>> "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.

>> With additional support from the following... ♪♪ >> In this episode, we're focusing on color and ways to work with color based on the color wheel.

I'll create flower arrangements with a complementary, monochromatic, triadic, and analogous concepts.

♪♪ ♪♪ I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom."

"All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites."

Aside from flowers, I'm almost as well-known by my admiration of color.

There are several principles one can apply to flower arranging, but none is more impactful than color.

Color has amazing influence in any situation and flowers are no exception.

How can you make a party more exciting?

How can you calm down a tense situation?

How can you inspire a childlike impression?

What's the secret to a friendly expression?

Color can even create an upscale mood.

Join me today for some simple concepts about color, and how color combined with flowers can help you express yourself more completely and wholeheartedly.

♪♪ One of my favorite tools for arranging flowers is the color wheel.

I know that you might think about my tools, which these are my tools too.

And today you'll notice that they're in complementary colors.

If we thought about the color wheel, they're on opposite sides of the color wheel.

So when we use flowers that are on the opposite sides of the color wheel and use complementary colors, it causes excitement.

And so this is a fun way for us to create an arrangement that might be a little more exciting for people.

You have three choices of complementary colors.

You have orange and blue, which we're using today.

You have red and green.

We're familiar with those.

When we see those at Christmastime, we get presents.

And we also have yellow and purple.

So any time we're using those opposite colors, we're creating excitement.

We can affect the feelings people have with our flower arrangements.

So using complementary colors can make people more excited or look forward to something more.

So we're going to make this arrangement today in this glass container.

And it has a rose gold finish.

So it picks up the orange content that we have.

And we've got all sorts of different types of flowers.

In our blue category, we have delphinium, iris and veronica.

In the orange category, we have gerberas and micro gerberas, carnations, ranunculus, and lilies.

And when we get finished, we'll add ribbon to drive home that orange color just a little bit more.

One of the easiest things that you can do when you're creating a bouquet of flowers is to use foliage as a structure.

♪♪ We'll start with our blue flowers.

We'll do the delphinium and then the veronica.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ When you're getting iris, you want to get them when they're in tight buds, even tighter than these.

But notice the ones that are in bud.

They're going to last longer than the one that's open fully.

And one of the great things about iris is being able to watch them open in the vase.

♪♪ ♪♪ Now we can add our orange flowers.

I love having carnations in my arrangement because they last so long.

These orange ones are just beautiful and they bring that orange color deep down inside my arrangement.

♪♪ ♪♪ We'll add a bunch of these beautiful ranunculus.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ We'll add our gerberas.

These three golden orange gerberas are just beautiful.

♪♪ And then I have these micro mini gerberas.

Look how tiny they are.

I'm going to cut those stems together in a collection and place them in at one time, so that these little flowers are grouped together.

♪♪ I like the way that they look.

It's almost like little eyes looking out of the arrangement.

♪♪ And orange lilies.

♪♪ ♪♪ Remember, when you have pollen on your lilies, be sure to pluck those out so that those aren't going to get on your tablecloth or stain someone's clothing.

♪♪ The final flower we're adding is our bird-of-paradise.

I love this because it brings together the arrangement.

We have blue flowers and orange flowers, and as we open up our birds-of-paradise, using my little trick of getting my thumbs inside the calyx and opening up and forcing out those blooms, we've got orange blooms with a blue throat.

So our orange and blue complementary color scheme comes together in these two flowers.

I love ribbon and I think this sheer metallic copper ribbon helps bring in our container.

It ties the two together.

Because it's sheer, we can see through it and it brings out the color of the vase.

I'm simply tucking it in in different spots using a bamboo skewer.

It has a wired edge, so it makes beautiful loops on both sides of the arrangement.

This complimentary bouquet is certain to cause lots of excitement.

♪♪ ♪♪ Have you ever thought about how you can affect people's feelings with flowers?

Color is the easiest way for us to do that.

And so today, what we're going to do is create a monochromatic flower arrangement.

