This is how to save your shirts, walls, carpet and skin.

THAT is a big promise! But I think I can help you.

We can't seem to go a week here without hearing "I love lilies, but I HATE all of the mess they make". What a shame! Lilies (and we're talking about Oriental Lilies), are long lasting, fragrant, and fill a space fabulously!

But, you're right. Lilies, without the right kind of loving, can make a dreadful and long lasting mess.

NEVER FEAR!
If you have brushed past your open lilies and managed to ruin your (what is almost inevitably a favourite) shirt, this blog is for you.
If you have a little mark on your white carpet from stepping on, and grinding in, some lily pollen, this blog is for you.
If you have somehow managed to skim your face by your lilies while carrying them across the room, only to find out three hours later (several face to face conversations are likely to happen in this time...) that you are dusted in a delicious shade of gold (not that this has happened to ANY of us here!), this blog is for you.

With just the teeniest bit of maintainance, you can actually prevent all of the above DISASTERS happening, and start enjoying those gorgeous Oriental Lilies once again!

We all know that in bud form, there's nothing to worry about - it's those cheeky stamens, full of pollen that we need to watch out for.

As the lily opens up, we're given the first glimpse of the stamens. At this point, they're harmless*, you can hold them without turning orange! As you can see in the photo, they're tightly wrapped up. (The two on the right are juuust starting to unravel a bit, you can see the colour difference).

(These were plucked from a lily as soon as it started to open).

As our lilies open up further, the stamens start to unwrap themselves, and this is where we run into trouble. On the inside is the loose pollen, which is what makes all the mess. You can see in the photo that it's a gradual process.

(These were plucked from a lily on the second day it was opening).

Finally, once the lilies are completely open, the stamens have completely unwrapped themselves, exposing HEAPS of pollen. There are six stamens on every lily. There are two or three flowers on every stem. There are five stems in a bunch. That's NINETY capsules of pollen, waiting to dust your clothes, carpet, face... everything!!!

(These were plucked from a lily on day three).

So, how do we prevent this pollenicious disaster? By acting early.

Once you can see the stamens, as your lilies begin to open, you want to try and pluck them out. We use our fingers; you don't need to cut them, as they come off nice and easily. We just wait until the flower is open enough that we don't have to squash the petals to get to the stamens!

The following is how we do it here (I know, the lilies are quite open, but it made photographing the HOW much easier!).



I hope this has been a helpful little post, and I'm looking forward to people getting excited about lilies (without the impending doom of all that mess!). If you know anyone who's been attacked by pollen, I'd love for you to share this with them too.

If you've got any floral questions for us, just shoot me an email (flowers@redfragrance.com.au), and I'll try and answer it here as best I can.

See you soon!

Charlie x.

*Lilies are actually very harmful (and can be fatal) to to cats. If you're a cat owner, even if you're extra great at stamen-plucking, lilies (oriental/tiger/asiatic/november...) are not the flower for you.

Congratulations, Stephanie and Nick

Another gorgeous wedding to share with you today! Hooray!

Steph is a self confessed flower lover, and our meetings were always alot of fun. It was a joy to chat with her about which particular blooms in which particular colours were going to put the finishing touches on what was going to be a very beautiful day!



In the end, we included flowers that held meaning and memories - a tribute to loved ones who are also flower lovers, and we complemented these with lots of colour and texture.
Cymbidium orchids, roses and freesias: Sunshine!

I hope these photos make you smile - this was such a smiley wedding to be part of :)

Thank you to Steph and Nick for sharing their day with us, and letting us share some of these beautiful snapshots of it with you. xx.


(These photos were takenDaniel K Cheung, who you can contact at www.danielkcheung.com)

We get by with a little help from our friends...

 These photos are from a lovely wedding held in the Hunter Valley last year.

A big thank you to the beautiful Carina from Say Dream, who helped us so much in making these flowers happen. xx

( www.saydream.com.au )

Hello there, old friend.

Beautiful dahlias, one of summers cheeriest blooms.

Hello there...

It's certainly been a while, hasn't it! I'm quite sorry about that.*

Anyway, here we are in 2012 - already! It's nice to be here with you! While we're on the topic of new years resolutions (oh, we weren't? Well, I guess we are now, which is quite convenient for me!), I'm going to make it my mission to be a bit more vocal here.

