1. Pick your flowers – When picking flowers, I always look at having a good balance of scale and texture. You want a couple different kinds of greenery – a few substantial leaves, and something more lightweight and feathered. Then grab a statement flower, which might be larger in size, to be the main attraction. My next choice is two fillers that are smaller than the statement flower – usually a stem with multiple blooms (like wax flower, snapdragons, lisianthus, etc.), and a berry or seed of some sort. This assortment is a great starting point for any arrangement.
Tip: The flowers pictured were from King Soopers Fresh and selected based on maintaining a tonal color palette.
2. Prep your flowers – As soon as you arrive home, be sure to prep your flowers before arranging. This means removing all packaging and rubber bands, and stripping the stems of all leaves below the area that will be visible outside of the vase. This is important as leaves in water will cause premature rot, which will shorten the lifespan of your arrangement. Clip your stems at least an inch from the bottom using a diagonal cut to assist in water absorption. I always place these right away into a temporary large vase or floral bucket to keep the stems in water as long as possible.
3. Tape your grid – Once your leaves are removed, I always tape a grid on top of the vase as pictured below. This will help your flowers stay in the quadrant you placed them, giving you more design freedom without needing to fill your vase up quickly to keep the flowers in place.
4. Start with your greenery – I always start with my greenery as this will create the shape of the canvas that your flowers will paint. This will also determine whether you want a one-sided or a 360 arrangement. Also determine whether you want a little more drama in one quadrant of your arrangement and layer up the greenery in that spot.
Tip: I use a Lazy Susan from IKEA for my 360 arrangements so I can continually spin as I arrange.
5. Layer in flowers – It is now time to select your locations for your show stopping flowers. I always look at height variation so pick a spot up high and one down low. Also, think in odd numbers to create good balance and adhere to design principles.
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