Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
pink_overalls

Ever frozen flowers in ice for a centerpiece?

pink_overalls
16 years ago

I volunteered to handle the June luncheon for my garden club. It'll be at a local restaurant, but I need to provide individual favors and centerpieces for 9 or 10 tables. I've chosen as a theme "Have a cool summer," since we don't meet during July and August. The favors will be paddle-style hand fans.

For centerpieces, I wanted to freeze blossoms in a cylinder of ice, maybe placing a small fern instead of a candle in a cavity of frozen distilled water. I've seen directions on HGTV's website for making a ice luminaries, but I'd like to know if anyone has tried this with success.

I'd probably use 1/2-gallon cardboard milk containers for the outer mold, and 1-quart milk containers for the inner cavity. I can start freezing some with pansies now, and as things bloom -- daffodills, azaleas, roses -- freeze them into molds, so that by June, I'd have a garden on ice in my crowded freezer!

Am I crazy to even try?

Comments (6)

  • lindac
    16 years ago

    Yeah I did...years ago..
    If I were doing it now, I would do the luminaries...the candle light through the ice with the flowers is awesome.
    I would use gallon milk jugs and 1/2 gallon jugs inside....and I would seriously give thought to using silk flowers...And think of suspending sparkles....that big snow flake glitter stuff.
    The trick to the whole thing is getting the stuff suspending in the ice...
    I wandered about using water thickened with gelatin....would it freeze and be clear?...sure would be easier to work with!
    Linda C

  • triciae
    16 years ago

    Would the crystal water gel thingies be easier to work with??? I've not tried it but they've always looked easy to work with.

    /tricia

    Here is a link that might be useful: Crystal Water Gel Thingies...

  • neesie
    15 years ago

    I've made a ice-bowl or three in my time! It's basically the same plan as the luminaries but you use a large and small bowl instead. I used tupperware and took my chances on it cracking (it didn't). I had to use duct tape to keep the smaller bowl centered in the water because it wanted to keep moving. Also used silk flowers to match the occaision. Because of their bulk they didn't have a lot of room to move around during the freezing process. I would have loved to put in some kind of berry but they would have sunk to the bottom. Anyway, each time it turned out beautiful. You have to remember to remove it from the freezer allowing enough time for it to thaw out of it's container. It is NOT recommended to run water over it for fear of cracking. A half hour was enough for my bowl. Then I set it on a folded square of paper towel on top of a beautiful crystal cake stand. One time I had cut fruit in the bowl and the other two times I had shrimp cocktail.

    The bottom layer of fruit had problems sticking to the ice bowl. So when I did the shrimp cocktail I cut a round piece of wax paper for the very bottom of the bowl, which helped. Easy to do and oh so many compliments!

    You can also unmold it way ahead of time as a precaution and then just return to the freezer without the mold. I did!

  • FLYONAWALL
    15 years ago

    Question....when you make these and put a candle in them, don't they melt? And how long do they last before they are a big puddle of water on your table? I've always wanted to try these but worried about how long they'd last.
    Bree

  • neesie
    15 years ago

    The only luminaries I've seen made out of ice were outside in the winter. They looked fantastic, and here in the frozen north they can last for months as long as you'd replace the candles.

  • ilovepink
    15 years ago

    Do a test drive on this before the day. I did them years ago for a party in coffee cans. I had to learn the hard way how to freeze them so they would be flat and also my water that I had in the faucet was cloudy. I had to buy purified water and there was a certain one that worked better than another.

    Freezing items in ice is the easy part! Believe me!