Coronavirus, as for many, has necessitated the rethinking of my business model and what I can offer to my clients.
It’s meant muddling through and continuing to struggle at times, but it has also provided the opportunity for growth – pushing me out of my introverted comfort zone; connecting with more businesses, more people, adapting my skill set…hustling!!
One new addition has been a web shop, offering luxury flowers for customers to enjoy in their homes.
Another first (bar the odd Instagram caption) is sharing my thoughts in public…and so here you are reading my first ever blog post…Hello!
With my introduction out of the way, I would like to share with you five tips for arranging flowers at home.
1. Flower prep and care
On receiving or purchasing your flowers, take care to remove all packaging as soon as is possible.
Remove the lower leaves of the flowers (this will most likely have already been done for you and is one of the perks with a pre-arranged bouquet). The reason for this is, any leaves under water will add bacteria to the water that your flowers are drinking from, shortening their vase life.
When you’re ready to position your flowers, cut all stems at an angle before plunging into cool water. Cutting your stems at an angle gives them a larger surface area to absorb water.
2. Choosing your vase
One of the most common faux-pas I see with flower arranging is where too big a vase has been used. My two cents are - whichever sized vase you may think you need, you most likely need to go smaller!
The key is to go for a vase with a relative neck size to your bouquet (or number of stems).
Too big a neck and your flowers will splay unintentionally creating a sort of crown effect with no flowers in the middle and nothing standing sprightly.
Too tight a neck and you’ll lose the ability to arrange any kind of shape and organic feel – everything will stand too firm and upright.
Take the above photo as an example – tall stems, and few of them, require a smallish neck so that they can stand tall and proud. As you can see, the vase itself is relatively small.
The key is always in the neck…Go smaller than you think…
3. Create a Grid
You may have seen florists using chicken wire or tape to create a grid that facilitates the desired shape. With the right vase size, you can also have control over your arrangements using the stems themselves to create a grid.
With your initial stems, place them so that they cross each other. Your first stems will lean against the neck of your vase. Continue criss-crossing your stems as you place them, creating a grid formation.
At a certain point your grid will be strong enough to hold stems at different angles i.e. not just how they wish to fall. Play with the different angles and positions you can place your flowers at, now that you have this grid. I like to place my grid flowers low and short and finish with taller more pronounced stems.
4. Style considerations
For a Still Life Flowers take on your arrangement try the following steps:
Cut mostly shorter stems for your initial grid-forming-flowers, taking care not to arrange two flowers at exactly the same length next to one another. You want to group your flowers without creating a flat surface area.
Start building with middle length stems, still working with shorter ones to add points of depth throughout your arrangement. Think about your flowers moving in and out, creating an irregular and exaggerated shape rather than a round smooth shape.
Now that you have a strong grid, build height with taller stems in two thirds of your arrangement.
Finish your flower arrangement by adding your tallest stem(s) in the other one third.
The overall finish should feel airy and asymmetric.
5. Secret mechanics
My last tip is for those who have a vase with a perfect neck size but the height of the vase is just too tall for the stems that you are working with. This tip is really only for ceramic vases or opaque options that you can’t see the mechanics through.
Really quick and simple – scrunch up the cellophane that your flowers came in and pad out the bottom of the vase. You can achieve the same thing by using marbles or pebbles, which can be a good idea especially for otherwise lightweight vases that might topple with taller stems. When you’ve done this, apply the same steps as above and your flowers will sing….remember to keep your water topped up high whilst your stems don’t reach the bottom of the vase.
You can use these tips to arrange any of our flowers available on our Shop, please visit our range for collection here…and remember, in these hot summer months to keep your flowers out of direct sunlight for the best possible vase life.
