Rose In Four Seasons

The stunning, architectural quality of the roses at the foyer of the Four Seasons in Istanbul, in this earlier post, is classic Jeff Leatham style. Mr. Leatham shot up to floral fame when he became the head florist at the George V Hotel in Paris and later, the Four Seasons Group of Hotels (owned by the Saudi prince who also owned Gucci, parts of Citibank, The Raffles Group), and he revolutionized the fresh floral arrangements in hotel public spaces. His pieces are simple yet opulent, using hundreds if not thousands of the same or similarly colored blooms to create living canvasses
The roses they sell in bulk at the Dimasalang flower market at say PHP80-100 a bundle of 24 blooms are incredibly well-priced, but you might say they are irregulars, with the blooms not the perfectly shaped rose of western hothouses that have managed to figure out just how to precisely manipulate a bloom to look perfect nearly every single time… But I find that for say PHP300 or so, you can create a pretty eye-stopping arrangement, and that is a FRACTION of the cost of the original. Here, I use two rather tall glass vases ( I have had them for years, you can get them for a few hundred pesos each at Landmark home section), almost filled to the brim with water.
The weight of the water in the vase helps to steady the arrangement. Then I take some 60-80 blooms and strip them of thorns and all but the topmost leaves and slowly form them into a very tight bunch, trying to mass the blooms together. I then rest them at a precarious looking angle using only the top 4-5 inches of the vase. They look like they are unsteady and about to tumble over, but they never have. Make sure your roses are fresh, soak them in cool water until just below the buds for several hours before arranging them. This arrangement should last you 4+ days in a cool room.