Hong Elder Floral Workroom - Issue 1

HONG ELDER
FLORAL WORKROOM ISSUE 1
THE PEONY
ISSUE
●
●
●
How to make your
peonies last longer
Our favorite
varieties
3 peony
arrangements to
make and enjoy
June 2015
hongelderfloral.com
A SECOND LIFE
FOR TEA TINS
AS VASES
6 EASY
ARRANGEMENTS YOU
CAN MAKE FROM
YOUR GARDEN
5 FLORISTS YOU
HAVE TO FOLLOW ON
INSTAGRAM!

For a long time, we have been
wanting to inspire people to bring
flowers into their home. We believe that
flowers really do make life better, and we
also believe that making a floral
arrangement shouldn’t be difficult or
confusing. We wanted to show people
how to make easy, beautiful, and
interesting floral arrangements. After we
recently moved from the Midwest to
New Mexico, we tried numerous ways of
publishing our vision. Ultimately, we
decided that a magazine would offer the
best platform for communicating our
ideas and philosophy.
We hope this magazine inspires you to
create, and you need not spend a lot of
money to create something very unique
and beautiful. You need no more than a
fun vase, a pair of snips, and maybe a
flower frog. We also believe in using what
is local and seasonal when possible, and
encouraging diversity in floral design. If
you like it, then it works! Neither Kee-ju
or myself have had any professional
training in photography, design, or
layout, but we’ve had a lot of fun learning
as we go. We’re very happy with this first
issue and hope you enjoy it!
CONTENTS
3 Peonies
12 Tea for Two
17 The Simple Vase Series
23 The Florists of Instagram
Steven & Kee-ju
Hong Elder Floral Workroom
All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. All projects described in this publication
are for private, noncommercial use only. No rights for commercial use or exploitation are given or implied.

THE MAJESTY
OF
PEONIES
On a hot and humid June night in Omaha, the peonies will be in
bloom. Walking around the Dundee neighborhood, you will see peony
bushes, probably planted several generations earlier still going strong
almost collapsing under the weight of the softball-sized flowers that cover
the plants. The scent of those flowers is floral, grassy, but also sweet,
speaking to us of the arrival of the season and the beginning of summer
memories

Peonies are not easily available for retail purchase, nor are they cheap!
Luckily peonies are easy to grow in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest and East
coast - after they are established, they will come back year after year with little
to no maintenance.
Peonies prefer rich well-drained soil, and a place where they will receive a
good freeze that is required for generating flower buds. They will benefit from
being staked to prevent them from collapsing during heavy rainfall.
We love peonies both for their immediate beauty as well as for the
sentimentality and romantic property that instigate deep, powerful emotions
that cannot be properly described. One wants to get lost deep in the folds of
their petals, inhale the heady floral scent, and bask in their beauty and charm.
Peonies are great for any floral arrangement - they are so full, and
impressive that they will never fail to make any arrangement or bouquet grand.
Whether in a bride’s bouquet, a mason jar arrangement from the farmer’s
market, or just snipped from the garden, peonies make great cut flowers.

PEONY TIPS &
TRICKS
After cutting from
your plant, let
your peonies sit
for 20 minutes to
help them last
longer.
Any gardener who wants
to have cut flowers must
have peonies! Three or
four bushes will provide a
multitude of flowers that
you can fill your home
with.
When shopping for
peonies, remember open
flowers won’t last long in
a vase. Look for stems
with closed buds to
maximize your time to
enjoy your peonies.
Peonies change color
and shape as they age.
These coral sunset
peonies change from
bright pink to a light
salmon pink and then to a
papery white before
falling off the stem.
You can cut and
store peonies for
up to 4 weeks in
the crisper draw
of a refrigerator

