>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by... Albertsons Companies... with additional support from the following... CalFlowers... Dollar Tree... Sunshine Bouquet.

♪ >> On this episode of "Life in Bloom," we're celebrating life -- with flowers.

I'll show you many wonderful ways to remember special people we've known with love and joy.

♪ I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

♪ Flowers can provide many things -- happy memories, creative inspiration, or enhanced communication.

One of my dad's favorite sayings he would share with me when we were working at the design table in our family flower shop was, "As florists, we help turn people's feelings into flowers."

This was helpful and so true.

People use flowers to say things they find difficult to express.

♪ Flowers have the power to help us convey our feelings.

We can speak volumes with flowers -- congratulations, happy birthday, I love you, or I'm sorry.

♪ Today on "Life in Bloom," we're celebrating life and love with flowers.

♪ I like the idea of celebrating life, rather than mourning a loss.

It's a way for us to share memories, experiences, feelings, and love.

Let me share some of my favorite flower-filled ways to express our emotions and turn our feelings into flowers.

Let's start with a little bit of flower history.

We're all familiar with one of the biggest flower holidays in May, Mother's Day.

But did you know there was once a holiday that was even more popular for flowers and flowering plants?

Established three years after the Civil War, in 1868, Memorial Day was once known as Decoration Day, a time to decorate the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers with flowers.

Eventually, the holiday was expanded to honor all Americans who died while in the military service.

The day fell on May 30th every year, until 1971, when Congress declared Memorial Day the new official name, a national holiday, and modified the date to the last Monday of May.

♪ Typically, these bouquets were made with peonies and Sweet William, which is a Dianthus.

When we had bearded Iris available, they would obviously go into it.

It was about garden flowers that went together, and these were the flowers that were available for people to place on graves during Memorial Day in May.

I was taught to start with foliage and then lay a couple of filler flowers, so I used the Salvia on top of the foliage.

Then I added the focal flowers, which are the peonies and the Iris and the Sweet William.

I'm tying it with bind wire, but we used to use rubber bands, and then it was cut to size to fit the vases.

And this vase is very similar to the types of vases that would be available at the cemetery to place the flowers in.

♪ ♪ Bearded Iris are so named because of a patch of soft bristles on the lower petals of the flowers.

Bearded Iris are also known as flags or Grandma's Flags.

My Grandma Schwanke would always refer to Iris as flags, and this sometimes caused some confusion for my little brain.

She wanted me to pick some bearded Iris and place them on grandpa's grave.

Bearded Iris come in an incredible variety of colors and patterns and are known for their long bloom time.

Bearded Iris are available as a cut flower, but they can also be grown in your garden.

The plants need well-drained soil and at least six hours of sunlight per day.

The flower shares its name, Iris, with the Ancient Greek goddess of the rainbow, a beautiful young maiden with wings.

The rainbow is a link between heaven and Earth which she uses to travel back and forth.

One of the meanings of the Iris flower is hope and good news.

♪ For over a decade, my dad and I stood next to one another every day, creating flowers in our family flower shop.

After I ventured out on my own, I often thought about those memories and I always wanted to bring the crew to my hometown, Fremont, Nebraska, so we could film my dad and I designing next to one another just one more time.

Fortunately, we were able to do just that a few years before he passed.

It happened to coincide with a Veterans Day celebration, so my dad and I created our own versions of red-white-and-blue arrangements, made with all American-grown flowers that we donated to this hometown celebration.

I'm fortunate because I have this magical memory and I can watch it whenever I like.

And I can share my dad with you today.

It's been 18 years, I think, since you and I have designed at the same table, when we used to stand at the same table and make orders every day to go out.

So, today, we're making some flowers for Veterans Day.

>> Wonderful.

>> Yeah.

Well, and you know what today is?

Today is the 237th anniversary of the Marine Corps.

>> Isn't that marvelous?

That is fantastic.

>> So, I am designing Veterans Day flowers with one of the oldest living Purple Heart, combat-wounded World War II Marine Corps veterans on the planet.

