Lee LaPointe demonstrates her design techniques at June meeting

Internationally recognized floral designer Lee LaPointe of Boothbay Harbor and Vero Beach, Florida demonstrated her incredible floral design talents to a packed audience recently at the Harpswell Garden Club’s June meeting.  Her appearance was made possible because of a long standing friendship she has with one of our newer members, Anne Ritchie.  Several of Lee’s friends also came to watch her create a stunning display of ten designs!

Lee passed on to the audience several of her tips on making arrangements last longer.  She always cuts her stems underwater (using a bowl of water will do just fine).  This helps keep air pockets from developing in the flower’s stem.  In order to keep tulips standing upright, she uses a small amount of either gin or vodka in the water where she preconditions her flowers.  Lee also likes to use objects she finds in her yard in her arrangements!  For one she displayed today, she covered a very large limb with multicolored yarn to match the blue glass container she used for the arrangement.  Another arrangement was constructed using the dead branches she’d saved after pruning her hydrangea bushes!  For her final arrangement, she demonstrated how she collected the scapes from a Royal Palm tree in her yard in Florida, and then spray painted them either gold or silver.  This final design was absolutely stunning!