There's actually quite alot of lovely things that go on here at Red Fragrance (and of course, when we escape the shop and take RF on the road)! Between the veeery early starts (3.45am is often perceived as still being part of the night - which is a very reasonable perception. But three times a week, 3.45am is the time you need to wake up if you're going to the markets!), amazing and unexpected pieces of flora that we get to play with, and the beautiful events we get to decorate, there's lots going on behind the scenes here, and I'd love you to see some of them.

SO, here's to a bit more blog-love, more photos and more chatter about the deliciously crazy world that is Red Fragrance.

Chat soon, flower lovers!

Charlie x.

*You might know, I'm not the most technologically adept individual (if you didn't know previously, now you do). Anyway, unfortunately I allowed one technological hiccup to get the better of me in 2011, and this blog was sadly neglected. For that I apologise.

Definitely a sunshine wedding.

I'm so excited to share these photos with you. In Feburary this year, we looked after the flowers for a beautiful wedding that I can't help but describe as sunshiney.

Miss V. married Mr R. at Gunners Barracks in Mosman, and the colour palette of their day was black and grey and yellow.



Miss V. carried a bouquet of white roses, bouvardia, silver dusty miller foliage and yellow billy buttons. The bridesmaids carried yellow and white roses, yellow freesias, white bouvardia, silver dusty miller foliage and yellow billy buttons.

I love the way the bouvardia sits just above the other flowers - they have great movement (and look to me like little kisses!). Between the bouvardia and the freesias in the bridesmaids bouquets, they smelled amazing!



The ceremony was held outside in the courtyard, and we made a little curtain of yellow daisies for the backdrop. It was such a cheery, almost whimsical decoration, and I think it creates a lovely fresh feeling, particularly against the neutral tones of the sandstone building.



Yep, definitely a sunshine wedding.

Congratulations Miss V. and Mr R. (or should I be saying Mr and Mrs R...?! Either way, Congrats!) and thank you for sharing your day with us.

x.

Mr and Mrs at Sergeants Mess

We've just received some LOVELY photos of a wedding we were a part of in February this year.

Kate carried a bouquet of white david austin roses, akito roses, white lisianthus and single tuberoses, with a little bit of lush camellia scattered throughout. Her bridesmaids carried very similar bouquets using the same flowers, but we included blush and pale pink for contrast.



























The venue for both the ceremony and reception was Sergeants Mess (gorgeous venue, amazing view!). We wanted to continue the floral theme inside the reception without taking away from the beautiful space and spectacular view, so these elegant fishbowl designs were called for.


























Congratulations Kate and Adrian, and thank you for sharing your photos with us!

(If you're wondering who took these gorgeous photos,
they're the work of Summerton Photography).

Melissa and Grant

I can't believe how long it's taken me to share this wedding with you!

In March last year, I had the absolute privilege of creating the bouquets for the wedding of one of my very dearest friends.

A very relaxed bride, Melissa gave me one of the most open briefs I have ever worked to!
"Oh, you know what I like! I'm thinking white and green. Surprise me on the day, I know they'll be gorgeous!". Brilliant!

The only challenge? Melissa and Grant were married in Melbourne! The day before the wedding, I carefully packed all her flowers, fresh from the markets in Sydney, into cooler bags and carefull carried them on my flight to Melbourne! All the bouquets were made once I got there.



Three bridesmaids each carried a slightly different bouquet. They included white lisianthus, white hyacinths, white dendrobium orchids, vibernum flowers and magnolia foliage, but each had it's own focal flower. I used green anthuriums for one, white anthuriums for another, and green lotus pods in the third.




Melissa's quite the flower lover, and wanted to make the most of an opportunity to be accompanied by them all day!

She carried a bouquet to match her bridesmaids through her ceremony, but opted to wear a feature corsage at the reception so she didn't have to hold her flowers as she celebrated! I love this idea - how fabulous to have your ceremony and photos with your bouquet, then have another "bouquet" on your wrist throughout the celebrations!







A belated congrats to Melissa and Grant - and thanks for letting me share your photos!

x.