How to Arrange Flowers Like a Florist at Home
May 12, 2017
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Easy tips for creating a gorgeous floral arrangement at home!
If you love having fresh flowers in the house, these tips will help you create gorgeous centerpiece.
I attended a flower arranging class at a local winery with a friend and it was such a good time!
I love arranging flowers but by no means consider myself an expert. I'm always willing to gain more knowledge about the process. And I learned a ton!
It was so informative and fun -- such a great night out! Our instructor shared some easy flower arranging tips and I'll share more of that below.
When I add greenery to an arrangement I tend to wait till the end. The florist showed us how using them as a base really brings the arrangement to a new level.
We started with a base of greens that look like boxwood:
I believe she called this husk but I can't find info online so I may have gotten that wrong. It's a pretty leafy green plant with delicate white flowers.
She showed us how to "lace" your greenery to start. I've never heard of this or seen it, although I do tend to do it with my flowers at times and didn't realize what I was doing.
It's brilliant though -- you can trim down your stems a bit till you have sections that "V" -- so that you can start putting the stems through each other:
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It's hard to see here but it kind of locks them together.
You just keep lacing the stems in with each other and then trim them down before placing inside the vase. They create a spot for everything else to fit into as well.
It gives your arrangement a pretty base to start with and I loved it.
They also shared the importance of good floral snips to cut stems at a 45-degree angle:
We all hung our heads when she said to never use scissors to cut flowers. 😂
Our instructor mentioned that they are rarely sharp enough and tend to close off your stems.
A clean cut will leave them more open for water.
I immediately went home and ordered these floral snips to try at home. I'm excited to try them.
Once your base is set you use that to continue to "lace" the other greenery and flowers into that.
At the end it will be so full it may be hard to get more in there! It creates a tight base that just looks nicer in glass vases and is helpful for another reason that I'll share in a bit.
We started with the larger flowers and she emphasized the importance of threes in floral arranging. Just like in decor!
We used three of each one to start and because it was so fun, most of us had a hard time stopping and ended up adding more. But in general, odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye.
Here's what her arrangement looked like for us to use as an example:
Gorgeous right? The colors were STUNNING.
These brighter hues aren't normally something I would gravitate too but I loved them and plan to use this combo more.
This is how mine turned out!:
I am so pleased with it. Aren't the colors amazing?
Here's a list of what we used in our floral arrangements...
These were the base and filler that added texture and fullness:
- Husk (boxwood looking greenery)
- I must have written the delicate little greenery down wrong -- I thought she said Bopernum but I can't find it online either! It's this dainty greenery (the ones sticking up) with lily pad looking leaves and small little blooms. I am obsessed with it.
- Green trick dianthus -- it's a puffy moss ball
The filler flowers were the following:
- Tycoon rose -- beautiful (large) orange roses
- Yellow Fuji mums -- bright yellow with big heads
- Orange ranunculus -- my favorite! I've never seen orange before.
- Matsumoto aster -- the dark purple with a yellow center
- Bright pink anemones -- one of my new favorites. Love them and will be looking to plant them.
And the lacing trick worked! It allows you to easily lift the whole arrangement out of the vase to change the water:
It stayed together in a tight bunch! Awesome.
Here are some more tips she shared with us that I found interesting:
- It is important that you don't let foliage touch the water. Remove anything that will be under the waterline. I've done this for years and it helps to keep the water clean and stink-free. The leaves will rot quickly if you leave them in water.
- If you cut a flower and place it, then move it a few minutes later, she suggested to snip the end again. They seal up surprisingly fast.
- Most of the time when you get roses there are "guard" petals around the bloom. Sometimes they are discolored or torn -- these can be removed. There are only two to three on each bloom.
- Healthy rose petals should be thick (I was shocked at how thick they were!) and almost leathery. Petals that feel silky smooth won't last as long.
- Her method is greenery first, larger blooms, then smaller and then finishing up with lighter greenery as filler at the end. I always added greenery last but using it as a base makes it look so professional.
I was surprised at how much the green added to the arrangement as well.
These tips carry through to grocery store or garden flowers and some greenery clippings from your yard!
I'm excited to branch (har...branch) out a bit and try more DIY flower arrangements. Everyone who attended used the same flowers but they all looked surprisingly different...and beautiful!
We all commented on how relaxing it was to do this. It forces you to concentrate on the task at hand and of course flowers just make people happy. :)
Have you tried your hand at floral arranging? I quite enjoyed it and would definitely do a class like this again. It never hurts to have some beautiful flowers around the house!
Check out my tips on perking up wilted flowers and keeping them looking great from the start!
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The end result is so pretty! I hate to say it, but you're way better than my mother, who has taken classes for it... ha ha.
ReplyDeleteCharmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
This is beautiful! My university offered a floral arranging class as an elective and I always wanted to take it but never had the time in my schedule. This is making me wish I had made the time!
ReplyDeletexoxo, SS
www.southernandstyle.com
So pretty. I always have fresh flowers and I add greenery at the end and use scissors. Whoops!! I'll have to change that. Thx for the post. :)
ReplyDeleteHave to use these tops with my hydrangeas and iris! Thank you because I always struggle!
ReplyDeletei had no clue about the leaves below the water line. This explains so much and the ring of grime I can't remove from my vases! laura
ReplyDeleteI am ALWAYS looking for things that help me relieve stress (I hate running) and this seems like a wonderful idea! I just started a flower garden for cutting this year. It will take a few years to get real beauties like these from it, but I pinned this to come back when I am finally getting enough cut flowers to make arrangements. I am excited to be learning a lovely new hobby!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I love having fresh flowers in the house and, now, with your tips, maybe the arrangements will look more pleasing instead of a bunch of flowers stuck in a vase. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! The small greenery is a type of euphorbia. Not sure about the other one, though. Love arranging flowers, such a great way to relax and decorate!
ReplyDeleteVery pretty! You did a fabulous job! I have wanted to take a course on arranging but I haven't found one yet.
ReplyDeleteYou were so close on the name of the greenery. It is called bluperium. It is a pretty one to work with
ReplyDeleteI hosted a 60th birthday party for a friend this past Saturday and ran out Friday night to pick up flowers for it. Tried your tips and OH MY GOSH what a difference!
ReplyDelete