by Shailesh Ingale

JOURN 150 – Spring 2000

Cassie Strombeck holds the stem of a purple cushion spray chrysanthemum between the blades of a pair of scissors. She inspects the flower, checking its height by holding it against the drinking glass she uses as a vase. She gently squeezes the scissor blades between her hands. Snap! The inch-long stump falls to the counter below. Cassie carefully puts the chrysanthemum into the glass where it perfectly fits into the sea of purple chrysanthemums, white carnations, and green leather leafs she has arranged.

Directly to Cassie’s left, Na’imah Abdullah uses the same purple chrysanthemums to make a crescent, a simple expressive floral design characterized by its shape; that of a crescent. She cuts the stems of the flowers very short and pushes them into a piece of floral foam, a small green sponge-like foam that makes it easier to make floral arrangements. Four purple chrysanthemums are lined up in the bottom of the arrangement, with the middle two being slightly lower than the others. On the left side, a tall green strand of Asparagus fern rises three inches and curves slightly toward the right, completing the crescent ‘C’ shape that is desired. In the middle of the crescent sits a single yellow Calla Lily.

This is the typical scene in Dianne Noland’s NRES 107: Introduction to Floral Design class, where students of all majors come to bloom as florists.

“The main goal of this class is to be able to express yourself,” says Noland as she examines one of her own bouquets. “I hope they appreciate what flowers do for their souls.”

Its 8 a.m. on this Thursday morning as approximately 30 of Noland’s students work on their respective bouquets, which will be graded at the end of the class period. Noland, wearing a simple combination of a t-shirt and jeans, hastily strides about the room, advising and joking with her students.

“This arrangement is very nice,” Dianne tells the creator of a vibrant bouquet of bright yellow sunflowers and green filler. “But it suffers from being flower deprived,” a term Noland created describing arrangements with too many flowers.

In the background, Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” blares from an audiotape of the 1996 ACES Open House. Noland plays music to help relax her students.

“This should be advice for all of you,” she jokes to the class. “Don’t worry, be happy!”

The classroom, which Noland decorated, is indicative of her teaching style: very lively and vibrant. The ceiling is draped with a grape vine running almost the entire room like a brown snake slithering across the otherwise drab ceiling tiles. From the vines hang a variety of dried flowers. A hint of their original colors seems to somehow magically show through the flowers’ brown shriveled bodies. The sides of the classroom are lined with cabinets that hold unused pots, wicker baskets and vases. In the front left of the room, a few students congregate by three refrigerators, where the class’ flower supply is preserved in large plastic buckets.

Noland continues going around the room critiquing floral arrangements. “Oooh, this is a really nice arrangement,” she tells one of the few males in the class, who made his arrangement of yellow sunflowers, long white snapdragons, and red tulips in a Guinness beer glass. “And it’s just perfect in that container. You always like an arrangement in an alcoholic beverage container. It reminds you you’re on campus.”

Every semester roughly 90 university students register for NRES 107. Most of them, like Cassie, are interested in flowers and want to learn more.

“It’s a really relaxing thing for me,” says Cassie, a senior who is taking the class because she wants to learn about flowers and now finds working with them to be therapeutic. “I thought it would be easy but you actually do learn about how to arrange flowers and take care of them.”

Others, who take the class as an easy elective or one that fits in their schedule, seem to benefit from it too, however.

“Its not just putting flowers here and there,” says Shawn Bubin, a freshman in sports management who took the class because it seemed like an easy elective. “Its an art form.”

While floral arrangement may be a hobby or passing interest for some, it is the realization of a lifelong dream for Noland. As a child she became aware of flowers and bouquets at age five. At age 11 she began to learn about floral arranging, reading most of what she learned out of how-to books.

“I always wanted to do this,” she comments.

Her passion for flowers remained through high school and college, and upon graduation she began to teach NRES 107 in the fall 1980 semester. Today she continues for teach the very same class, where she has been selected as an outstanding instructor by students every semester. In addition to NRES 107, Noland teaches six other classes, all of them pertaining to flower arrangement and preservation.

With such a high level of enthusiasm for floral arrangement, Noland’s passion continually rubs on her students, who consider her to be one of their best instructors in the university.

“She tries to make us learn while keeping it real light,” says Karen Engberg, a senior in Physiology.

Other students find that although the class is fun and informative, it has led to a series of side problems in their lives.

“I like the class,” says Na’imah, a freshman who took the class because of her interest in agriculture. “All my friends want me to make arrangements for them now.”