That means that it's one color, actually pink, tints, tones and shades of that.

With tints we add white.

So we get a flower that would be this color -- pink with white added.

With gray, we get something like this carnation that's more dusty-colored.

With black we get something dark like this weigela.

So there's different options and we use those together.

Now, do you know how it affects your feelings?

A monochromatic bouquet will actually calm people down and make them more relaxed.

So if you think about turning people's feelings into flowers, if you are trying to calm someone down or give them more relief, giving them a monochromatic arrangement would be wonderful.

So we're going to create a monochromatic arrangement in this cylinder vase today using tints, tones, and shades of one color, pink.

♪♪ I've laid all my different flower types out on the table.

You can choose just about any type of flower, just choosing them in the tints, tones and shades of any color.

I'll start with three of my branching materials.

I've got my weigela and my waxflower and my statice.

That will create a structure that will allow me to place my other flowers.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I place my selection of each kind of flower together at the same time.

That allows me to mix them in or put them on different sides of the arrangement.

I like when two of one type of flower are together, but I also like to split them up sometimes.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ The most important thing to remember is that you want to please yourself.

So step back, take a breath and relax.

It's much easier to arrange flowers than you think.

And when you give yourself permission to try it out and have a good time, things turn out even better.

A beautiful mixed bouquet like this would be a great accent in our office, would make us feel more creative.

We could put it in the kitchen so that everyone could see it.

Flowers in the home reduce arguments.

So it's another great reason to keep flowers all around your house.

♪♪ A monochromatic arrangement like this will calm everyone down.

If you need a little stress relief, maybe even during midterm exams, it's a great reason to have a monochromatic arrangement of flowers around the house.

♪♪ ♪♪ Coleus is a genus of annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes succulent, sometimes with a fleshy or tuberous rootstock.

Coleus are cultivated as ornamental plants.

Coleus are popular as a garden plant for its brightly colored foliage.

The leaves of the wild species may be somewhat variegated, but this has been developed to an extreme degree in cultivated varieties.

Cultivated Coleus varieties have leaves that may include one or more shades of green, white, cream, yellow, pink, red, maroon, and dark purple.

Coleus was first introduced into Europe from Java in 1851 by a Dutch horticulturist.

At this time there were few leaf colors and shapes.

Coleus breeding revived in the early 1940s, and by the 1980s the availability of an improved range of cultivars led to Coleus becoming the 10th most important bedding crop in the U.S. More recently, vegetative propagation has enabled cultivars with novel leaf colors and shapes to be offered for sale.

And here's your Bloom 365 tip.

Coleus can provide added color to an arrangement.

Although it's not a flower, it's still a wonderful addition to cut flower arrangements.

♪♪ When we're working with the color wheel, there's also an option for us to use primary or secondary colors.

The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.

Those colors mix together, in certain combinations create the secondary colors.

Red and yellow together make orange.

Yellow and blue together make green.

Red and blue together make purple.

Whenever we use the secondary colors together, they seem more upscale.

When we use these colors together, the primary ones red, yellow, and blue, they seem very basic and it's something that everyone understands.

You think about it.

When you were in kindergarten, you probably saw these three colors first.

And so those bright, vibrant colors are primary colors.

And it's a great way for us to create an arrangement.

Today we're making a flower arrangement in flower foam.

We'll be using a foliage bouquet, delphinium, veronica, sunflowers, lilies, carnations and spray roses.

♪♪ ♪♪ We'll start off with a couple of pieces of leatherleaf.

We'll put those down in the front of the arrangement and then add our sunflower right over the top.

This is the focal area of our arrangement.

This is what's going to draw all our attention because it's big, because it has the big black center and because it's yellow.

Then we'll add some tree fern.

♪♪ ♪♪ We'll add delphinium.

It's our vertical flower, so it's establishing the central vertical axis of this arrangement.

It's upright behind the focal area.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ This is one of my favorite flowers, and putting a line of red carnations into the middle of the arrangement down the central vertical axis helps create rhythm that takes us from the top of the arrangement to the bottom.

