Foam Free Floral Installation with Oshun Pouch: an eco-friendly alternative to flower foam
Water is the best medium for cut flowers by far, but when you need to design a floral installation on a tall structure way up in the air, it’s not always the most practical choice. Then you think, “Wait…maybe I can suspend water in the air!?!”
You grab a bucket filled with water and tie up at the top of an arch!
A momentary rush of, “Oh yeah, I got this…” is quickly replaced with frustration as you attempt to cover the bucket with greenery and it spills over on your head. You can’t risk spilling water on a client’s head! There’s got to be an easier way.
Enter floral foam.
The distinctive green bricks that absorb, hold, and transfer water into the stems of your thirsty locally grown lisianthus, dahlias, and sunflowers!
Floral foam is an easier way to create floral installations. That’s why it has become a mainstay in our industry. Foam holds the flower stems and foliage in place. This makes both design and transportation easy, but it’s not healthy or environmentally friendly. In fact, the strange stuff is essentially plastic. It comes from a non-renewable resource and it’s a single use item, so it ends up in the garbage after just one use!
Did you know that floral foam is made from toxins too? Yuck!
It feels like an oxymoron. Beautiful locally grown flowers, intentionally placed, in a toxic sponge.
So, have I got you thinking “What can I use instead of floral foam” yet?
I’ve been a florist for 15 years now and I’ve asked myself that question on repeat.
If you are trying to become a foam free florist, believe me you are not alone.
My go-to floral foam alternative has always been a chicken wire burrito and several buckets worth of water tubes. The water tubes are also made of plastic, but they are reusable. This felt better to me than floral foam, but it took longer and required more labor. Those little green tubes don’t fill themselves!
This foam free alternative cost me more as a business owner, but the price was offset because it felt better than using floral foam. I also made sure to include the costs of all my materials and labor when I calculated the prices of my floral designs. We will talk more about pricing later so if that’s a sticking point for you, stick with me here!
I used foam for many wedding installations over my 15 years of being a florist because I was not aware of any viable floral foam alternatives at the time.
The great news is that foam free alternatives are emerging onto the market now! These alternatives are long overdue developments in the floral design industry.
If the question bobbing around in your head is “How well do they work?” That’s exactly what I intend to find out.
So, I invite you to follow along with me as I create a foam free floral installation with a new environmentally friendly product called the Oshun Pouch.
I purchased an 8 pack for $55.55 shipping included from New Age Floral. I didn’t see that option on their website today, but they do currently offer a 3 pack.
The Oshun Pouch is filled with organic content, covered in a plant based membrane, and is similar in size to standard size brick of floral foam. It is shipped dry. Simply poke about 10 holes on each side of the pouch before you submerge it in water. Then, keep it submerged for about 5 to 10 minutes to hydrate the mechanic. That’s all you need to do to get started!
Many of today’s floral installations require florals arranged both in containers and attached to structures.
Can you picture some installations for this mechanic already? Meadow style designs or deconstructed arches built from the ground up with chicken wire and several Oshun pouches came to my mind right away.
So, I wanted to create a design that would allow me to test the Oshun Pouch in two ways.
A sign-in table with an airy arrangement and a hanging installation element, filled with seasonal locally grown blooms is what I decided to create for you.
And, here is the finished foam free floral installation using Oshun pouches!
I started out with the container arrangement because I thought it’d be easier to get my bearings with this new product in a container. I didn’t use tape or chicken wire above the Oshun pouch because I wanted to see how it would hold the flowers in place without any additional support.
I started out with some greenery as my base, then I added my sunflowers and dahlias, next came my lisianthus, and lastly the beautiful fragrant basil!
Building the shape of this arrangement was easy using only the Oshun pouch as my mechanic.
Here’s a quick video of my process designing the vase arrangement! And, I’ve got another one for you of the hanging installation below too.
Foam Free Floral Installation with the Oshun Pouch
I’m including the recipe and some suggested pricing for this beautiful airy summer floral arrangement too. Please copy it and adapt it for your business!
1 Oshun Pouch $6.95
4 stems greenery $3.96
3 Sunflowers $8.95
6 Dahlias $22.90
6 Basil stems $3.55
1 Lisianthus stem $1.00 (Note: this was part of a mixed local bunch that cost me $10 for 10 stems)
Total Cost: $47.31
Retail Price for this floral design:
At a 3X markup $150
At a 4X markup $200
At a 5X markup $240
I like to round up to a nice round number to make it easy when I price designs. You won’t see any prices like $158.72 from me. Rounding up does two things. Simplifies the price for the client and allows for a little wiggle room for cost variations with all the designs included for an entire event.
So, please keep in mind if you grab a calculator and do the flower math on this recipe yourself that the cost and retail price will vary based on prices from your wholesaler and your markup, but this gives you a general idea of price.
Now, let’s move onto the hanging portion of this foam free floral installation.
I wanted to hang the Oshun pouch from the corner of the table so that it would offset the vase arrangement and define the sign-table from further away where guests would enter the room.
