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- [Narrator] J Schwanke's Life

In Bloom

is brought to you by Albertsons

Companies.

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With additional support from

the following companies.

The Ball Horticultural Company.

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Cal Flowers.

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Design Master color tool.

(upbeat music)

Golden Flowers.

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Sunshine Bouquet.

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And TheRibbonRoll.com

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- Today on Life In Bloom we'll

show you

how flowers and romance go

far beyond Valentine's Day,

and how you can treat

yourself and your loved ones

with arrangements food and drink

infused with floral inspired

romance.

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I'm J Schwanke, welcome to Life

In Bloom.

"Every flower is a soul

blossoming in nature."

Flowers can set the tone for

romance,

today we'll take a look at

fragrant and romantic flowers

and ways you can incorporate

them into your everyday life.

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Setting the scene with

candlelight

and simple floating flowers

at the dinner table,

creates a sense of quiet and

connection

and lends an overall

soothing vibe to your event.

Today, we'll take a look at

romantic fragrant flowers

and ways you can incorporate

them into your everyday life.

Romance isn't only for special

occasions

you can keep romance in your

everyday life

when you surround yourself

with the sights and smells

of these beautiful flowers.

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Let's begin by taking a look

at the most romantic

flower of all, the rose.

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Red roses are considered

the ultimate symbol

of romantic love and enduring

passion,

while it's well known that

red roses symbolize love

what do other rose colors

signify?

Yellow, joy, happiness

caring and true friendship.

Orange, fascination,

passion, desire and pride.

Pale pink, thank You, grace,

admiration and elegance.

Deep pink, gratitude,

refinement and appreciation.

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Peach, believe me, modesty and

sweetness.

White, innocence, purity and

loyalty.

Burgundy, undying love

and unconscious beauty.

Now that you know a bit more

about the meanings behind roses

let's take a look at how

and where they're grown.

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It's been too long since I've

been here

at my favorite rose grower in

California.

We're at you Eufloria Flowers,

to see their romantic garden

roses and new spray roses.

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So Chad this is your new

garden rose collection.

- Yeah, we have all of our

garden roses

generally located within certain

houses

within our operation.

- They're beautiful!

- Thank you.

- [J] They're beautiful.

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- This is lovely hearts

probably one of our most popular

varieties, with the color

it's that coral peach color.

And here you have the caramel

antique

it's got the light

butterscotch caramel color,

it is very popular and opens up

like that true garden style

rose.

- That, just that shape is so

popular.

- [Chad] It is, and we

find, everybody is looking

for that look,

that cabbage outdoor appeal.

- They were so fragile

when we first started

getting garden roses,

but these are so durable.

- And we're finding that the

breeders are now crossbreeding

varieties that have that

certain European shape

with other varieties, and we're

getting that the longevity

out of these,

and the durability out of these

varieties its outstanding.

- Instead of you know the dozen

roses

that I used to get for

Valentine's Day,

do you think maybe I'll do like

clusters

of roses in a vase for

Valentine's Day

With the garden effect?

- I think so, I mean when these

open up

they take take up a lot more

surface area.

And they're just gonna add

that much more beauty to the

arrangement

that European style arrangement

that I think people are dying to

see.

- [J] What's the lasting

quality on these guys?

- [Chad] Definitely 10 plus

days on the garden roses.

- Wow!

- Some even more,

just depending on the petal

structure that it has.

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- [J] So what's your favorite

thing

about being a California flower

farmer?

- Being able to produce

an American grown product

and offer an American

grown rose to the consumer.

And hearing and seeing the

reactions,

and to be one of the California

growers

still producing roses, is

definitely very exciting for us.

And we're very excited about the

future

for California grown roses as

well.

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- Flowers can set a romantic

tone,

and it's not just about

couples for a dinner party

or patio entertaining,

it's perfect to have romantic

flowers.

And one of the ways that we can

talk

about romantic flowers

is through fragrance.

Gardenias for example,

have an intoxicating aroma.

These are one of my favorite

flowers

and they're super easy to design

with.

As a kid, we grew gardenias

in the greenhouse.

If a bride wanted them for her

wedding

my grandfather would

patiently baby them along

to make sure that we had them.

So having the smell of

gardenias around the house,

brings fond memories.

The gardenias that I'm using

now are stem gardenias,

which means they're cut on the

stem.

You might be familiar

with seeing gardenias

in a little box with just the

flower head.

But this way with the stem

gardenias,

we can cut flowers

through in a bud like this

and the bud will open up in the

bouquet.

