♪ >> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following... >> That flower feeling.

♪ At home.

♪ At work.

♪ Or anytime.

♪ CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom," where flowers and wellness go hand in hand.

>> We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

♪ >> Today on "Life in Bloom," we're diving into the blue -- blue flowers, that is.

I'll welcome my friend meteorologist Aaron to talk about blue skies, we'll die carnations, and review the rarest color in all flowers.

♪ ♪ I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

♪ "If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue."

Blue is the most popular color with the American public.

Conversely, blue flowers are the most rare in all of nature.

♪ Rose breeders have been working towards the hybridization of a blue rose for decades, even centuries, with limited progress.

It's not an easy thing to conjure.

As the color of the sky, blue is a color that naturally works with most flowers.

So it's possible to accessorize with blue even if the blooms are not readily available.

There are permanent botanicals in shades of blue, sometimes called fantasy flowers.

And flowers that have been dyed blue are also readily available.

However, there are several blue flowers from nature.

Iris.

Squill.

Grape hyacinth.

Delphinium.

Forget-me-nots.

Bachelor buttons.

And blue Himalayan poppies, to name a few.

Let's take a deeper dive into the blue.

♪ Today, my guest is my friend Aaron Ofseyer.

We met when I was doing television at the same station where he was a meteorologist.

Today, the sky is an inspiration for our all-blue episode.

And that makes Aaron a perfect guest.

The show is about blue.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> And I think that there's a thing about blue sky.

>> Yeah.

>> Like, so, why is the sky blue?

>> That's a great question.

So, it basically has to do with the light reflecting off of the atmosphere.

That's the short answer to your question.

>> Okay.

All right.

>> Yeah.

>> So, did you know that blue flowers are the rarest?

>> They are.

>> We always try and discover more blue flowers because there's a finite amount of blue flowers.

>> Why is that?

>> I always felt that it was the balance of Mother Nature.

We have all this blue sky, so we don't need more blue on the ground.

>> Interesting.

>> We need orange, and we need yellow, and we need those things.

And the ground is green.

So we also need hot colors to go against the cool and the -- and, you know, the cool colors.

>> That makes sense.

>> So, yeah, that's my thought.

I don't know.

I mean, I have no reason to base that on anything scientific, but that's my thought process.

What's your first memory of flowers?

>> Oh, gosh.

I talked to my wife about this.

So, I did -- [ Both laugh ] >> Going with some of my -- >> Will you tell me what my first memory is?

>> Well, no, I was -- I asked my wife if it's -- "Is it okay if I shared this very intimate memory from preschool?"

So.

we had irises growing in our front yard in Dallas, Texas.

And I had a crush on Jenny Babinakas.

If you're watching, Jenny, hi.

>> [ Laughs ] I love that!

>> But Jenny Babinakas, I had a crush on her, and I picked her some -- I believe they were blue irises.

Is that -- Is that a thing, J?

>> Correct, correct.

>> And I picked them for her, and I gave them to her, and it was a huge hit.

And Jenny was very happy.

>> Wow.

And that's your first -- >> That was my first flower memory.

>> Third grade?

>> No.

Preschool.

That was, like, going way back.

So that's like I was probably 4.

So, one of my earliest memories was giving Jenny some pretty blue irises.

>> Oh, that's wonderful.

>> Yeah.

>> So, Aaron, I made this arrangement because you were coming.

>> Thank you so.

>> So, it's -- It's inspired by a trend that I developed for the flower industry -- or noted, not developed, but I noted that it was happening in the industry, where we were using grays and whites to offset other flowers.

And I called it cumulus because the flowers look like clouds.

>> Absolutely.

>> Do you think so?

>> Absolutely.

Especially the hydrangeas.

>> Right, right, right, right, right.

>> And you get -- and roses, too.

You get those, like, sort of poofy, like, cauliflower-type-looking... >> Thunderheads.

>> Yeah.

>> So my thought was, and what I loved to invite you to do, is arrange flowers.

>> I would love that.

>> So I wanted to use blue flowers, right?

So we have blue hydrangea, but then we have some accent things, as well.

But we have some delphinium in here.

So this is Belladonna delphinium that is dark blue.

>> It's beautiful.

>> Okay?

We have this, which has an interesting little cast to it.

Almost a little -- a darker color, but it's Queen Anne's lace.

And I also threw in some -- This is silver dollar eucalyptus because it's shaped like a silver dollar.

But it still has the eucalyptus fragrance.

So, yeah.

So, what do you think?

What's your thoughts when you're getting ready?