I could have wrapped zip ties around the pouch and hung it, but after designing in the vessel and having two flowers shift around a bit, I opted for a double chicken wire wrap to add some depth and structural support for the flower stems.
Fighting gravity is hard work for flowers no matter what type of mechanic is in use! So, I played it safe here.
The pouch did drip quite a bit while I was wrapping the chicken wire around it. I had a towel underneath and you can see in the video below that it left some stains.
Floristry is dirty work so that didn’t faze me one bit.
I do recommend having some towels handy to keep your work surfaces clean, especially if you are like me, a florist working on your kitchen counter!
Next I simply zip tied the chicken wire wrapped Oshun pouch to the metal portion of the table. It wasn’t mushy like a foam block wrapped the same way and I felt like it was secure. I think hanging these from a tall structure would be even easier than foam!
It didn’t drip much at all while I hung it with the zip ties either. That’s probably because I wrapped it in chicken wire so I didn’t squeeze the pouch at all during the hanging process, but I was happily surprised with the minimal drip.
Then, I just started designing. Piercing the pouch with greenery stems was fun and easy! I moved on to my flowers and I did pre-poke the outer layer of the Oshun pouch a few times for the thicker sunflower stems. I’m happy to report that method worked fine!
Here’s a quick video of the hanging portion of this foam free floral install coming together.
I had pre-determined that I wanted to use full bunches of my locally grown flowers for this installation so calculating my recipe was easy for the hanging portion of this design. I just used everything that was left over after my vase arrangement was complete!
Here’s the recipe for this beautiful foam free floral installation that adds so much more depth and interest to the sign-in table than just the container arrangement!
1 Oshun Pouch $6.95
1 Piece of chicken wire and 3 zip ties $2.00
6 Stems greenery $5.94
2 Sunflowers $5.96
1 Sunflower $1.00 (from the mixed bunch with the lisianthus)
6 Dahlias $22.90 (1 bloom broke so I placed it on the table next to the candle. Why not, right?)
9 Basil stems 5.40
Total Cost: $50.15
Retail Price for this floral design:
At a 3X markup $155
At a 4X markup $205
At a 5X markup $260
So, rather than price them individually for the client, I’d price the entire table as one foam free floral installation and it would retail at:
At a 3X markup $305
At a 4X markup $405
At a 5X markup $500
How long did it take to calculate the cost and retail prices of these floral designs, you ask?
I timed myself. It took me 5 minutes to calculate all the flower math above including the retail prices at 3 different markups.
That’s super-fast, right? It’s because I use EveryStem florist software to price my floral designs.
I logged into EveryStem created a new event, added my flowers, and entered my quantities. I started with a 3X markup. The system automatically provided me the retail price for each design and I rounded up to a nice whole number to get my quoted price. I call the price I am charging my client the quoted price.
Then I clicked on my Event Details button and changed the markup from 3X to 4X. The software program calculated my new retail prices within seconds and I did the same for a 5X markup. I rounded up a bit each time and my pricing work was done in a matter of minutes!
It’s so easy to price your flower recipes with EveryStem florist software! I absolutely love using it for my event work.
If you’re an EveryStem member go ahead and login now. Save these recipes in a new event, so you’ll have them to reference or use for a client in the future!
And, if you’re not an EveryStem member yet and you need a solution for pricing and ordering your event flowers, I recommend you watch a few of our Tip Tuesday videos to learn about how helpful EveryStem florist software is for designers who need to quickly price and order flowers for a profit!
Now, back to testing of our new mechanic the Oshun pouch!
I made these designs on a Friday morning. Then, I just observed them to see how well the flowers held up in the pouches. The conditions are hot here in Texas and I’d say it was around 80 to 81 degrees in the room that day.
The Oshun pouch is designed for same-day installs and event design work. It’s not made for daily orders or designs made a few days ahead of an event. So, I’d say it did as promised for the day.
I’m giving the Oshun pouch a solid B rating and here’s why!
This is how I personally felt the Oshun pouch performed on some important factors.
Ease of Use:
A+ - The Oshun pouch was easy to use. Poke 10 holes on each side, submerge in water and 5 to 10 minutes later it is ready to go. So, if you are building an install and need to add another pouch to your arch it would be super easy to soak one quickly and add it to your structure.
Drip Factor:
A+ - I was pleasantly surprised that the drips from the Oshun pouch were minimal in my experience. I did wrap it in chicken wire to give it more depth to help the flowers fight the force of gravity in the hanging portion of my foam free floral installation. This may have played a role in the amount of drip, but the pouch only let a few drops of water escape while I was designing and after that I didn’t see a single drip for the next 24 hours. Loved it!
Mess Factor:
B+ - The organic material inside of the Oshun pouch is a dark almost black compost. So, it did stain the towel I used to prep the pouch with chicken wire. You know that floristry is dirty work. So, always have towels handy! It wasn’t anything as bad as cleaning up the broken, wet, spongey pieces of floral foam that rain down when using that stuff, so I’m giving it a solid grade here.
If you want to work clean, pre-wrap the pouches in your studio before you go on-site to a venue. I’ve met some very particular venue owners who’ve voiced concern about their floors getting stained, so it’s best to avoid that type of issue by prepping before you arrive.