>> Oh, my goodness' sakes!

How wonderful!

>> And we have all American-grown flowers.

And, so, we're gonna make two arrangements to go with the big arrangement we got back here that are gonna go into your church tomorrow morning.

>> How marvelous.

>> Alright?

>> Absolutely.

>> So -- Yeah, so, we have the same stuff.

>> Okay.

>> Yeah.

And we both have our Swiss Army Knives.

>> Absolutely.

>> [ Laughs ] ♪ I've thought about designing with you for a long time.

That was kind of the whole reason I wanted to get this done, Dad.

>> Oh, my goodness.

That's -- How marvelous.

It's been a long time since we did these things together.

>> I know.

I know.

You used to -- I remember you teaching me how to hand-tie a spray.

>> Oh, my.

♪ >> Now, see, everybody was talking about whether or not -- They said, "What if our arrangements don't match?"

But it doesn't matter if they match.

You made that one, I made this one, right?

>> That's right.

>> I know.

It's, like, a thing.

They don't have to match.

I always tell everybody that you are the designer that could get more carnations in a casket saddle than anybody I ever saw.

>> Really?

How about that.

>> And all those red carnations that you did in Grandpa Joe's casket spray, how pretty it was.

>> Yes.

♪ >> What was your favorite thing to design when you designed stuff in the flower shop?

Did you like to do casket sprays or wedding work or... >> I used to love to do casket sprays more than anything else.

>> How come?

>> You could use special things in casket sprays and you could just create some of the prettiest things if you had the memory of those individuals that you were working with.

>> Oh, right.

Yeah.

♪ Dad, yours is big.

Yours is always bigger than mine.

>> Well, you got to stretch them out.

>> [ Laughing ] Exactly right.

You do big better.

You always said that to me.

You were always like, "Use the full length of the flowers."

>> That's right.

>> Yeah.

That's awesome.

♪ We're gonna use gerberas as the focal today.

I'm focusing on the red, and I have other red fillers that we're gonna use.

We'll start with this beautiful Lepto...and use it to outline the heart shape.

Gonna stick it in the sides of the frame... and go all the way around.

♪ There.

It defines the entire shape of the heart itself.

Now it's simply filling it in.

We use the gerberas in two sizes and overlap them, filling in between... with some Hypericum berries... and Leucadendron.

♪ We've got the heart shape.

I just want to give some variation between the texture with some ribbon.

♪ You'll notice I used the ribbon on just one side so that it accents the wreath and doesn't take over the entire wreath.

This special wreath is going to take on a special meaning for me.

When I was little kid, my parents worked really hard in the flower shop, and they worked a lot.

They had a special place they would take me called Military Preschool.

It wasn't a military installation.

It was a preschool that was on Military Street.

It was run by Ralph and Dorothy Swanson.

And I spent a lot of my time with Ralph and Dorothy.

I remember one day when I was about 4 years old and we were sitting at the table.

And Ralph looked up at me, and he said, "Hey, one of your shoes is untied."

And I said, "Yeah, I don't know how to tie my shoes."

And he said, "I'm gonna teach you how to tie your shoes."

So he sat there for the next couple of hours and taught me how to tie my shoes.

He was a special guy, and he made sure that special things didn't get away from me.

So, for this special memorial tribute, a celebration of life, Ralph's celebration, I want to make sure that I always remember that he was the one who taught me how to tie my shoes.

♪ Use your imagination to create a personalized tribute that includes an interest or hobby.

Or translate this idea as a theme for personal flowers for a birthday party.

Today, I'll include these realistic-looking fish and beautiful flowers for someone who was or is an avid angler.

♪ We want this arrangement to look like it's underwater.

So a lot of the different foliages that we're using help give that appearance.

We're using rush.

It's also known as equisetum or horsetail weed.

We're using African iris grass and lily grass.

We also have some flax.

I think the curly willow is a great addition, too, because it adds movement to the arrangement.

