lasting perennials.

Some thrive for up to 100 years.

There are around 33 species of peonies.

Peonies come in many colors.

Pink tends to be the most popular, but you'll also find yellow, purple, white, and red peonies.

Peonies are often used in traditional medicines in Japan, China, and Korea.

Along with the plum blossom, it's the traditional floral symbol of China.

♪ We all want our flowers we cut from the garden to last as long as possible.

Here's a few tips.

Cut them early in the morning when it's cool and the flowers are hydrated.

Take a bucket with you to the garden so that when you cut the flowers you can place them immediately into the water.

The water I take has flower food in it, but it's best if it's cold -- even ice-cold.

So, my flower nutrient is for a gallon.

You'll see where my mark is.

I can cool my water off with ice.

♪ Notice how it's filled it up right to the line.

That way, I'm sure I have a gallon.

Under-dosing or over-dosing won't help our flowers.

This is a great way for us to enjoy our flowers longer.

♪ As you've seen today.

your garden has the potential to add joy into every realm of your life.

♪ For "Life In Bloom," I'm J Schwanke.

See you next time.

♪ The question I have is, I need to take that off of there and put it on there.

♪ [ Whistling ] [ Indistinct conversations ] ♪ ♪ Double flip.

♪ Here it is.

[ Laughter ] Here is the very hot cake.

Hot cakes.

It looks good.

J Schwanke's "Life In Bloom" is filmed in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

-J Schwanke's "Life In Bloom" is brought to you by... Albertsons Companies.

With additional support from the following companies.

CalFlowers... Design Master Color Tool... Smithers-Oasis... Sunshine Bouquet.

♪ Closed-caption funding provided by Ocean View Flowers.

♪ For everything flowers -- recipes, projects, and more information -- visit uBloom.com.

♪