>> Well, it always goes back to thriller, spiller, filler, right?

>> I love that.

So that's something that we use with our container gardens.

>> Okay.

So what does that mean?

>> So "thriller" is the thing in the middle that comes up and thrills us.

Right?

Okay.

Spiller is the things that spill over the side and go down.

So, typically, spillers would be arranged on the outside.

And then fillers fill in between the two.

So they go in between those.

And that works very well for flower arranging.

>> Okay.

>> Yeah.

So, yeah.

The other thing that I love and I want you to be aware of is that, when we're arranging flowers, our body secretes endorphins that make us feel calmer, happier.

When we gift the flowers to someone, we release dopamine, and they also release those same -- those same endorphins to you, so they feel better when we give it to somebody.

>> It's a good feeling.

>> If we look at them, and we are looking at them, It makes us have happier thoughts.

All of this is documented information, which is really amazing.

>> Flower therapy.

>> Yeah.

Flower therapy, for sure.

>> Awesome.

And so do you -- Do you prefer starting with the thriller, the spiller, or the filler, or do you just let your imagination run wild?

Like, what's the order to your madness?

>> If it were me, I put the thriller in last.

>> Oh.

>> Okay?

>> Okay.

Okay.

>> If I'm -- And I would -- I have a tendency to -- >> Outside in.

>> Outside in.

I also have a tendency to go foliage first.

And when I do foliage first, I think the interesting thing about it is that, okay, so I've got those two pieces of pittosporum that go in there like that.

Suddenly, I'm starting to build a structure that's going to allow me to place flowers in a better spot with a little more stability.

Those three placements, a little triangle like that, now has bracing for me.

And, really, this is going to be the filler.

>> Yeah.

>> And so then, on the spill... >> You've got some structure.

>> ...structure inside there.

♪ ♪ >> Are you leaving this on?

>> So, that is a support straw for a gerbera daisy.

I have a tendency to leave them on because they help hold the neck up.

>> That makes sense.

♪ >> I love it.

I love what you made.

I think it's fabulous.

>> Thank you.

>> Yeah.

>> Likewise.

Yours is beautiful.

>> You know, this is what I do.

>> Yeah.

>> So it's good.

Hey, I have a tradition.

>> Okay.

>> So, I have a flower crown, which you are aware of, from the Flower Power Challenge.

>> Absolutely.

>> But this is a flower crown for you for today because you came to visit me.

>> Awesome.

Thank you.

>> I'll let you put it on.

It matches your shirt.

>> How's it look?

>> Looks good.

Does it make you feel happy?

>> It does.

It's heavy, too.

So it's a bit of a workout.

>> I made a big one for you because I didn't want you to have, like, a small -- you know, a small flower crown.

>> I appreciate it.

I'm a large human.

>> Yeah.

Hey, will you do me a favor?

>> Yeah.

>> Do you want to come back and make a blue cocktail with me?

>> That sounds great.

>> All right, cool.

We'll do it in a few minutes.

All right.

♪ ♪ Sometimes you want big flowers, and sometimes you want little flowers.

And I think it's a challenge for us to think about how we would use little flowers in an arrangement.

I love this because I wait every year for spring to come, and the first signal of spring in my yard is when the early squill comes out.

There's Siberian squill, which is completely blue, but the early squill has this wonderful little blue coloration with the little striped blossoms.

The other thing about them is that they smell like violets.

And so they have a wonderful violet-type smell.

So I like that it has that fragrance, and I like that I have this little tiny vase.

It's a little hobnail base, and it's just teeny tiny.

And it's perfect for the squill.

I went out and harvested this.

I kept it in the refrigerator overnight.

And now we're going to create a little arrangement in here.

So whether it's big or tiny, flowers are still awfully fun to arrange.

Let's make this little arrangement.

♪ ♪ When you're dealing with a tiny vase, you need to make sure that you have enough flowers.

What we'll do is gather these flowers together in one group.

I'm laying them on top of one another and gathering the stems up in my hand until I achieve a diameter of the bunch that's very similar to the same diameter as the vase.

♪ ♪ Then we'll trim off the ends and drop them down into the vase.

Make sure that you check this every day for water, too.

That's important.

The early squill can be heavy drinkers.

The early squill.

When you're feeling blue, even some tiny flowers will help improve your mood.

♪ ♪ We are going to talk about blue sweet pea infusion.

>> What?

>> I know, right.

So these are dried blue sweet peas.

>> Oh.

>> And so dried blue sweet peas, they actually will infuse something very quickly.

This is vodka that I have in here, okay?

