Tulips are one of my favourite spring flowers, they add such a smooth waxy texture to arrangements and designs. The foliage too is so versatile and a useful matt finish when you want to get away from the usual gloss greens that most leaves are.
Jut a few quick tips then about Tulips. I may have touched on these before in previous workshops but as there is an awful lot on this blog now, I thought it a good seasonal idea to go through some of the main tips:
First of all, if you often get put off from using tulips due to the fact that they can so quickly 'blow open' in a warm room then this tip is for you!! To maintain the closed flowers shape all you need to do is take a needle or a floristry wire and put it right through the stem just below the flower head. See the picture of me doing this.
For some reason this tiny hole stops the tulips from opening up too fast so you can keep the lovely tulip shape for longer, sometimes it keeps them in their shape until they perish.
So, what else can be useful to know? Well I always like the fact that the leaves are matt green and a lovely waxy texture so its a shame not to utilise them in arrangements where the other foliages may be dark glossy green, so the tulip leaves offer a nice contrast next to them. So take the surplus leaves and curl them over your finger. Take a floristry wire, not too thin or it will cut through like cheese wire, but not too thick as you need to be able to bind with it, so I suggest a 70guage. Take the wire and make it into a hairpin shape, basically bend it in half. Take the now bent wire and place it along the ends of the curled leaf, ie the tip and stalk which are now together. Lie the wire parallel and then take one of the ends of wire and carefully but with a fast definate motion bind it around the stem of the leaf and the other half of the hairpin. If you end up cutting through with the wire, take it off and try a stronger wire, or a little less strength. You now have a curled tulip leaf on a wire that can be inserted into foam for your arrangements. Here are the pictures. 
Dont forget to vivist my store online, the link is below, you can find all manner of floristry sundries and much more, anything you need but cant find there, do please email me as i have much more than i have listed so its worth asking. Thanks and please check back for more floristry tips and tricks.
Oh....I nearly forgot. When you use tulips in arrangements, remember that a unique feature of tulips is that they do continue to grow !! They must be placed lower than you want them to be - for example, if using in a funeral spray, make sure they are slightly lower than the other flowers to begin with otherwise the next day when you deliver your item they will be taller than the rest and look wrong. Weird arent they? But lovely.
use this link to go there direct: my store
Thanks for that. I knew about the pin but not the continuing to grow! Karen