We'll place all of those first to start to lay a foundation for what looks like it's inside a marsh underwater.

♪ Then we'll come back with some larger leaves.

We have variegated aspidistra and Milky Way aspidistra.

The variegation helps add texture to this arrangement.

♪ The tree fern and plumosa fern look like it's wispy seaweed underneath the water.

♪ We're also using monstera leaves.

Those are one of my favorite.

But I feel like they look almost like lily pads.

♪ We're gonna add just a few flowers.

A bunch of green and red flowers are great for this.

Red is a complementary color, so that red coloration is gonna be seen very easily on the green background.

♪ Now we've set the stage for our fish.

This is a foam fish that you can get online or at a craft store.

I create a hole in the bottom with an awl.

And then I can stick my stick directly into the fish.

I'm using these green stakes because they disappear into the arrangement and make it look like the fish are swimming.

♪ This is a fun way to dress up a punch with a flower ice float.

I took a frying pan, my smallest skillet -- it's a no-stick frying pan -- and I put a little bit of water in it.

Then I placed my flowers in facedown.

Then I stuck it in the freezer and froze them into place.

Then I took it out of the freezer and added another layer of water.

So now we have a wonderful ice float like this.

So, we'll start with our punch bowl.

We've got our ring of flowers with our hosta leaves on the inside.

We'll set our bowl down inside there.

We've got a few simple ingredients.

We have lemon juice.

♪ We have pineapple juice... and our prosecco.

If you want to make this nonalcoholic, you could use sparkling grape juice.

♪ I first saw this arrangement made by my friend, mentor, and public-speaking expert Frankie Shelton, and it remains a favorite of mine today.

It's called the memory garden.

And I've got a crafty addition that makes it even more personal.

♪ I start with a soaked flower-foam heart frame.

Here's a tip -- I wrap the frame with waterproof tape.

This adds extra stability to the frame, given the amount of flowers I'll be placing.

For this arrangement, we're filling in the heart form, and that's going to make a heart.

But then we're going to create a three-dimensional heart with red carnations that are gonna start at the front and go all the way to the back.

Each time we cut the carnation, we're gonna cut it a little bit longer so that we have a three-dimensional heart that raises above the full flower heart.

♪ I line up all the red carnations first to create the three-dimensional heart.

Then I go back in and fill in with my other flowers.

♪ I like using two different colors of carnations so that the red really stands out.

Orange and red are analogous colors, so they look great together.

♪ We don't have to use all flowers to fill in our heart form.

We can use foliage to complete it.

I'm using variegated pittosporum, and it's a wonderful, fragrant foliage.

Because this arrangement is three-dimensional, it's really impressive.

I love including a picture with a memory garden.

It could be a loved one, and it could also be used to celebrate their birthday.

Or maybe it's a couple for an anniversary.

There's lots of opportunities with the love this creates with a memory garden.

What I do is I love to print off a picture.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my dad.

It was when he was the president of Society of American Florists.

And I print it off in black and white.

Then I give it a couple coats of a translucent paint that matches the arrangement.

So then we have a picture that looks like this.

It looks like it's a sepia tone, but the tone of the color matches the arrangement perfectly.

He always loved red carnations.

They were his favorite.

So it's a perfect combination.

The memory garden -- a wonderful way to celebrate life.

♪ I hope you'll think of including flowers in your life as a way to create memorable experiences and as a happy reminder of those who are no longer with us and the joy, beauty, and good times they shared in our lives.

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

I was just having visions of things that could go wrong with this.

[ Laughs ] Mm-hmm.

Um... Sure.

Mm-hmm.

So, see?

It's like fish swimming.

Look at that.

See?

Or you could do this.

Alright.

That's enough.

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

>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by... Albertsons Companies... with additional support from the following... CalFlowers... Dollar Tree... Sunshine Bouquet.

♪ Closed-caption funding provided by Holland America Flowers.

♪ For everything flowers, recipes, projects, and more information, visit ubloom.com.

♪