>> Oh, there it goes.

>> I know, right?

It's fast.

Now, as this does this, because I like to offer a flower cocktail, and I also like to offer a mocktail.

>> Right.

>> Okay?

So our mocktail is going to be the traditional Thailand welcome tea, which is made with a sweet-pea infusion.

So I have some boiling water.

And so here with -- I've just got the -- I have those guys inside my little tea steeper, and look at that.

>> Cool.

>> Right away.

We have a little bit of honey.

And so, like, if somebody were coming to your house to visit or maybe somebody was going to come stay for a little while, you would -- you would greet them with this.

It's a tea greeting.

So we have our honey inside there.

>> And what kind of tea are we using for this?

>> The sweet pea itself is the tea.

>> So that's the tea?

>> Correct.

>> Wow.

>> So now here's where it's going to get really interesting.

So, we have lemon.

And we're going to add lemon to this.

What do you think's going to happen when we add the lemon?

>> Yellow and blue make green.

>> Okay.

>> Final answer, J.

Final answer.

>> Would you like to do the honors and squeeze it in there?

>> Let's see if it happens.

♪ Lookit -- it's turning purply-pink.

>> Whoa!

>> Like, magenta.

>> I was completely wrong.

Fascinating.

>> I just think that's amazing.

>> That's bizarre and beautiful.

>> This is vodka that I let it sit in there for about maybe 10 minutes.

>> Okay.

>> Okay?

So here's our cocktail.

>> So where do I get these?

And where do I go -- What grocery store can I find those?

>> You can find them at specialty grocery stores.

You can buy them online.

>> Okay.

You're simply looking for sweet-pea -- butterfly pea flowers.

>> Wow.

>> Butterfly pea flowers.

Or blue sweet pea.

♪ We have our vodka.

♪ And this is our soda.

♪ See, it looks like blue sky.

>> It is lovely.

>> Now, if we just wanted it to be blue, we would not add our lemons.

>> Right.

And that would make it, as we just learned... >> Correct.

>> Yeah.

>> So what do you want?

Do you want blue, or do you want -- >> Well, the theme of the show is blue, so should we stay committed to blue?

>> We can.

I like it.

I think it looks good.

I think it looks good with your shirt.

>> Cheers.

>> Cheers.

Thank you so much for coming.

>> This was a lot of fun.

>> I just really appreciate it.

I mean, I have always -- You always make weather exciting for me.

And I thought I -- To this day, as I told you, I follow you on social media because I want to learn about the weather, and I want to learn about the cool things.

And it's that passion that you have... >> Thank you.

>> ...that I appreciate.

>> Thank you.

>> So, cheers to our passion.

>> Cheers.

♪ >> Here's our Bloom 365 tip, helping you enjoy flowers every day of the year.

It's easy to change the color of carnations.

In fact, they're one of the easiest flowers to dye.

It's best to work with a flower that is a little thirsty.

If you want to dye a carnation, let it set out of water for about 1 to 2 hours.

Then mix up your flower dye formula.

Food coloring works well.

Be sure to make the solution very strong.

That means lots of pigment in the water for the best results.

Cut your carnation stem.

Be sure to cut between the leaf notes and place the stem into the water-dye solution.

Depending on how thirsty your carnation is, the process can take 15 minutes to several hours.

With this process, we are dying the carnation from the inside, systemically.

The dye is pulled up inside the stem, through the vascular system, and then the dye appears through the white petals from the inside.

♪ As I mentioned earlier in the show, blue flowers in nature can be hard to come by for arranging.

For many years, flowers have been dyed blue with somewhat polarizing results.

People either love them or they don't.

However, flower dying has advanced in many ways and created more refined hues and shades of blue.

Let's take a look at various blue blooms.

We're making an arrangement in this blue container.

We're going to use two different types of flowers.

We're going to have blooming flowers as plants and fresh flowers as cut flowers.

So how do we do that?

Inside our container, we have soaked fresh flower foam, and then our two dyed blue orchid plants are down inside plastic bags.

That way, when we add water to the container, they won't be submerging or overwatering our two orchid plants.

They can stay in there for the length of the arrangement and then be transferred out to another container.

We're going to be using delphinium and iris.

We've got tulips and roses.

We have hydrangeas and orchids and a wonderful flower called misty blue nigella.

We'll make the arrangement, and you guess along with me which ones are dyed and which ones are truly blue.

♪ We're going to place our flowers together in groupings so that we get more impact from the different types of flowers since all the colors are the same.

We'll start with our dendrobium orchids.

These are dyed.

