How to Arrange a Flower Bouquet
Arranging your own flower bouquet is not a skill exclusive to Martha Stewart. Arranging flower bouquets can be an incredibly relaxing exercise. It can also save you loads of money. Instead of buying pre-arranged bouquets, loose flowers are much more inexpensive too. Sound good? Then read on to learn how to arrange a flower bouquet.
Materials
Basket or vase
Flower foam
Flower food
Sharp knife or pruning shears
Flower tape
Push pins (optional)
Ribbon (optional)
Preparation
Choose a vase. A well-chosen vase usually helps set off the finished product much better. For a beginner, better stick to simple vases or baskets that won’t take the attention away from the flowers. A nice, solid color for the base is also great.
flower bouquet
Consider the flowers. Work with each flower’s unique features and play them off with other flowers. The lily, for example, is a tall and striking flower and works best on its own. Smaller flowers like roses and daisies, give a bigger impression in groups. The flowers’ textures, height and colors should be considered as well.
After buying your flowers from the market, don’t jump into arranging them yet. Give them time to recover by removing an inch off the tip of their stem. Cut it at an angle using a sharp knife.
Put the flowers in water that reaches up to 3/4 the stem. Add some flower food to help the flowers rejuvenate. Leave them overnight.
Slice the floral form in the dimensions that will fit the vase. It should come up at least halfway up the depth of the vase. Soak in water mixed with flower food and put in the vase.
To make the structure of the bouquet more stable, you can use floral tape to make a grid on the mouth of the vase. Tape several pieces above and across the vase’s mouth to form a grid-like configuration.
You can also use push pins to make flowers stick closer together and to make a more stable bouquet.
Start with focal flowers. Focal flowers are the main event of the bouquet, the flowers the eye falls onto first. Examples of floral flowers are roses, daisies, hydrangeas and peonies. You can mix different kinds of focal flowers for a more interesting effect.
Estimate how long the stem should remain, and cut off at an angle.
Starting from the center, insert the first flower into the floral foam. Continue by surrounding the center with flowers in a circular pattern. Remember that putting flowers in an odd number is more pleasing to the eye, as flowers typically grow in odd numbers.
Next, add the line flowers. The line flowers are put in to add more depth and interest to your bouquet. It creates a more pleasing silhouette that draws the eye in. Some examples of line flowers are delphiniums, snapdragons and gladiolas. You can choose to be symmetrical or asymmetrical in adding line flowers. Cut and attach them the same way you would with the focal flowers.
Finally, add the filler flowers. Filler flowers are usually the smallest flowers that fills in the gaps between the bigger flowers. Leaves can also be used for the same effect. Some examples of filler flowers are baby’s breath, asters and dianthus.
Add more decorations to the vase or the basket as desired, such as putting a ribbon around the base. You can also try putting plastic over the bouquet tied with a ribbon before delivering. It will look more like it was made by a professional.