Which means we get a lot longer

vase life

so we can enjoy something

like this on our table

for five or six days.

There's nothing quite like

waking up

or falling to sleep to

the smell of gardenias.

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Another fragrant flower

that's one of my favorites is

the freesia.

Freesia bulb flower, and they

grow up on the stem like this

opening all the way out to the

end.

They have a very interesting

unique fragrance.

As a little kid we grew

them in the greenhouse

and when the freesia were in

bloom

you'd go in the greenhouse and

that's all you could smell.

Some people say they

smell like fruit loops

and I think that's pretty

accurate.

They come in a wide variety of

colors

and interestingly enough,

the colored freesia are more

fragrant than the white,

that isn't normally the

case with most flowers,

but with freesia it happens to

be.

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For this arrangement, we

have all these little vases

and they're attached to the

tray.

So I'll fill each one with a

different color of freesia.

This is great because you could

slide it

in the middle of the table,

and wherever people run into

this

they're gonna be able to

smell these beautiful flowers.

Having flowers around the

house in different spots

can also evoke romance depending

upon where they're placed.

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The other way to approach

romance with flowers

is by the shape of the

arrangement we create.

These beautiful roses have

been made into a heart shape

and the heart symbol

itself, becomes romantic.

Floating flowers are another

way for us to add romance

and there's nothing better

than adding candlelight to a

centerpiece.

So a floating candle, and

floating flowers

is perfect for your dining room

table.

Roses are also romantic,

and another way to add

romance to your bath

is to add rose petals.

I like to choose organic

varieties or grow them myself

and then place those fragrant

petals into the bath.

So you see there's all kinds of

choices

when we want to add romance

to our Life In Bloom.

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Today for flower cocktail

hour, I'm joined by chef Jenna,

she owns an Italian restaurant

with her husband Maurizio,

it's called Amore.

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You inspired me for my book.

- Yes.

Fun with Flowers to create rose

cello.

- Yes.

- So today, I created

a rose infused vodka.

- I'm kind of loving that.

- Right, 'cause roses are

romantic.

- So romantic, and it's

crazy but they taste good.

- The process for this was

that we took potato vodka

and I added fragrant red

rose petals every day

or as often as I could.

I grew them outside so

I could govern them,

make sure they're organic.

And then, I added them

when I had them available

pull the petals off,

I didn't leave the pollen

or the stems on them.

- Okay.

- And mixed it in for six weeks.

- Perfect, look at that color.

- So yeah, so then at that

point in time you have,

and the petals are inside

they remain intact but

they lose all their color.

So that's the essence

of that red coloration.

- I really like this 'cause

the first time we did it

we did it with the pink roses

and it didn't have that

beautiful

color that this one does.

- Right, right so you and

I both have this thing

about processed foods.

- Yes.

- And you use all that local

stuff at your restaurant.

- If you know where it comes

from,

it somehow that tastes better.

- Yeah, and better for you.

- It's way better for you yes.

- So then I used local honey

from Michigan

and made a simple syrup of

Oklahoma.

- I love that, look at you!

- Right, right, so then I add,

so we had two bottles of potato

vodka.

So 1/4 cup of simple syrup,

so 1/2 cup for the two.

And then I just put it in this

bottle

this is reclaimed bottle

that I had.

- It's really cute.

- So then we have it as a

cocktail.

When you taste it, it tastes

like vodka

but it also tastes the

way that a rose smells.

- It does.

- That's the best, the best

way that I can think about.

- And I found this

recipe in a very old book

that was all in Italian

about homemade liqueurs.

And the little story near

it was just about how

women would make this and in the

afternoon

when their husbands would

creep out for coffee,

they pour that stuff,

on their drink.

- I love it.

It's perfect.

- I know.

- So our husbands are away.

- Right.

We're having a little cocktail.

- That's right.

- That's what we do.

- Ice here, there we go all

right.

So, I thought a little,

a little rose spritzer.

- What's better than that?

- Right?

- It's making me thirsty.

- So two water, well I'm coming.

- There you go, I feel

like we should garnish it

with like a rose petal or

something.

- We could do that.

- Right.

- We can do that hold on.

- Wouldn't that be pretty and

romantic?

- [J] It would be.

- Are we gonna have a drink?

- We are.

- Salute!

- Really we're home alone.

- I know right.

(laughing)

Wow!

You get the rose right at the

beginning.

- It's true.

- And it stays

through to the end.

I would drink this.

- It reminds me so much of what

you fixed

that day you came to visit.

- It's so good with the soda, I

love that.

- Yeah, it's delicious.

