Rabu, 13 Januari 2010

Flower Arranging 101

**Crap. This was supposed to be Wednesday's post but I accidentally posted it early. Sorry!**



Have you ever seen those mixed flower bouquets at the grocery store and wondered how anyone could make them look pretty in a vase? Well, I have a wonderful post today to teach you exactly how to make a generic bouquet look like something you bought at a florist!


First of all you need some flowers. I got mine at Trader Joes, but any grocery store will have them.




And from above:



Aren't those lovely?

Next we need a vase. I use a circle 'fishbowl' vase I got at Target for under 10 bucks. You can also use this method with a square vase. Make sure you have a bit of water in it, but not too full, because if you need to rearrange, things could get really messy very quickly.



Next take off the plastic wrappings from the bouquet and snip off any ribbon or rubber bands. If the flowers come with a package of flower food, add it to the vase water now.



Next, separate your bouquet by flowers:



Now, find the flowers in your bouquet that have many flowers on one stem such as daises, carnations, or mums. I used this funny chartreuse flower. Then cut them down so they are sticking out of the vase about 2 inches and place them around the inside of the rim of the vase as so:



From the top:


From the side:


The reason I start with these flowers is to create a natural base that will help support the other flowers. If you started with the roses, they would just fall to the sides of the vase- you could never get them to point up. But with a base of other flowers, you can weave the stem of larger flowers in the web created by these flowers to help give the arrangement structure.

Next I went with the hydrangea:



The hydrangea has a large head of flowers on it and should just rise above the top of the vase.

Next the roses:



To give the arrangement more of a casual feel, I placed all three roses together in a bunch. It looked odd, but I knew when I added the other flowers, it would all come together.

Next I added the fuchsia colored flowers- also in a bunch:



Then, to tie everything together, I added the carnations, in bunches, all over the rest of the arrangement:



As for the rest of the flowers that came with the bouquet, I just tossed the ones I didn't want to use, and put the others in their own vases grouped by flower.

Once you are satisfied with your arrangement, be sure to add more water. You can use the greens provided by the bouquet to hide the stems by stuffing them inside the vase, but it will dirty the water fairly quickly.

Here is the finished product on the table:



So the key is to cut the stems short, use one type of flower as the base to create a web on which the other flowers will use to help support them, and cluster your flowers within the arrangement. Oh, and remember, you DONT have to use the entire bouquet.

Good luck!

Be sure to send me pictures of your arrangements to : TheGlamorousHousewife@gmail.com

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