Carnations - "I hear they're making a comeback"

Nowadays Carnations are the most overlooked flower. As Charlotte in Sex and the City once said ''Carnations are filler flowers." But recently carnations are becoming more and more popular and are appearing in some of the most elegant floral designs out there.

Carnations are great for floral arrangements for numerous reasons: one of the best reasons is probably their affordability. Carnations are some of the cheapest flowers out there and are available all year round. These unique flowers are also fantastic because of their ruffle texture and their variety of bright colors. In addition, they are durable and can be used on their own or as part of bouquets.

Below I demonstrate one of the easiest and prettiest ways to use Carnations - floral spheres. All you'll need is one 4" diameter Oasis floral foam, one bunch of carnations (usually comes with 24-25 flowers), and either floral cutters or scissors.

Prepare the foam ball by placing it into a container filled with water (make sure there is enough water to cover the full sphere). Do not push the foam under water or pour water on top of floral foam - this will cause air pockets to build and keep flowers from drinking. Always let the foam soak up the water.

Once the sphere is fully saturated with water you can begin your floral design. One by one cut the carnation stem down to 3/4" to 1" and place into foam ball. Take another carnation and repeat this step, placing the flower petal to petal. Continue this until the sphere is completely covered and you can no longer see the green of the foam.

You can do a great deal with these spheres - give them to flower girls instead of flower baskets, hang them off chairs for extra decor, make different size spheres and use them as centerpieces, and finally simply placing the sphere (or half a sphere) on top of a vase. Below is an example of half a sphere on top of a vase (I filled the vase with moss as to keep the bottom of the floral foam of showing).

So next time you're the market pick up some carnations and get creative!