PEONIES OF EVERY SHAPE AND COLOR
One of the wonderful qualities of peonies is the variety of color, shape, and form
that can be found. Teased and fluffed by selective breeding, peonies come in
singles, doubles, with ruffled and smooth petals, colored centers and fluffy
petaloids. These are some of our favorites of the 3,000 varieties of peonies
available.
From left to right, first row: ‘Karen Gray’, ‘High Noon’, ‘Treasure’, ‘Karl Rosenfield’, ‘Callie’s
Memory’
Second row: ‘Cora Louise’, ‘Pink Dogwood Whisper’, ‘Pink Hawaiian Coral’, ‘Friendship’, ‘Echt
Klasse’,
Third row: ‘Abalone Pearl’, ‘Cora Stubbs’, ‘Big Ben’, ‘Coral Charm’, ‘Sara Bernhardt’

Arranging with
Peonies
Steven’s
favorite
peony:
‘Coral
Sunset’

Fruit and Flowers
Citrus fruits in a glass trifle dish create the base in
which the peony stems are inserted into. From an
esthetic standpoint, the bright fruit below balances
the visually heavy peonies on top.

CONTAINERS
TEA FOR TWO
Repurposing empty tea tins as floral
arrangements
The is an Ahmad Tea
London Telephone Box
Tin (Order here at their
Amazon store)
Pale green tuberose,
silvery-white
Russian sage, and
grassy-green wild
salsify flowers make
for a lovely cottagestyle
arrangement
that is at once both
beautiful and casual

Steven and I are both avid tea drinkers, having a cup or three every
day (I suspect it is probably due to us watching one too many
British period dramas with dowager countesses and tea parties)
With all the tea drinking in the household, we find ourselves with
empty metal tea tins. Inspiration struck one day when cleaning out
our tea cabinet: “Wouldn’t this make for a fun floral container?”

MAKE THIS: THE TEA TIN
ARRANGEMENT
From top to bottom: Phalaenopsis
orchids, desert willow branches,
green pear branches
The desert willow (Chilopsis
linearis) is a native of New
Mexico. Not actually a willow at
all, we chose this foliage for it’s
lanceolate leaves.
The small phalaenopsis orchid
was on sale at Trader Joe’s, and
we will continue to enjoy its
blooms for several months.
We enjoy seedheads, fruits and
other interesting structural
components in our arrangements,
and the round little immature
pears make for a perfect contrast
to the slim leaves of the desert
willow

We are a particular fan of Harney
& Sons Fine Tea tins with their
copper coloured inner surface and
beautiful exterior design (Order
their tea at harney.com)
2
1 Clean and dry tea tin.
3
4
2 Fill the tin with water. We
like to use a very small drinking
glass or mason jar to hold the water
so the interior of the tea tin doesn’t
rust.
3 Start layering in your
arrangement. We started with the
desert willow first, then add in the
pear branches, and finished by
tucking the phalaenopsis orchid
stems into the arrangement.

6 EASY
ARRANGEMENTS
Red Valerian
While we enjoy fancy flowers, we
also enjoy easy flowers. These
arrangements are very straight
forward no-fuss, and can be cut
straight from your garden or a
potted plant. Think of these as
very broad ideas for your own
arrangements - get inspired, and
go make your it your own!
Red Valerian (Centranthus
ruber)
Peony seedpod
(Paeonia lactiflora)
RED VALERIAN
Combining the fluffy ferny
foliage of fennel with the bright
and structural flowers of the red
valerian and peony makes for a
texturally rich arrangement. We
used a Japanese Imari vase found
in a small Omaha antique shop
Fennel
(Foeniculum
vulgare)

Oriental Garden
Peony seedheads
(Paeonia lactiflora)
Astilbe
(Astilbe arendsii)
1. BRING THE
OUTDOORS IN
These smaller
arrangements can be
placed in the
bathroom, guest
bedroom, in the
budoir, or in the
kitchen without taking
up too much real
estate.
THE ORIENT
This 150-year old Japanese vase was
a gift to Steven from his
grandmother. We placed white
astilbe and what may look like some
bizarre orchid but are actually peony
blossoms with the petals plucked
off. Both the astilbe and peony are
of far eastern origin, and seem to fit
well with the vase design.

