Flower arrangements are a staple in our home. One of my favorite things to do to make my home look more welcoming and beautiful is to create an amazing flower bouquet. To me, it is an art and one I am happy to share with you today.
by: Elizabeth
I have been making bouquets for my home every other week for about five years now, and they never get old. There is something romantic about having a gorgeous bouquet of fresh flowers in your home. It is something I consider to be a type of artform, as well as, a therapeutic hobby that you can enjoy for a full two weeks depending on the freshness and care of the flowers.
Sometimes the flowers come from my husband for a surprise or holiday, but most of the time, my flowers come from my grocery shopping expeditions. No, not everytime I go to the grocery store, but when I spot really beautiful, eye-catching flowers.
When I grew up in Virginia, it was common that in the spring, you would find fresh flowers from our garden within our home. Ever since then, I associate a pleasant home with fond memories of picking fresh flowers and gardening with my loved ones. Many people believe that cutting flowers is bad for the environment and it is a giant industry, but that does not stop me from respecting them and making them part of my home.
When I look for flowers that are eye-catching, I do not have a typical favorite or even favorite color. I tend to pick flowers based on my mood or the time of year or even a specific occasion. My most recent grocery shopping trip was to our newly opened Trader Joes. Now, I knew they always had fresh, inexpensive flowers, but I was surprised that many of them were already wilting. Beautiful, but already beginning to be in their final stages of usability.
While most people will turn away from this, I know that they can be brought to life with fresh water, and flower food. I also have a couple of tricks up my sleeve to make certain flowers look alive and beautiful again, and I am here to show you just how I do that and create an amazing bouquet while we are at it.
Pick Flowers That Speak to You
It sounds super corny, but I always rely on my mood to pick flowers. Again, sometimes that is for a holiday, special event, or just because I need a dose of happiness in my home, but I always pick something that catches my eye. For this trip, I saw these gorgeous blush roses. They were a color I had not seen in standard roses; mostly in peonies. However, they were wilting, but I knew just the trick to keep them fresh and make them look even more special.
The other flowers I chose were white delphinium. Now, these flowers come in many colors, but I wanted a light, fresh arrangement. The reason I picked this flower with the roses is that they help give the arrangement a different kind of depth. Tall white flowers with blush roses nestled within them. For some reason, this just spoke to me.
Always Get Greenery to Accompany Your Arrangement
This is one of the most underrated things that you can do to ensure your flower arrangement is epic and professional. Most people pass by the greenery or rely on the leaves on the flowers to give that pop, but to truly get a variance of color and texture, you should always pick greenery to accompany your flowers.
For this arrangement, I wanted something more structured and eclectic since the flowers were more traditional. I am not certain what these are, but they are some form of branch that came from a bush. There was not much grooming that needed to be done with these which pleased me just fine. The only downside I found was later in the water, they turned the water a vibrant green color, but that is ok.
Always Take the Leave Off and Use Varying Lengths
I actually learned this trick from my mother-in-law. She is from England and her mother and she always picked fresh flowers from their English garden. I can only imagine what it was like to be in that garden. She tells me it was beautiful. One day, I cannot remember when my mother and I were putting an arrangement together for my home, and I just started putting them into the vase.
She stopped me and said that the best arrangements you vary the stem length of the flowers so they are at different heights. I thought that was weird, but when I thought about it, you do see that with natural professional arrangements. So I did it, and I have been doing it ever since. She also taught me that the leaves of the flower can take up needed space in the vase, so you want to take the majority of them off and leave the freshest and most perfect leaves on the flower. Genius!
Customize Your Flowers When Appropriate
While I try to maintain the integrity and natural beauty of the flower, in some instances, it is necessary to make sure the flowers are properly pruned to stay fresh. One thing I learned from gardening is that you need to prune the dead leaves and branches away so that the plant can stop trying to keep them alive and refocus its energy onto growing or maintaining new(er) flowers and leaves.
One of the things that I do to give life back into wilting flowers, is to remove the wilted petals. Yes, that sounds obvious, but it is something that will get you to the healthy petals. Sometimes, you need to realize that you cannot save them. Some flowers just need to be thrown away. I wish that I could say that I save them, dry them, and make them into homemade bath products, but I am not at that level yet. However, it is one of my goals!
Lastly, if you look at the below photo of the rose, you can peel back the petals and reveal a unique but beautiful way to look at roses. It changes them so that it looks like a whole new flower. I actually saw this on a Youtubers video when they went to a flower shop to make holiday arrangements, and I thought it was so neat, so simple, and so gorgeous!
Pick the Right Vase and Placement within Your Home
These are the last and arguably the most important things that you can do for your arrangement. The vase is simply a vessel to display your beautiful flowers; in my humble opinion. Many people will use ornate or decorative vases within their home, and that is your choice which you are free to make, but I love a simple clear glass vase to display the flowers and let the arrangement stand on its own.
The one I chose here is slightly embellished with engraving, but otherwise, fairly simple. I also chose one that is larger to accommodate two varieties of flowers and the accompanying greenery. Lastly, I like to place mine in the center of my kitchen island to enjoy. Our island is about 16 ft long, and it can hold a large arrangement without it overpowering the space. Depending on the occasion and how you want to enjoy your bouquet, you can put it wherever your heart desires. The artistic sky is your limit.
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