Floral Arrangement 101
Sooo if you haven’t noticed… I don’t use a lot of florals in my home tablescapes, not because I don’t love them but because I am HORRIBLE at creating arrangements. I’m always a little intimidated by these beauties because the slight perfectionist in me doesn’t want to screw it up.
I decided to challenge myself in my next table design and phoned a friend! I called my girls over at Poppy Design Co. to help me out. They are a mother daughter duo that I collaborate with a lot for work and their florals are pure magic!
Jenny was so sweet and offered to take me along with her to the LA Flower Market. We masked up and she started helping me pick the most amazing flowers that I honestly would never have thought to pair together. There were flowers that we picked, that in my head I truly thought I hated but once she showed me some insider tips, it totally transformed my opinion (I.e. tulips) *mind blown*!
First up, check out the florals we went with and some helpful tips if you ever decide to add them to one of your arrangements!
Quicksand Roses - If your roses are tight and you want some to have a more bloomed look, hold the flower upside down (making sure there are no thorns) and roll the stem in the palm of your hands, almost like you are starting a fire. It will open the roses up beautifully!
Spray Roses - These are great filler flowers!
Hellebores - Use these mixed in with your other greenery and it will give you a romantic, wispy look.
Tulips - Ok, ok here is where my mind was blown. I always thought I hated tulips because I didn’t like the closed look that makes my mind quickly think “Easter”. BUT I learned that you can gently peel the petals all the way back and it totally transforms the flower into a whole different, dramatic vibe!
Lisianthus - You can cut the little green buds off to give a cleaner look (whiiiich I totally forgot to do, but I will next time!)
Scabiosa Pods - These guys will bring a quirky, textural element to your arrangement
Astrania - These are fun little pops to add in for more texture
It’s time to arrange!
Pick a vessel that best suits your design. Truthfully I though this was going to be too small for all of the florals we got but I trusted Jenny and it was totally the perfect size! I made a mental note for Future Me that small vessels can hold a lot of flowers.
You can choose different mediums to hold your flowers up, I went with floral sponge (that I soaked in water overnight), but you can totally use floral tape too, which I grabbed as back up since it was my first time using a sponge.
Start with your greenery - here I used bay leave branches and eucalyptus. Haha this was actually one of the hardest parts for me - just starting. But don’t be scared when placing your first piece, just go for it!
Next I added the hellebores to give the arrangement that romantic look and I think they were a total game changer! Jenny said that they sometimes will just use those as greenery.
Followed up with the gorgeous Quicksand roses. These were my main, anchor flowers so I just went for it, adding them all over. Floral tip: stack them some should be low, while others are sticking out.
At this point, I was like, ‘Yay!, you’re killing it’ aaaand then when it was time to add my next flowers I think I was actually killing it haha it started going South fast! I was going back and forth texting with the girls on what to add and next were the spray roses. It was time to fill in the gaps. They said to add the sprays to one side of the roses in the lower corner. I started panicking and didn’t take any more progress pictures after that haha I will work on the placement of them next time.
For my final bunches I added my dramatic tulips, the lisianthius and pods popping out at the highest points and I placed the astrania for my finishing touch!
I missed Jenny’s text on making sure everything had different layers but I will remember for next time!
While I am still no professional, I was happy with how the arrangement turned out and I can’t wait to make another! I’ll share more tips and tricks with you next time :)
Cheers!
Ash
