Story Hour
Paper Flowers
Written by Gene B. Williams
|
Click here for the archive page with a list of previous stories. Please remember that all materials on this website are copyrighted. No reproduction without express permission. |
Before beginning the story, I want to give a special thanks again to Kathleen McCarthy at easytogrowbulbs.com. December began Nicker’s Flower of the Month Club for Queen Edie (there at Castle Edie, on the shore of Lake Edie). It’s cold and snowy and icy in Minnesota.
Kathleen listened and said, “Try these.”
So we did, later we’re going to try some others.
If you have no bulbs, no dirt, no pots … we have that problem covered, too. Get some paper.
Ready?
Set?
FUN!
This issue has LOTS of links. Think of it as a sort of treasure hunt. Go exploring!
In North America it is winter. Well, it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere, too, but as you know, down there in Australia and New Zealand and other places, it’s getting quite warm.
Carsten there in Wisconsin, Gracie there in England, are in snow. That doesn’t mean you can’t have things growing. In fact, you can become a member of Nicker’s Flower of the Month Club without ever growing a thing!
Let’s start there.
Making paper flowers can be as easy as cutting a flower shape from a piece of colored paper (or have some fun coloring it yourself) and gluing it (or taping it) to a stick. You don’t need pictures, just a little imagination.
Well, pictures can help. Look up some pictures of different flowers. You can draw and color them. You can do the entire bloom. Or you can cut out the petals and make your own flower.
Or you can fold and cut paper into another real work of art.
A classic way is to use tissue paper. This paper is light in weight so it folds easy. It also tends to be very colorful. You’ll see how easy it is. Basically, a piece of tissue is folded over and over to become a little like an accordion. The center is then tied (sometimes with a notch cut into it first). Then the sides are spread out to make a beautiful flower. That tie can also be used to hook the flower to the “stem.”
You can use a single color, or can layer several colors.
Here are some links where you can learn more about this.
http://www.ehow.com/tissue-paper-flowers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT_SLFFt3Z4
http://www.azcentral.com/crafts_paperflowers.html
http://familyfun.go.com/giant-tissue-paper-flowers
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/paper-flowers.htm
ORIGAMI
 |
 |
Here are some links were you can learn more.
http://en.origami-club.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origami
http://www.origami-fun.com/
REAL FLOWERS
 |
 |
| Photos courtesy of easytogrowbulbs. On the left is a set of paperwhites in a basket made to look like a nest. On the right is the purple shamrock. Both are wonderfully easy to grow just about anywhere. |
 |
 |
| With a lot of help from my sister, Mom has been enrolled in “Nicker’s Flower of the Month Club. For Christmas, Mom got some long-stemmed roses. She didn’t know then that paperwhite bulbs were already being set in time for her birthday. Since they weren’t blooming yet, Queen Edie got another bouquet. Soon, the paperwhites will bloom. Now long after, she will have blooms of hyacinth and purple shamrocks. Be sure to watch Nicker News for updates. |
This is what the issue is really all about.
Queen Edie likes paper flowers. She likes silk flowers. She even likes plastic flowers (if they look real). What she likes most are real flowers.
Have you ever tried to grow real flowers?
There are so many ways to do it – so many flowers. You can grow them inside in a pot, or outside in a garden. What you grow, and how, and where, depends a lot on where you are. It’s a little difficult to grow roses in a snow bank in the middle of winter.
Some plants are very difficult to grow. You have to really know what you are doing. Many can be grown, at least for a while, in just a pot with some dirt. A few (like paperwhites) don’t even need dirt.
http://gardening.about.com/Paperwhites.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/Narcissus_papyraceus
http://www.ehow.com/force-grow-paperwhite-bulbs
Here is a video of how to do it!
https://www.easytogrowbulbs.com
A FEW FLOWER SOURCES
http://www.amazon.com/Narcissus-Ziva-Paperwhites
http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com
http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/paperwhite-bulbs-holiday
Like this story?
Click here to see previous stories!