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Why do you think people think

that Italian restaurants are so

romantic?

What's the connection?

- In general, Italy is romantic

place

and it's always been kind of,

especially if you haven't

visited Italy

you just picture it as a

beautiful romantic place.

If you see movies or

the models that you see

and all the magazines and

everything.

And I think a place called

Amore is already romantic.

The reason we called tt Amore is

because

that's what Maurizio

and I call each other.

Like it's our pet name.

And we didn't realize how

awesome it was, that it was

Amore

because once we were in the

phone book

we were number one on the list.

Because alphabetically, we came

up,

we were like, "This was a double

bonus!"

Because if we're at an event or

anything

Amore comes up first.

- Right, right.

So Jenna, I have a tradition.

- I love traditions.

- With flower crowns, which you

know about my flower crowns.

- I love, my profile pic is a

flower crown

your flower crown right now.

All right you'll have

to position it for me.

- Oh, it looks good.

- Like that?

- Oh yeah!

- Okay.

(laughing)

- Mama is in the house.

- I know, right.

- Right, right.

- It's perfect.

- Okay, so cheers.

- Cheers to flower crowns.

- And to Amore.

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Another romantic flower is

lavender.

That smell is wonderful,

and we can use lavender when we

cook.

Whether we make an elixir

that can be added to cocktails

or we can actually use the

flower buds in cookies.

So today we'll create

some romantic cookies

using lavender buds and lemon

zest.

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Keep your flowers away

from the fruit bowl,

fruit gives off ethylene

a ripening hormone.

this causes flowers to age more

quickly.

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When I think about fragrant

flowers,

I think about the phrase,

stop and smell the roses.

I think it's important for us

to take time to smell the

flowers,

and it's wonderful when the

flowers

smell as beautiful as they look.

Many people claim the phrase

stop and smell the roses

dates back over a century or

more.

The story goes that two ladies

were standing in their yards

one was discussing how much

labor

went into creating the

garden that she had,

the other neighbor suggested

that she perhaps step back

and look at the beauty

she had created with all of that

labor,

and take time to stop and smell

the roses.

The phrase gained prominence

again in 1957

in Walter Hagen's biography.

The golfer told us

don't hurry, don't worry

and be sure to stop and smell

the flowers.

So everything we have on the

table today

is a fragrant flower.

We've got stock, we have lilies,

roses,

wax flower and a couple types of

foliages

that also have fragrance as

well.

This bouquet will certainly

fill a room with fragrance.

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First we'll start with

senagrania,

I love this 'cause it has a

wonderful minty fragrance.

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I like that the stock has

an herbal smell as well.

It smells like cloves,

some people say cinnamon.

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This wax flower has such

a unique fresh fragrance.

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This some melaleuca foliage

and what's interesting about

this is,

when you strip down the foliage

it has almost a eucalyptus type

smell.

It smells real fresh and clean

again,

it matches really well

with the clove, the cinnamon,

the mint.

Now it's time for our roses.

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What's interesting about the

rose itself

is that the thorns are

associated with the fragrance.

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I'm gonna drop a few beautiful

lilies down inside here too.

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That's a beautiful arrangement

sure to fill an entire

room with fragrance.

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As you can see romance can be

a part of your day-to-day life

through arrangements,

self-care food or drink.

Flowers are ready to bring

their fragrant beauty

into your living space.

For Life In Bloom, I'm J

Schwanke, see you next time.

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(mumbles)

- [Crew] Ready?

- Yep.

- It's so romantic, it was

perfect too,

it was so much fun.

- Yeah, it was a whole lot of

fun.

- Okay Chris, I need to get

flower crowns

they are in the other

preparation.

Okay.

- Will I have another drink?

- Go ahead.

- Yeah, that's about it.

- Okay.

Okay.

- Day drinking, hashtag day

drinking.

(laughing)

To flower crowns.

- And to Amore.

- Almost got the petal stuck to

my lips.

- [Narrator] J Schwanke's Life

In Bloom

is filmed in Grand Rapids

Michigan.

- [Narrator] J Schwanke's Life

In Bloom is brought to you by

Albertsons Companies.

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With additional support from

the following companies,

The Ball Horticultural Company.

(upbeat music)

Cal Flowers.

(upbeat music)

Design Master color tool.

(upbeat music)

Golden Flowers.

(upbeat music)

Sunshine Bouquet.

(upbeat music)

And TheRibbonRoll.com

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Closed caption funding

provided by Chrystal.

For everything flowers, recipes,

projects

and more information visit

uBloom.com

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