A Beginners Guide to Flower Arranging

The flowers you choose to feature in your home can really bring out the colours of your room as well as complement the interior style of your home. Larger, wild and airy bouquets that look as if they have been freshly picked from the garden will feel more relaxed and natural, while styling flowers in a more compact way will add a modern finish to your room.

Seasonal blooms are the perfect way to add colour and fragrance into your home that reflects the landscape outside your windows. Introduce fresh notes of spring with tulips and daffodils, colourful blooms like dahlias and sunflowers in summer and evoke the firery colour palette of Autumn with foliage and berrys before we transition into winter.

These flowers are readily available year-round and are a great way to support local producers. As they are picked at their strongest, they will be easier to work with and will stay looking beautiful for longer.

Top Tip: Featuring a mixture of hardier blooms and softer flowers will lengthen the life of your bouquet. The softer flowers have a shorter life span so once these have died back, you can pick them out and you will still be left with a lovely arrangement with plenty of colour and texture.

It is important to spend time preparing your flowers correctly to ensure that they look beautiful in your arrangement and last longer.

Begin by removing the leaves from the part of the stem that will sit below the waterline to reduce the risk of rotting. Carefully pick over any bruised or damaged petals to stop them from going mouldy.

Top Tip: To encourage any slightly closed buds to open, submerge their stems into lukewarm water making sure to keep the heads out in the air. Remove the majority of its leaves to encourage energy to the head and place them back into the cold water alongside the rest of the bouquet.

The shape of your vase will determine how your flowers can be arranged. Smaller vessels will suit more compact floral arrangements with the flower heads sitting quite close to the top the vase. Larger vases with narrow necks and wide base will help to support longer stems for a fuller, more shapely spray.

When you are ready to start building your floral display, use a pair of secateurs or a sharp knife to carefully cut each stem at a 45-degree angle. This will increase the surface area of the stem and will allow your flowers to absorb more water. It is important to cut your stems as you start placing your flowers into your vase to avoid their tips drying out.

Begin by building a supportive base with any greenery that does not have a floral head. Arrange the stems at different heights to create texture and add structure for your flowers to lean against.

Next start adding your flowers in a circular fashion. Turn the vessel as you place them, making sure to spread colours and flower types evenly.

Top Tip: as you build your bouquet, make sure to stop and look at it from different angles to make sure it looks well balanced and shapely. Remember to save a couple of stems of the prettiest foliage to add in at the end to fill any gaps.

Weaving your stems in a criss cross fashion will help to create a secure bouquet that can stand freely within the vase. However sometimes arrangements may need a little extra support to keep them in place. 

If you have a fuller collection of stems, you can create a grid with clear floral tape over the top of your vase. This will add a subtle structure on which to lean your stems against. Make sure you mix the height of your flowers to create a layer of folliage to hide it from view.

Top Tip: Be careful when handling and securing your blooms and try to avoid touching the flower heads. Be aware when laying your flowers onto your bench as petals are delicate and can bruise very easily. 

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Style your home with the wonder of the outdoors this season.