♪
I am with my good friend,
Ruth Ann Bigger and she has come to show us some
of her incredible pressed flower artwork.
Ruth Ann thanks so much for coming down here
>> Good to be here,
and I guess I should let people know
that we originally met, because you are one
of the most active master gardeners
that Sumter County has ever had.
>> I don't know about that.
probably one of the longest hanging around.
(laughs)
It's been great. We had a lot of fun.
Yeah, it is.
And when I found out about these,
I just thought they were the most magical things
in the world.
And tell me how you got started on it.
I saw an article in a magazine back in 1985,
believe it or not, ...mentioned that.
And you could send in $1 and get six cards that
had a little oval in them
that you could put flowers in.
A lot of magazines used to do those types
of promotional things back then.
And I got started trying to press them in a
back when you and I had grew up in Norfolk had a nice
big thick telephone book.
And my daddy made me a flower press that was
about this big, nice wooden one
with a screw in it about that long
on each corner,
and it did a great job of pressing them,
but you wore yourself out undoing those...
wingnuts around the screws,
and I ran across an article by this woman
again in one of those magazines
who was pressing flowers in the microwave.
Wow!
This was a few years later.
And I figured out that was a whole lot
faster, easier way to do it because
as soon as they cool off,
they spend two and a half minutes
in the microwave at half power.
Soon as they cool off, they're ready to go.
So you weren't sitting waiting
another six weeks for something to dry
to add to some project you were working on.
And it was easier on your hand.
You didn't have to do all that stuff.
So...you said you got some
It's about an 8x10 sheets of...
Cardboard?
...It's hardboard
Oh, okay. What they used to
make those little brown clipboards out of.
Yeah.
And...you make sandwich out of the
hardboard some desk blotter paper which is
kind of hard to come by.
Paper towels, newspaper, make a sandwich,
put your flowers in there after you've trimmed them up,
whatever you do to them,
wrap heavy duty half inch rubber bands to
in each direction and run them in the microwave.
Now if you go online, there's a lot of other
ways that you can do this.
Some people use heavy plates or they'll put it
like a flat Corningware pie plate
on top of some things.
I've just been doing it this way for so long.
It's just easier to try to,
Why reinvent the wheel? As they say.
I thought we'd show a few
and ask you about the flowers that are in them.
And of course, Swan Lake Gardens is
you know, the iconic place to visit in Sumter.
And so what... makes this beautiful
feathered swan?
Well, those are Zinnia petals,
and it's very hard to find a white flower
that stays white.
That's been the interesting thing
through the years of doing these is figuring
out what holds its color and what doesn't.
White doesn't stay white.
It usually turns brown.
This is turned kind of a cream color.
A lot of reds turn a very dark burgundy color.
When my daughter in law got married,
she wanted me to do something for the wedding
like some place cards and she had
a red and white theme.
And the only flower that I could find that
started, that would end up red
was to get a coral colored verbena.
>> Oh! ...and when it dries, it turns red.
This I know, I've seen in a lot of cards.
And this is a very surprising flower.
I think John Nelson was the only person here
one night when I figured it out.
I was answering the phones here one night
and you and Terasa and Rebecca Turk
from Moore Farms and John were on the panel.
And I brought my card in like this to see if
anybody could identify this flower
because it looks like a hibiscus
and that's how John figured out what it was.
He said I don't know.
But I think it's in the hibiscus family, because
of this little protrusion right here.
It's a Turks cap.
And it's an old timey shrub that a lot
of folks have had,
and it's bright red.
And it never opens up.
>> So you have to, Yeah, it falls
off the plant still closed up,
and I just happened to pick one up one day
I was in my hammock relaxing
and opened the thing up
and I thought I'm going to have to give this a try.
That's really pretty. It keeps it's color.
It's a beautiful color.
It is beautiful,
and then I was going to ask what these were.
This is part of a Japanese maple.
Oh! Japanese maple!
and this is this is the polka dot plant.
Yeah.
And these are the,
I can't remember what those are.
This is more Selaginella down here.
And these are elephant ears.
Elephant Ears?
As they first start sprouting.
They're tiny.
They're that tiny? I had not noticed.
Well, you know there's different varieties
of Colocasia, Alocasia, whatever.
And then this one is a fun one,
because her hair is quite unusual.
You know what her hair is?
It's parsley that's dying from last year.
No... >> It's turned bright yellow.
Yep. And the face is a hellebore.
(laughs)
...and her legs are zinnias
with the seeds still attached.
Oh, look at that. It is.
And this is part of a hydrangea.
Uh huh! So this is,
This little this flower here
is also one of my favorites,
I discovered five or six years ago.
It's the flower of an Ixora Yeah.
They're commonly found in Florida.
You know it's a tropical, but they sell it
around here.
And those little four flowered
four petaled flowers.
I brought some with me anyway,
keep that red color,
And a lot of times that little bit of red
is just the amount of punch
Just what you need...get something to pop.
Well, that is too much fun.
And she certainly did need a ribbon in the hair.
That hair needed to be pulled back.
Well, we thought perhaps you would give us
a demonstration.
Well, this is a very high tech hobby.
You need you need a lot of equipment.
You need a toothpick.
Need some Elmers glue.
Okay. That's about it.
I don't know that you couldn't use other
types of glue and stuff,
Everybody likes Elmer's glue.
but like I said, as long as...
and I'm just looking for something,
that will last long enough for somebody buy a card,
mail it and send it somebody.
(Amanda laughs)
Lots of people frame them.
Well, I was going to show you
the one down on the end.
It's one that I probably did 10, 12 years ago
and the colors were a lot more vibrant
when I first did it.
But they've all faded to a nice tone of browns
and golds and all that blend in together.
You shouldn't ever if you're going to frame one,
don't ever put it in bright light,
because natural flowers is going to fade most colors
if anything, particularly natural substances.
Okay, so we have toothpicks.
Yep. Shake you one out.
And it's really easy to just,
grab you a couple of ferns,
Okay, and this is fern.
Uh huh!
Just put a little on here
and put it on the back and try to
just hit it with a light coat
and cover all of the leaf if you can,
because if you don't that one piece that you
didn't get the glue on is what's going to stick up
and catch when you go to put the card in the envelope.
Yeah, you don't want that.
So, and I usually put stuff in the,
put it wherever you want upper left and lower
right anyway, just to so you leave some room
on the card to write something.
I've done...
...but these have an inside
where you can write the message, right?
Yeah, yeah.
I've done like the ones that have fish on them.
Yes.
...You send it as a "Get Well" card saying
Hope you soon back into swim, that sort of thing.
(laughs)
Yeah, kind of corny, but kind of cute,
a little different,
and I think people enjoy getting something that
somebody's taken their time,
Oh, I don't think there's
any question about it?
♪
Well, Ruth Ann, I am,
It's not up to your standards,
but you've certainly got me interested in it.
You are very creative
...and I'm even more appreciative
of your talents than ever.
Bless your heart.
>> Thank you so much.
>> You're quite welcome.
I think, I bet there are gonna be some
people out there who'll tell us they tried it.
>> I hope so. It's fun. Oh, yes.
It was fun. Thanks a lot. Sure.
♪