Here’s a good article to add to your rose arranging tips collection: Best-Kept Secrets of Floral Foam, by Kathy Noble of Austin, TX. (The article is available also in pdf format.)
Ms. Noble writes a great article explaining the correct way to use floral foam (you may know it by the brand name Oasis TM.) As she notes, floral foam “seldom comes with instructions and is easily misused, with disappointing (if not disastrous) results.”
Believe it or not, there are some secrets and tricks to using floral foam that will lengthen the life and enhance the look of your arrangements. These tips will be helpful to the home arranger and show arranger alike. Proper use of floral foam can help arrangements stay together and extend the life of the flowers and filler you use.
For those who would like to enter roses in both the horticulture and arrangement divisions at rose shows, floral foam can help ease the pressure. Master the techniques Ms. Noble explains and you, too, will be able to “build designs the day before a show, and have them look just as fresh the next day.” That’s bound to relieve some of the stress!