In just a few weeks our beautiful maples, oaks and magnolias — nearly every broad-leaf tree — will begin changing their summer green leaves into a blaze of colors — oranges, reds and yellows. Their fall palette of colors is truly a gift to us. A gift to enjoy for several weeks, and then bare branches. And then, in just another few weeks, you will be lamenting the fact that they are gone and you wish that there would have been a way to save those colors for use in your table arrangements, or perhaps a few tall branches of brightly colored maple leaves for a large vase in your living room. Would that not have been something to get the guests talking? There is still time for you to do this. Once you have them, you can use them to add bright brightness to any flower arrangement that needs a burst of color.
Carmen Cosentino operates Cosentino's Florist in Auburn with his daughter, Jessica. He was elected to the National Floriculture Hall of Fame in 1998, and in 2008, received the Tommy Bright award for lifetime achievements in floral education. In 2016, Carmen and Jessica were presented Teleflora's Tom Butler Award, naming Cosentino's the florist of the year at the company's annual meeting in Hawaii. Carmen can be reached at cosenti@aol.com or (315) 253-5316.