♪♪ Then we'll add our veronica.

As veronica gets bigger and it blooms out towards the end, it starts to get pendulous.

So I've got a couple of pendulous pieces I'll use first, meaning that they kind of curve down towards the table.

♪♪ I've got three on one side and we'll throw one on the other side.

♪♪ Then we'll use our mikado spray roses.

These are the same red as my red carnation.

We're using those as an accent flower.

It's an old, antiquated term to call a flower a filler flower when you're filling in between other flowers.

Instead, I like to use the term accent flowers.

We're using these beautiful mikado spray roses as accents.

♪♪ ♪♪ Our final flower is our lily.

I have one bloom that's open and two buds that aren't.

We'll place the two buds in individually, and then we'll place the other lily at the bottom of the arrangement.

It balances out our focal area.

And so you'll notice that our arrangement is yellow towards the bottom, then there's red mixed in that travels towards the top, and blue in the back.

That way we've got all three of those triadic colors together.

♪♪ I'm going to add a little piece of ribbon, and I like it to be unusual and unique.

I grabbed a yard of the ribbon.

At one end, I pulled out two of the wires and wound them together.

Then I cinched it back so that it would gather this and make a wonderful ruffle.

I can weave it in between the flowers and it looks great.

♪♪ I think you'll agree that the primary colors are a fun way for us to look at flowers.

♪♪ ♪♪ You know how much I love color.

And here's a great opportunity for us to work with analogous colors.

I'm going to teach you how to make this flower arrangement for your home today.

Today's project is created with analogous colors, which are colors that are next to one another on the color wheel.

The great part about these is that they're neighbor colors, and it's a great way to think about them -- being neighbors.

You know how you might go across the fence and visit with them, or go next door to borrow a cup of sugar.

Those neighboring colors are friendly and welcoming to people.

When we use those colors together, it creates a welcoming feeling for our flower arrangement too.

Today we'll be using orange and hot pink.

Again, colors that are next to one another on the color wheel.

♪♪ Our vase is a pyramid shape, and so it's smaller at the bottom and wider at the top.

There are several ways we could handle this, but today we're going to make our bouquet in our hand.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ All of these mixed together in our hand.

We're simply bundling them together, and then we'll cut them short and drop them into the vase.

With our lilies, remember when we see that pollen, we want to pick that off so that we don't have that falling onto our table or staining our clothing.

♪♪ ♪♪ Then I'm going to grab my bunch together and cut it right below where I'm holding it.

♪♪ We'll drop that inside this vase and look, voilà.

It's a beautiful arrangement.

♪♪ Now let's emphasize our analogous color scheme with this beautiful ribbon.

It's a plaid that's orange and hot pink.

I'm simply running off a couple yards and will tuck it into the arrangement in loops.

That way it becomes part of the arrangement and it isn't just a bow that's on one side of the arrangement.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Now we've got our friendly arrangement, those neighboring colors.

♪♪ ♪♪ And now it's time for my favorite part of the show -- flowers from you, the viewers.

Today's arrangements are from viewer Faye Heffner, who says she was inspired by some of our earlier shows.

These summertime flower arrangements just fill me with joy.

I love the milk glass vase filled with gladiolus, liatris and daisies, and the citrus sorbet vase filled with orange calendula and lemony gladiolus.

Makes me think of lazy summer days.

We're certainly living a life in bloom with these bouquets, Faye.

Please send me your pictures of flower arrangements inspired by "Life in Bloom."

We call them Schwankes after a viewer's nickname.

Send them to J@uBloom.com.

That's the letter J at the letter U bloom.com and watch for more Schwankes on upcoming shows.

I hope you've enjoyed our foray into color for more impactful flower arrangements and find the information and techniques help in your own arrangements and bouquets.

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

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

>> Visit J's website, 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.

♪♪ >> With additional support from the following... ♪♪ Closed-caption funding provided by Holland America Flowers.

♪♪