The Orchid Asia Africa Expo (part 3)

These are what we bought at The Orchid Asia Africa Expo few weeks ago. We bought 2 pots plant of dendrobium. We purposely chose the plants that haven't bloomed all, some flowers at the top are still buds so that they will last longer. What we thought is right because it has almost been a month since we bought and those orchids still look beautiful. They are even more beautiful since the flowers are all blooming now.

'green jade' dendrobium

an up close look

'red peking' dendrobium

an up close look

Plant of the Day: Xanadu Philodendron

This kind of philodendron has unique leaves in appearance. The leaf looks like 'crocodile teeth', doesn't it? That's why it's also named Reptile Split Philo or in Indonesia it's most populer as philo 'gigi buaya'. Some of you could be familiar with this leaf, as it's often used in hand bouquets, table centerpieces or other small flower arrangements such as chairs and pew decoration. Fabulous leaf, right?

Kekar Plant Adoption

Does anyone know the name of this orchid? We don't know either since it includes rare species and seldom found at the market. It's also the first time we saw this orchid and it was at the booth of  Kekar Merah Putih.

There, we also saw giant orchid plant (named gigantea?) which almost extinct because of the illegal lodging. There were also other species of orchid which drastically decreasing in population hanging there. 

Besides the almost extinct orchids, Kekar Merah Putih also brought some natural traditional products from  tribes in the inland Borneo, Kalimantan. They were woven fabric, hats, purses and hand bags from woven bamboo.

These rows of young orchid plants were not for sale but for adoption. Kekar Merah Putih is apparently a NGO, too. So, for those who are interested to adopt the almost extinct orchids or if you need further information about this can contact at the address below:

Kekar Merah Putih, NGO

Dewan Pimpinan Pusat

Jl. Saturnus Ujung VI S/134 

Bandung, Jawa Barat, Indonesia

Phone: 022-70047680

kekar_merahputih@yahoo.co.id

A Simple Gift Flower

Now, if you all wondering what exactly we did on the flower workshop at Hero supermarket last month, this is it.

Tadaaa!!!! A very cute and simple gift flower!!! This flower arrangements can be used as gift or as home décor. This is a new trend in which the flowers put side by side very tightly so that you can not see any empty place or can’t see the wet foam inside.

The grandma seriously put the flowers altogether. Since there were not many kinds of flowers used, so it’s not expensive. All you need were a small ceramic vase, some daisies, white roses and few indian bracelets as accessories.

Here’s the step by step :

1.      Prepare the pot and put wet foam inside

2.    Cut lots of daisies in same length, arrange then in four corner first to determine the radius of the flower arrangement. That was the old method (European Style) that we usually did before but here, use the new method, just place the daisies very tightly around the the oasis. The last method’s easier and quicker than the previous one but you have to keep the daisies in the same direction otherwise you’ll get unsymmetrical flower arrangements as a result!! So, which method you choose is up to you.

3.      Just put all the flowers side by side until the pot filled. By putting the flowers tightly side by side, the flower arrangements become more sturdy and can not easily broken if coincidentally rough touched. But off course it needs more flowers to do this.

4.      This is the outcome, but just daisies will be boring, so

5.      Put 2 white roses as focal point. It would be better if you choose the blooming ones.

6.      Done and here’s the result!

This is the final look after the indian bracelet attached. Cute, isn't it? It’s simple, even the first timer in arranging flowers at the workshop all managed to do it, so we’re sure you can do it also. Do try this at home and stay tune for our next post…..

The Orchid Asia Africa Expo (part 2)

Still from the Orchid Asia Africa Expo held in Bandung, we walked sightseeing from one booth to another looking for something interesting to decor our home living and then we saw a booth in which some women with lots of pots in plastic bags standing in front of it.  It was the booth of Eka Karya. Apparently there were many variants of orchids which commonly found in the market sold there but in reasonable price. No wonder they bought up a lot of orchid plants.

Clockwise is Tanida pink dendrobium, white spot phalaenopsis, Nexia purple anthurium and yellow phalaenopsis.

Besides selling various kinds of orchids, Eka Karya also sells dry moss and hydrogel, but I don't know whether they are really effective in growing the plant well. Anyway worth a try, right? 

By the way, we bought 2 pots of dendrobium at Eka Karya. Curious to know what they are? Visit our next posting, ok?

Note:

Eka Karya

Jl. KH. Hasyim Ashari Blok D3/8

Jakarta

Phone: 021-63856231

Plant of the Day: Song of India Leaf

I don't know why this leaf is called as 'Song of India' in Indonesia, maybe it's from India, who knows?. As I know, it belongs to dracaena. Dracaena Reflexa is its Latin name. For florists, 'SOI' is often used as filler as it's very effective to cover the wet foam. It'll make a big flower arrangements look full in a moment and also doesn't look monotonous because of its colourful color of leaves (usually green with light yellow in the edge). Imagine if  there are only flowers in  a flower arrangements without any greenish at all, so boring right? 

From appearance 'SOI' plant looks like 'suji' leaf, which famous as natural color for food in Indonesia.

The Bouquet Wrapping Ideas

Next on the flower workshop at Hero supermarket Bandung, was a demo and workshop on flower bouquet wrapping. Valentine’s still next year, but we’re very excited to see the wrapping technique!

Mmm… yellow, orange and spotlight green are said to be the wrapping color trend this year…. not to mention the bold red colored gerberas. First, the participants made the cascading flower bouquet by arranging few red gerberas, leaves of florida beauty, Xanadu or reptile split phylo and cordylne, secure it with floral tape. Next choose two color wrapping papers, wrap them one by one and last, tied the ribbons, and done!

The flowers were still red gerberas, but with lighter colored leaves and peach colored wrapping paper, the image instantly changed!!!

The enthusiastic ladies… wrap them tight !!!

This is the wrapping bouquet made by Mrs. Winny for Hero supermarket. See that the white roses were first covered with yellow wrapping paper before being arranged.

The close-up look on the ribbons.