Flower arrangement, however, seems fun and interesting and requires a lot of patience, skill, and liking for the activity. There are a number of flowers and different types of foliages, which are used by florists to arrange flowers for occasions such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, formal events and even for funerals. Floristry as an industry is flourishing rapidly and the art is gaining a lot of importance, making it necessary to acquire knowledge professionally. Designing and arranging flowers is the main role of the florists while taking orders for customers.

Many schools and academies provide certified training courses for flower arrangement to students. Diploma courses in floristry offer the student various skills along with designs that they can use in practical life. This basic course helps students to start their career. This course requires the students to work in flower studios during internship period, and numerous educational trips are also organized to give them a look into the real business. The diploma courses teach the students the different names of popular flowers, the range of designs that are sold in the flower industry like wreaths, and other hand-tied arrangements. The National Award in Floristry includes arranging and designing for bridal work. This institute acquaints the students with Latin names of common flowers and plants. Students also learn an assortment of display techniques during this course, which encourages them to create various display designs inside as well as outside the college campus.

The National Certificate in Floristry covers various ranges of practical designs that can be used for multicultural weddings, for display in stores, and many other commercial designs. There are special projects offered to students to prepare them for the floristry industry. Choosing a good floristry academy is based solely on the discretion of the student. Many individuals consider floristry as a full time career option and hence, specialize in the same. They can apply the acquired knowledge and skills to present flowers in a more appealing manner to stand out from the regular florist designs. The floristry industry is growing rapidly creating numerous job prospects and opportunities.

Pressed flowers can be used in scrapbooking, candle-making, paper and card making and many other crafts projects including refrigerator magnets, decoupage frames and boxes and paper weights. There’s really no end to want you can do with pressed flowers, but to get them from your garden into a pressed state does require a bit of know-how. This article will walk you through what you need to know.

Pick the flowers you want to press when they are at their freshest and at a time of day when there is no moisture clinging to them. For most of us, that means to wait until mid to late morning and not to pick after any rain or if the day has been foggy at all. You will be drying the flowers, after all, so you want to start them in their most dry state. Pick flowers at different stages of opening. Having all fully opened flowers in a craft project does not look as natural and is not as visually interesting as having flowers at different stages of bloom. So pick a few buds, a few leaves and a few half-opened flowers in addition to the completely opened ones.

The easiest and cheapest way to press your own flowers is by using books. You will need a few large, heavy books — encyclopedias, phone books and over-sized coffee table books are good choices. Put the flowers in between two pieces of standard white photocopy paper to protect the book. Do not be totally surprised if a few of the flowers’ juices bleed through the paper into the book’s pages. It is a good idea to use older, less than precious books for flower pressing. Also, have at least a 1/4 of an inch of book pages between each set of pressed flowers. Put something heavy on top of the closed books to press the flowers.

You can make your own air-dry flower press by getting two same-size pieces of plywood and connecting them with a long bolt. Put several sheets of cardboard or mat paper between the plywood sheets, then put about six to eight sheets of white paper between each piece of cardboard. Put the flowers you want to press inside those layers of paper. Then use clamps or bolts drilled through the plywood to tighten the pieces of plywood together.