As part of our preparation for King Charles’ Coronation Day, residents at Oaklands House Nursing Home combined simple science with flower arranging.
Some of our residents aimed to turn white flowers into red, white, and blue flowers, by adding food colouring to the water. The flowers we used were roses, carnations, and gypsophila.
Water, along with the flower feed, was added to the display jars, residents chose the shade of red and/or blue they wished to use and added the food colouring to the water. Next, they stripped the leaves from the roses, this is so the coloured water goes straight to feed the petals and not the leaves. Once the jars were ready, our budding florists set to work on their arrangements.
When they were complete, the flowers were carefully placed where residents could monitor the colour change. A couple of jars were left colour free, to see the comparison with the white flowers more clearly. The different varieties of flowers absorbed the food colouring very differently, with the rose clearly the winner. Meanwhile other residents had opted to change the colour of their flowers by mixing marbling ink with water and dipping the tips of the flowers in, creating beautiful results.
Our residents were very pleased with the results, and we think you will agree, the arrangements looked lovely on our display!
