Thank you to Lesley Player for writing this piece and to Diana Sharpe for the photos.

Flower Arranging Workshop – Held at the Alstonville Anglican Church Hall on

Promising to reveal her knowledge gained from decades of flower arranging, Diana Sharpe led a crash course over two entertaining afternoons in April.

During the first session we looked on in amazement as Diana advised us to boil, bash and drown our favourite blooms. We had to be cruel to be kind she assured us – our precious flowers would reward us by resisting the urge to droop and looking perfect for longer.

The principles of design were also included. How to use visual lines, shape and colour to produce scale, balance and harmony.

Having raided our gardens, and the local florists, we arrived the following week laden down with foliage and flowers. Aided by Diana’s tactful advice, we snipped, shaped, fussed and fiddled.

After much fun and laughter each of us emerged proudly at the end of the session with a gorgeous flower display and at least some of the knowledge needed to produce beautiful and creative arrangements in the future.

Thanks Diana, highly informative and fun.

We were shown how to do:

• Leaf and stem cutting.
• Successfully manage offset planting from baby plants that grow around the base or step of the mother plant.
• Division, whereby clumps are separated and potted up.
• Layering, which is propagating by bending the growth from the mother plant into the soil.

Karen provided us with a tea break and answered many of our questions regarding propagation that we would like to attempt in the future.

I finished the course with many plants to take home after all my hard work and met many members who I now regard as friends.

Thanks Karen, highly informative and fun.