2. GOOD THINGS COME IN
SMALL PACKAGES
By using smaller vases, you don’t
need quite as much floral
material to fill them up. You can
also use flowers with short stems
(or no stems!) that might be
otherwise unuseable in
conventional floral arranging.
Fendler’s Mallow
(Sphaeralcea fendleri)
Tuberose
(Polianthus tuberosa)
DESERT MALLOW
Fendler’s globemallow is a
native wildflower of New
Mexico that grows freely
in the mesa. We find the
little orange flowers to be
particularly attractive. The
tuberoses were chosen
based on inspiration of
the giant five-foot white
yucca flowers that can be
seen all over the state
right now.

Salvia ‘May Night’
(Salvia nemorosa x ‘May
night’)
Milk Bottle
3. EXPERT TIP
Plants that look good in
the garden also look
good together in a
vase! Transfer the same
elements from a
landscape by cutting
from one area of the
garden.
Mexican Feathergrass
(Nasella tenuissima)
Scabiosa
(Scabiosa columbaria)
EUROPEAN
MEADOW
We have planted the front garden
with low-maintenance perennials
native to Europe that do well in
our growing zone and climate. The
purple Salvia ‘May Night’ and
lavender scabiosa add a colorful
punch to the landscape as well as
the arrangement, while the
Mexican Feathergrass contrasts
with its wispy, voluminous
seedheads.

4. INSPIRATION
May and June are the
months in which
everything looks great -
even the weeds are
gorgeous! See what is
blooming in your garden
and get inspired.
Foxtail Barley
(Hordeum jubatum)
Wild salsify
(Tragopogon dubius)
Peony seedheads
(Paeonia lactiflora)
SIMPLE GREEN
The peony seedheads
and wild salsify flowers
make for strong
structural elements
against the fluffy foxtail
barley. Since foxtail
barley and wild salsify
are often considered
weeds, we chose this
combination to emulate
a wild, untamed
planting.

THE
DECONSTRUCTED
HOSTA
For this arrangement, we mixed
the leaves of several different
types of hostas to create some
variation in the arrangement
including Guacamole, Scented
Bouquet, and August Moon.
Since everyone seems to have a
hosta in their garden, this
arrangement can be very easy
and attainable by clipping a leaf
or two from each plant. We used
a simple milk glass bottle for the
container to compliment the
glossy green hosta leaves.
The
Deconstructed
Hosta

#Florists of Instagram
As you may know, we are big fans of Instagram. It’
s quite amazing the work you can find, and we
wanted to share about five floral designers you
should be following for floral inspiration.
Follow us on
Instagram at
@hongelderfloralworkroom
Megan Dunlap (@victoryblooms) is a
florist based out of Atlanta Georgia that
posts some amazing photos. Her photos are
dreamy and soft, almost like a
photographic version of an oil still-life. She
uses a lot of romantic species such as roses,
anemones, and other large fluffy flowers.
@victoryblooms
victoryblooms.com
Sookyung(@sookyung_studio) is a Korean
florist that we stumbled upon when floating
through the Instaverse. Korean floral design
appears to be much more refined and simple in
comparison to American design, but we are
amazed at the beauty of her arrangements
using ordinary material. She also has one of the
most gorgeous floral studios we’ve ever seen!
@sookyoung_studio
Sookyung Studio Blog

Greta Pechter (@glasswingfloral) is a
designer and owner of Glasswing
Floral based out of downtown Los
Angeles who is living the dream as a
florist and designer. She takes fun
photos of her awesome arrangements,
stunning food, and of her fabulous
everyday life as a florist. We might be
the tiniest jealous of her life!
@glasswingfloral
glasswingfloral.com
Jenya Tsybulskyi (@wattoua) is an
international freelance florist who apparently
does a lot weddings and big events. We love
how flowy his arrangements are, using material
like clematis, passiflora, asparagus fern and
elongated flowers to spill and cascade over. A
very unique floral design style!
@wattoua
If you haven’t heard of Studio Choo
(@studiochoo) then you need to! The
brainchild of two best friends Jill and Alethea,
Studio Choo puts out some of the most unique
floral arrangements we’ve ever seen. They
create some of the weirdest, unconventional,
most beautiful and interesting arrangements I’
ve ever seen, and are an inspiration to us to
constantly be more creative and utilize foraged
and different materials in our arrangements.
@studiochoo
studiochoo.com

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