Thinman - practice and experience with your flowers will make it faster! I have new helpers this year and I've told them they have to make 20 bouquets! I usually can do lots more, but I also do vases and the "bigger/more expensive" bouquets. We also strip the foliage as much as we quickly can when harvesting. We pick for about 3 hours, go in for dinner, and then head back out to "arrange" - last week it was after 2:00 am before everything was put away and ready for market! Ugh...we were all toooooo slow!!!! (I work fulltime too, so can't pick in the mornings...have to after work!) We use our "short stuff" in jars (old canning jars, pickle jars, etc.) that we sell for $5 - just quickly bunched and plopped in the jar! I've told my helpers to think of a recipe (which of course changes with the flowers over the seaons). 3-5 stems greenery or filler (lemon balm, solidaster, ladies mantle, statice), 3-7 main events, 5-7 accent flowers (salvia, crocosmia, etc.) We usually end up with a predominant color of pinks/purples/whites early in the seaon, add reds, then move to the fall colors! We are also trying to keep the flowers on tables at a height that keeps you from bending over to get them out of the buckets. I'm also not mixing different flowers in the same bucket (unless I have to for storage later). Good luck, you'll get better! Wendy

The flower in the bouquet looks more like Centaurea scabiosa to me (Greater Knapweed) than C nigra (Common Knapweed) It has longer ray florets than C nigra. Here is a link that might be useful: Centaurea scabiosa.

norizam, I will have to look for Clothilde Soupert. Every picture I've seen of her is just beautiful! You know that's when you must have that rose lol. floridarose, We get into the 20's here once in a while. Seems we had quite a few freezes this year. I have a greenhouse for some things. The good thing about growing roses is they don't have to go in the greenhouse. I keep mine in pots for now so maybe that's why I don't get as good of winter bloom. I am starting over with roses here in FL. I had tons where I used to live but it was a very different growing experience there. I am learning how to grow them here in FL and its all different . Nematodes, sandy soil, tons and tons of bugs, humidity, you name it lol. Which dahlias will do well here? I saw some in bags at Lowes- Dinnerplate Dahlias, I think. Would those work? I had no clue Poppies would grow here I thought it was too hot. WOW! I would probably have to stake dahlias like i do the sunflowers, I bet so they don't fall over. SoFL Rose, I just got a bunch of different zinnia seeds. Do you just plant the seeds straight in the ground or start them indoors first? kingcobb, The curly willow branches do look interesting! I think I saw some of those at Michael's (craft store). How large do those trees get (total mature size)? Ingrid, Are you talking about the Buddleja davidii types of butterfly bushes? Yes we can grow those here. I had never thought of using their foilage. I think that would be a great filler. I can always use more butterfly and bee attractants in our yard. They are the reason that I really try not to spray anything...that and being on well water lol. *Beautiful bouquets!!

@emmarene9 Pitts are not quite as common here, at least where I am. I chose it simply because it seemed like a plant that would comply with all the demands, not be tempermental and look good. @Embothrium You stand out as the sole person to regularly rail at the idea of a plant being grown in the form of a bouquet. And I am apparently a person who can't fathom how or why anyone would, or could, find that form repulsive! Every time I read one of your attempts at describing the form, I see that you stray markedly far from the concept of a bouquet. There's nothing about the form that requires shearing other than your prejudging. Calling it deer or goat browsed sounds kind of "chewed up" looking, which would be a result of poor maintenance, which is not hardly a prescribed requirement. Bare "stems" ... eventually they get big and become trunks. Bark interest would be entirely a product of what a particular plant offers, Many have spectacular bark and exposing it to view is the only way it can be appreciated ... no differently than with any standard tree. I think your mind is locked in tight to some erroneous and inaccurate concepts -- probably because you're taking illustrations literally -- which, of course, is not how they are intended or should be taken. I've tried to inform you of that before. More than once actually. So I'm pretty sure you're not going to make the leap. I do get that you are repulsed by this form, or the idea of it. And that's OK. What puzzles me is why you insist on bringing it up over and over and over again. I would think you'd just look the other way and move on since we've been around the block about it so many times already. Are you a member of Antifa? I'm asking because that's how they do, too. They can't just disagree and go their own way. They feel like they have to shout you down and do their level best to make sure that you cannot express yourself without a lot of antagonism. At any rate, I have already long ago duly noted your objection and promise not to forget it.