Pro Tip: Always bring a tarp to work on too. It shows the venue that you are considerate. You’ll save time with clean up and win big points! Florists who work clean get recommended by venues.
Hang-ability:
A+ - Oshun pouch was super easy to hang. So much easier than floral foam which breaks down in your hand if you push too hard even when wrapped in chicken wire. The outer membrane didn’t allow any of the organic material to spill out of the small holes either. That’s a win, right there!
Flower Water Uptake:
B- - I’ve seen a lot of people share the design portion of their experience with the Oshun pouch, but frankly I haven’t seen much honest feedback about how the medium allows water into the flower stems or keeps them hydrated.
I did see one test by floral educator Rene Tucci that you can check out on Instagram. Her daily reports of how flowers lasted in water, floral foam, agrawool and the Oshun pouch are in the comments of her post and I think you’ll find it very helpful. So, check it out…after you finish reading my review of course! Wink, wink.:)
The organic material inside the pouch is granular and although it absorbs a lot of water I think the transfer of that water into the flower stems is less than what I expected and less than floral foam.
Here’s the kicker. Floral foam is what we are trying to avoid because it is toxic, so comparing it to foam may not be completely fair.
Compared to water tubes, I think water uptake is about the same. So, I’m giving it a B- because it’s just ok. I hope this aspect of the product can be developed further so it can be improved in the future.
Flower Longevity:
C – The Oshun pouch is clearly labeled for same day use, but I did see a few flowers starting to fade within a few hours. I finished the design at noon and at 3:00 pm I first noticed the fading blooms. In these side-by-side photos above you can see both the tallest stem of basil and the sunflower are starting to droop a bit. In the top right photo you can see the sunflower leaning onto the lisianthus and the basil fading fast. Not ideal because only 3 hours had gone by.
Most people would not even notice these slightly droopy flowers if this was at an event, but I noticed. And, honestly I was a little disappointed because the bowl still had about an inch of standing water in it at the time.
I wonder if it’s the granular nature of the organic material inside the pouch that doesn’t quite offer as much water supply to the cut end of the flower stems?
The consistency is basically moist dirt. So the flowers need to work a bit to take up the water. This is where more testing comes into play.
If you want to use the Oshun pouches for events or weddings testing different flowers and how they hold up in the pouch is going to help you determine which flowers you use. This is suggested on the product website and I appreciate how honest they are about the capabilities of the product.
I thought the sunflower and basil would hold up longer than the dahlias and lisisanthus, but it was exactly the opposite. The yellow dahlias and lisianthus held up best over the 24-hour period of observation.
Even with 15 years of floral experience it is hard for me to predict which flowers will hold up best!
Rate of Evaporation:
B - The Oshun pouch held a lot of water for the period it is intended and that is what matters most.
Most of the water was absorbed out of the pouch by the flowers over the 24-hour period. This is what the pouch is intended to do, so I was very pleased with that.
I know how much water flowers require to stay rigid and firm and if I had added more water to the bowl that afternoon they may have lasted longer, but I purposely wanted to test it without adding more water in this experiment.
The arrangement held its overall shape well. After I removed the flowers from the pouch I took a couple photos. The pouch absorbed all the water in the bowl and you can see that the organic material inside the pouch is quite dry at this point. I think that means it transferred as much water as it possibly could into the flower stems. So, I rated it a solid B.
In my florist dreams either a larger pouch or improved inner material would allow for more water to be absorbed into the stems so they would be fully hydrated and the pouch would still have a little moisture left behind after 24 hours.
Reusability:
B - I flipped over the pouch in the container after removing all the flowers. The underside looked completely unused. When I poured some more water into the vase some of the inner material was coming out, but I think if you wrapped this in a compostable bag and used it for another event soon after you could potentially get two uses out of it.
Overall Rating for the Oshun Pouch: B
I have to say first experience with Oshun pouch was a success!
Keeping in mind that this product is intended for day of use only, it delivered on its promise. I’m excited to continue experimenting with it too.
A few ideas I’d like to try in the future with the Oshun pouch are:
Doubling up on the pouches to create more depth and support. That way some flowers could be placed in the bottom pouch and some in the top pouch offering more water to each stem.
And, adding an outer layer of wet moss to offer more moisture to the pouch and the flowers at the same time.
No matter if it’s water, foam, or another medium a few flowers are bound to wilt and that is why a few extra blooms are always a must have at your events.
EveryStem florist software allows you to easily see how many extra flowers you’ll have for each event as you build your recipes.
It also includes the cost of those flowers as it automatically calculates your profit margin. EveryStem is the only affordable software that helps you quickly and accurately price and order your flowers. Plus, you know you’ll be covered when you need to pop in a few replacement blooms here and there to please your clients.
If you found this review of the Oshun pouch helpful, please share it with your flower friends!
I’m obsessed with fresh perky flowers and being eco-friendly so I will continue to experiment with the Oshun pouch and other mediums. I’ll keep sharing my findings and new flower recipes with you here on the blog.
Until next time,
LuAnn