Gotta Love a Lily!

Casablanca, white mountain, stargazer, asiatic .. you name your favorite, we love it .. and love preserving it!  How difficult are lilies to preserve?  Not too bad, but they do require some pre and post-preservation TLC.  For larger blooms, our preservationists will need to completely diassemble the entire bloom for preservation to ensure that petals remain well-shaped and intact.  Additionally, our designers may need to trim down the petals to adjust their length as not all shadowboxes will accommodate the depth of the original flower. So do we play God a bit at Keepsake? Sometimes we have to.

Different varieties of lilies will demand special consideration and care during design and pre-design painting too.  We need to consider the fragility of lily petals during and after preservation and during the hand-painting process as well.  Asiatics and their relatives are a bit thinner once they are out of preservation, so a gentle hand and light coatings of color are required for them.  Stargazers will turn very dark purple during preservation .. eliminate the water and eliminate the cellular space, so pigments become more compacted and darker.   At Keepsake, we will color these stargazers a bit lighter and brighter to bring them closer to the bright pink or fuschia of the fresh flower.  Stargazers will require detailed painting and a  finishing of air brushing to finalize details and to ensure that the flower continues to show the amazing and minute lines, stripes and spots of the original petals.

Keepsake designers also have to be particular and creative during the adhering process of the flowers within the design.  Sometimes, onl a partial lily will be included in order to achieve an illusion of depth within a more shallow preserved arrangement.  And the necessity of rearranging the flower’s petals in order to fit such a large bloom into a smaller space requires some creativity and intricate positioning and fastening.

Of course, once preserved, the heady scent of any lily disappears, but its dramatic beauty and showy presence can be enjoyed in client keepsakes for decades to come.  Love a fresh lily, and love a preserved one even more!