Funtime Magic (Sam Dahal)of Calcutta , India has started making spring flower bouquets with all RED or all WHITE blossoms, with extra all GREEN leaves , as was advised by the classic magicians such as DeKolta (the inventor of Spring Flowers) and David Devant. The extra green foliage gives a more realistic appearance , from a stage distance. (even closer up the extra greenery improves the appearance of the flowers.). Funtime Magic does not sell directly to the public, so their products are distributed in the U.S.A. by EZ Magic/D.Robbins. Any magic dealer should be able to order these flowers for you from EZ Magic/D.Robbins. Much nicer looking than the garish multi-colored blooms , especially the mylar "flowers".

Here is a video showing these flowers in use with Funtime's "Flower Basket" apparatus, but you can use these apart from the Flower Basket , either as bouquet or as loose flowers produced from a rolled up paper cone that is shown empty, then overflows with flowers ...sprinkle some flower seeds into the cone and add some "Quik-Grow" liquid via the old reliable milk pitcher or a milk tumbler,then with a magical pass, flowers spill forth from the cone, filling up a wire basket held by an assistant or on the floor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0nS7Stvd8


Spring Flowers # 25 – Red (FT) Item #: 22207
https://www.ezmagicrobbins.com/shop/item......-red-ft/

Spring Flowers # 25 – White (FT) Item #: 22208
https://www.ezmagicrobbins.com/shop/item......5-white/







Make a "poor man's Botania" , by having a bunch of these flowers appear in a real flower pot that is briefly covered by a cardboard or paper cone.




(There is also a great routine in Hen Fetsch's book "Milk Pitcher Magic" called FLASH FLOWERS -

"Into a decorative flower pot are put a few seeds. Over the seeds is "poured" a magical Quick-Grow vitamin liquid. A burning match is removed from the sleeve and dropped into the pot. Immediately there is a bright flash, which represents concentrated sunlight, and a beautiful flower bouquet appears in mid-air.

Presentation — With the pot in your left hand, put in the seeds and "pour" on the Quick-Grow vitamin liquid (really slightly watered-down "OOM" from the old faithful milk pitcher or milk tumbler) Remove the burning match from your sleeve with your right hand and light the fl_ _ h p _ _ er in the pot. As it ignites in a bright flash give the pot a quick upward motion which brings the flowers into view in mid-air. Show the pot empty. Put the bouquet into the pot during the applause.")


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Here is David Devant’s advice on using Spring Flowers:

"Spring flowers, surely the most misused articles in the whole gamut of a conjurer's apparatus, when in doubt the conjurer seems to produce a hundred bedraggled spring flowers, in the wrong places and under the wrong circumstances.

Bautier De Kolta the inventor of these flowers, twisted a piece of paper into a cornucopia and spring flowers flowed out of it until they filled an inverted sunshade (parasol) to overflowing. By the way, before I go any further, Bautier made every flower himself and he made them not of the watch spring as now, but of "thin" steel wire which took up much less room. It seems to me that the flowers are never used lavishly enough, it wants at least two thousand to make a show, but you seldom see a performer produce so many, but of course this is a big load. I had a method which arranged for that, but before I tell you this method I have another grouse to make. I had used these flowers for years and never realizing they look most unlike flowers, they look more like the paper decorations which are strung together for Christmas time. I was producing a Chinese act when I noticed this, and what I did was as follows:


I had all the flowers dyed green so that they represented foliage only and then I added one flower representing a white or red rose one for every nine leaves of foliage; there you had the natural effect at once, a green mass jeweled with flowers. The flowers may be all one color or a couple of colors, and should look as much like roses as possible. I beg of you all who are using these flowers to copy this method and I am sure you will be pleased with the result."

-David Devant


.

Wait for it...wait for it...

That's spectacular.

I'm also quite fond of Dani Lary's act "The Magical Gardener" where hundreds (thousands?) of flowers appear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aleiI3OY5Pw



(the set up time and reset time must be insane, even if you have several assistants helping)

Yes. But as Ade Duval noted, the reset keeps it unique as most other performers don't have the patience for the reset.

One of my pet peeves over the years -- and this applies to magic as well as to theatrical design -- is how often people make up things without researching what they look like in real life. In theatre, you see castles, caves, mansions, furniture, and all kinds of props that look like what somebody "thought they looked like" instead of what they really do. It can be very distracting and break the flow of the story.

If I were to use flowers in a show, I would spend some serious time researching ones that went with the show and then make them up to look correct. Sure producing a thousand spring flowers at a time can be impressive, but do they come across as real flowers or as just a lot of colorful thingies?