We'll add our delphinium.

This is hybrid delphinium, and this is actually the color it grows.

It's one of nature's blue flowers.

Then we'll add our iris.

These blue Telstar iris are beautiful.

And they grow in this wonderful blue color.

♪ We've got gorgeous blue hydrangeas, and those are blue hydrangeas that have grown that color.

♪ ♪ Using two different types of Belladonna delphinium.

There's a light blue and a dark blue.

Both of those colors are a natural color.

♪ I love these blue tulips, and I love that they start to open up as I put them into the bouquet.

These, of course, have been dyed.

♪ ♪ We've got our blue roses, and these, too, have been color-enhanced.

♪ We'll finish up with our misty blue nigella.

I love the lacy foliage on this and the delicate way the flowers dance.

This misty blue color is all natural.

♪ So now we have a beautiful all-blue arrangement.

Our fresh flowers are going to last for several days, and afterwards, we'll have our two blue orchids that we can place in another pot somewhere else in the house.

It's all blue tones, color-enhanced and natural, in this gorgeous bouquet.

♪ If you're looking for a true blue color in a flower, the bachelor button, sometimes known as the annual cornflower, is a beautiful addition to any garden.

Their fully double flowers look almost like miniature carnations with small one and a half inch blooms that appear from last spring through midsummer.

The species plant has bright blue flowers, but there are also cultivars offering pink, white, and crimson flowers.

Bachelor buttons typically bloom for about 10 weeks, from May to mid July, but deadheading them extends and increases the blooming.

Bachelor buttons produce edible flowers, so when grown organically, you can include them in salads or as an edible garnish.

Bachelor buttons are a natural choice for wildflower gardens, and their bright-blue blossoms are highly appealing to bees and butterflies.

♪ Delphinium and hydrangea are the most common true-blue flowers available.

Let's create a vase arrangement using these true-blue blooms.

I've painted a narrow glass vase with opaque blue spray paint and allowed it to dry and filled it with cold flower-food water.

I'll start with the hybrid blue delphinium, placing these vertical flowers at one end of the vase.

I'll counterbalance the delphinium with a large blue hydrangea on the opposite side of the vase.

I'll add dark blue belladonna delphinium next to the light blue delphinium blooms.

♪ Putting another hydrangea on the other side of the vase aids in stabilizing the taller vertical flowers.

It's a great trick.

Once I have the flower stabilized, I can fill in with more delphinium and another hydrangea.

♪ ♪ Always remember to enjoy the benefits that flower arranging provides.

♪ Let's look at three arrangements from viewer Ellie Martin Cliffe, who shared these photos.

I love the relaxed horizontal bouquet with a sunflower.

And who can resist a mink protea accompanied with textural foliage?

I also love these classic tulips partnered with other flowers.

After all, it's all about the flowers.

Thanks, Ellie.

Those were all beautiful.

I love to see pictures of flower arrangements inspired by the show, dubbed Schwankes by fans Brad and Kelly.

Send your Schwankes to J@ubloom.com.

The letter J at the letter U bloom.com.

And watch for more Schwankes on upcoming shows.

♪ I hope this episode about blue flowers has been enlightening and even given you a case of the blues -- in a good way, of course.

For "Life in Bloom," I'm J Schwanke.

And you are originally from Seattle?

>> No, I grew up in Dallas, Texas.

>> Oh!

>> Yeah, my wife and I are wandering Jews, so we -- [ Both laugh ] >> Okay.

>> Grew up in Dallas, Texas.

This is the ninth state I've lived in, J.

>> When I was a kid in Nebraska.

So my grandfather would sit us on the front porch and we would watch tornadoes.

Because my grandpa was like, "Do not go in the basement.

The house will fall on you.

Sit out here so you can watch where it is, and you could go any direction."

So the carnation show was a little bit of a rogue, and my mom would sit in the basement and yell out to us, "Carnation Joe, bring those kids in the house!

You're all going to die!"

>> Your grandfather sounds fascinating.

'Cause that's not the safest place to be during a tornado.

>> Yeah.

"Grandpa, should we go inside or in the basement?"

"No, no!

Just stay on the porch!"

"J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is filmed in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

>> Visit J's web site, ubloom.com, for flower projects and crafts, complete recipes, behind-the-scenes videos, J's blog, flower cocktails, and more.

♪ "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following... >> That flower feeling.

♪ At home.

♪ At work.

♪ Or anytime.

♪ CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom," where flowers and wellness go hand-in-hand.

>> We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

♪ Closed-caption funding provided by Holland America Flowers.

♪