So, you know how sometimes you see really beautiful flowers in the local farmer’s market or supermarket, but you don’t know how to combine them together to make a gorgeous bouquet like the florists do? For a long time, I was wondering how florists knew how to integrate flowers to create eye catching floral arrangements. I used to watch them combine the flowers I chose at the local nursery, but had a hard time recreating similar arrangements on my own at home. Then about a week ago, I saw a florist at a local market here in Israel (Carmel market) use a large clear vase (instead of laying the flowers on the table) to create a flower arrangement working her way from the outside inwards. When trying the method at home, I realized it’s the easiest and friendliest flower arrangement method I’ve seen for non-professionals such as myself.
Here’s what you’ll need:
(BTW, if you’re not sure you know what the following flowers look like, just run the name in the pinterest search tab online)
- One pack of “centerpiece” flowers. Centerpiece flowers are the dominant element in your arrangement, so I like choosing a relatively large/impressive flower such as lilies and Gladiolus. In this tutorial I chose Lilies.
- One-two “Filler” flower packs. Here I like choosing at least one pack of small, unassuming flowers. In this tutorial I chose white Yarrow and yellow Solidago, but any small flower will do.
- Green leaves of your choice. I like Eucalyptus leaves, Israeli Ruscus, and Leatherleaf Fern. In this tutorial, I chose Israeli Ruscus.
- Optional- one pack of medium sized flowers, such as Lisianthus or Snapdragon. I didn’t add them in this tutorial, but they’ll definitely add color and texture.
First, lay your flower packs on your kitchen table.
Step 1: Choose one of the lead flowers and place it in the vase. If it’s too long, cut it so sits in the vase without tipping over.
Now use this flower’s height as a reference for cutting all the rest of the flowers and greens. Remove any extra leaves on the flowers/greens that are below the top of the vase (you don’t want them sitting and decaying from the exposure to water).
Divide your greens into two piles. I had about 10 leaves, so I placed 5 leaves the vase like this (uneven numbers work best here).
Step 2: Take your filler flowers, and place one filler flower between each two green leaves.
Step 3: I had two different colors of filler flowers (white and yellow), so I added a second round of yellow filler flowers in between every two white filler flowers. Remember- we’re working from the outside inwards, so place them closer to the center of the vase.
Step 4: Now add your centerpiece flowers between each two yellow flowers.
You’ve completed round 1! If you have more flowers and greens, repeat steps 1-4, working from the outside inwards. For example- I had 5 greens I used in the beginning, and was left with 5 additional greens, so I started the process again adding greens right after adding the centerpiece flowers. It’s a good idea to have a few extra greens to add randomly across the arrangement at the end.
Here’s the final result:
I love how this flower arrangement turned out, and it was super intuitive and easy to assemble.
I’ve seen a lot of people add bleach or sugar to their flowers, supposedly to keep them alive longer. Neither method has worked for me in the past. I find that the best is simply to replace the water in the vase every day, and after 2-3 days I also like trimming the ends a bit diagonally.
I hope you find this tutorial helpful!
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