Commercial Floral Design
Final Exam Study Sheet
Fall, 2007
Know the factors involved in premature floral senescence. What causes
shortened vase life?
What makes cut flowers die prematurely?
What things can you do to insure longer cut flower life?
What temperatures are best for storing cut flowers?
What pH is best for water uptake?
What water temperature is best for cut flower uptake?
What gas causes rapid death of flowers? And what chemical prevents the gas
from affecting flowers?
Know why scissors or pruning shears should not be used to cut fresh cut flower
stems.
Know the air temperatures to store tropical flowers and temperate zone flowers.
Know what kind of food cut flowers use.
Is cutting stems underwater effective in improving water uptake?
Know what a floral preservative is and what it consists of.
What kind of soda makes a good floral preservative? Why?
Why is ‘plunging fresh cut flower stems into Ice Water a bad practice.
Know how to have floral foam soak up water correctly.
You should know how to use floral foam correctly.
For what safety reason is it important to keep your knife sharp?
Know what STS stands for and what it makes flowers resistant to.
Know why adding plain sugar to the water generally shortens vase life.
Know that angle a stem is cut has no effect on water uptake
Know the colors of the flowers you saw if they are available in only
one color, and especially those you held in your hands.
Know the physical characteristics of the flowers you had in I.D. Which
ones are considered tropical?
Know in general whether the flowers you learned about have a very short or
long vase life.
Be familiar with the sizes of different flowers.
Know how to tell the difference between Marguerite Daisies and Daisy Pompons.
Know what color the centers are in Anemone flowers.
Be able to tell that a flower is a spike flower. Or a mass flower. Or
a filler flower.
What is Ikebana and where did it originate?
Know that delphinium is one of the true Blue flowers.
What is the difference between the ‘Elements’ and ‘Principles’ of
floral design?
Know what a line arrangement is…and that line and simplicity are used
in oriental floral design and that mass design was used in European or Western
design.
Know how the radiating style of design came about.
Know where parallelism in floral design originated.
Know what the primary and secondary colors are, and look for a color wheel
on the internet. There is a color wheel image on my Greenmachine website.
Know the position of the primary and secondary colors.
Know the meaning of Hue, Shade, Tone, and Tint.
What are the cool and the warm colors?
Know what the following color harmonies are: monochromatic, analogous,
complimentary, and split complimentary.
Know what the elements and principles of floral design are. Which element
is most important?
Know where naturalistic style of floral design originated.
Know what visual balance is and how it can be achieved with color.
Know what harmony in floral design means. Proportion. Rhythm.
Know the basic difference between floral designs of the Far East, such as Japan,
and those of the Occidental.
Know the most important of the Elements of Design.
Where did ‘Naturalistic Designs’ and ‘Parallel Line’ arrangements
originate?
Know why orchids shouldn’t be used with daffodils or daisies in most
designs? What Principle is broken?
How would you identify a flower in the Delphinium family? In the Banksia
family?
Know which flowers that you covered were ‘Filler’ flowers.
Which of the flowers we covered were orchids?
Know the relationship between wire thickness and gauge when dealing with florists
wire.
Know what the different color harmonies are.
Know the Scientific and Common Names of the Flowers you’ve already had
in Cut Flower I.D.
Know the general differences between floral designs of the following periods:
Egyptian
Victorian
Williamsburg or Colonial
Modern or Contemporary
What is the florist’s most important tool?
My website:
www.cook.rutgers.edu/~greenmachine