Continental Christmas Class with David Ragg at the Interflora Flower School

Last week, I attended a fabulous floristry class at the new Interflora Flower School in London.  The course was called ‘Continental Christmas’ and it was led by florist David Ragg.

Above is the festive tablecentre which David demonstrated to us and below are photos of how he created it.

He explained that the ‘continental’ slant for the course comes from the fact that you use slightly different techniques when arranging the flowers.  For example, using pins and unusual sundries.

David started off with a soaked 14″ foam-based ring.  He chamfered the top edge of the ring to give it a nicer profile.

To cover the foam base, he cut up sections of split aspidistra leaves and pinned them around the outside of the ring, overlapping them as he went…as you can see below.

The next step was to cut strips of midelino wood and then using pearl pins, attach them to the outside of the ring.  He placed them so that they hovered away from the aspidistra leaves and overlapped slightly.

Then inside the ring David inserted small pieces of blue spruce to hide the foam base and add a different texture.

Using candle holders, he added six candles in groups of two into the foam.  And to camouflage the holders, he inserted green skimmia around them.

Then he added three groups of white germini and Avalanche roses in pairs, followed by cinnamon sticks placed vertically, birch twigs and curled galax leaves. Finally, he placed an ivy trail inside the ring, low down, to add a natural feel.

David suggested that we placed the design on a mirror base to display it.

Each step was carefully explained and once he’d finished, it was our turn…and here’s my completed design below.

The class was so much fun and it was great to learn some new techniques.  Help was on hand whenever you needed it and nothing was too much trouble. 

The venue was gorgeous too, as you can see from the image below.

If you’d like to attend the school, their 2012 courses include ‘Spring Celebration’ where you’ll create a beautiful table arrangement and ‘Spring Affection’ where you’ll make a seasonal flower arrangement.  For more information, please do take a look at the Interflora Flower School website.

P.S.  If you’d like to see more of David’s work, do take a look at the blog post I wrote recently about his demo at the Christmas Preview Event at New Covent Garden Flower Market.

P.P.S.  Hope you have a lovely weekend. I’ll be putting up my door wreath which I made at the Covent Garden Academy of Flowers this week (blog post to follow next week), decorating our Christmas tree, winding fairy lights around the stair bannisters, wrapping presents and making Delia’s sausage rolls to go in the freezer for Boxing Day!

(Images : Rona Wheeldon for Flowerona)