Here are 12 creative floral design tips to get you designing like a pro! You will learn about how to arrange grocery store flowers, basic floral design principles, 10 amazing floral design books you won’t want to miss, how to make flowers last longer, and my 7 steps to successful flower arranging. I can’t wait for you to try!
Basic Rules of flower arranging
The five basic elements of floral design are line, color, form, space, and texture.
Line: the direction that someone’s eyes move over the arrangement when they look at the design
Color: use a color wheel to see which colors work best together in an arrangement
Form: includes height, width, and depth
Space: space your flowers in an arrangement so that they can be seen
Texture: give the arrangement interest by using leafy greens and other stems like berries
3 is the magic number. no less than 3 of each type of flower should be used in any arrangement.
By the rules, your arrangement should be at least 1.5 to 2 times bigger than the vessel you choose to use.
But it’s okay to break the rules!
What kind of vase is best for flowers?
The secret? There is no perfect vase!
You can use any vessel to create a beautiful arrangement! Even a serving bowl in your cabinet will serve as a beautiful base for your florals.
All you need to turn it into a “vase” is chicken wire and waterproof floral tape!
Look around your home for a no-cost option or visit your local thrift store for other options. Anything that can hold water can be a vase! Think outside the box!
Below is a simple bowl from the kitchen and you will see how it works perfectly for florals.
How can I add texture to my house using flowers?
An arranged bouquet is the perfect way to add color, dimension, interest, and texture to any room.
You can do this easily with a variety of flowers and foliage from your local florist, a grocery store, or even your own backyard.
The tip for a beautiful arrangement is to start with your greenery, making it a variation of air, height, and depth. This will add a ton of texture and dimension.
Avoid making your arrangement too top-heavy, keep it light and airy.
Make your florals asymmetrical to add interest to the bouquet.
In my arrangement below you can see that I added stems cut from trees and bushes in the yard. It is a great and inexpensive way to add that texture!
Here are 10 amazing books on flower arranging:
These books are perfect for anyone and not only tell you what you need to know, but they are so inspiring with their endless creative floral design tips. They are also beautiful to look at or place on a coffee or side table, too!
Each one is carefully and thoughtfully written and photographed and I love them!
- CULTIVATED
- FLOWER SCHOOL
- THE FLOWER RECIPE BOOK
- HOUSE OF FLOWERS
- FLOWERS FOR ALL
- FLOWER ARRANGING: A COMPLETE GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS
- THE FLOWER HUNTER
- FLOWER COURSE
- JUST ADD WATER-EASY TECHNIQUES AND EVERYDAY IDEAS FOR INSPIRING FLOWER ARRANGMENTS
- FLOWER PHILOSOPHY: SEASONAL PROJECTS TO INSPIRE AND RESTORE
How to make flowers last longer
I have been playing around with this and have found a few things that work. That actually work.
- Add a penny to your vase. Copper is a natural fungicide so it kills bacteria and fungi that can creep into a vase.
- Change out water and flower food every few days. Most arrangements you get either from a friend or from the grocery store, come with flower food and you need to use it. But if you need some, or want some on hand, this flower food is awesome!
- Fresh cut the ends of your flowers at an angle every time you freshen the water.
- Remove dead/dying flowers from your arrangement and rearrange the good ones in a smaller vase, adding your penny to the new vase and some fresh water and flower food.
I recently gave my daughter a bouquet of flowers from the grocery store for her birthday and arranged them in a vase using all of these creative floral design tips. They lasted two weeks with the tips I just gave you!
Then I removed some of the more delicate, dying/dead flowers and arranged the remaining flowers in a smaller vase. It has been two more weeks and they are still going strong!!
I swear the biggest thing I did was add that penny to the water.
My list of all the supplies you need for making amazing floral arrangements
7 steps to successful flower arranging
- Grab a lazy-suzan (if you have one) to turn your arrangement as you work on it to make sure all sides are getting the attention they deserve.
- Choose the vessel you will use for your vase. Prepare your vase – add chicken wire and floral tape. Then add room temperature water 3/4 way up, add flower food, and a penny. Copper is a natural fungicide!
- Gather flowers and greenery for your arrangement. Don’t forget to add some beautiful greens and flowers from your yard if you can. Even weeds can be beautiful in an arrangement.
- Cut your stems at an angle to allow the flowers to take in warmer water. They like warm water better than cold. If blooms need to open faster add hot water to your vase, making sure it isn’t boiling. Once the blooms are open just add a little ice to the water to help them last longer. Also, cut your stems at various lengths to add more depth to the arrangement.
- Create the base of your arrangement with your greenery. Add height and interest but be sure to keep it light and airy to keep it from being top-heavy.
- Add your focal flowers. These will be the largest or most expensive. TIP: don’t leave any leaves on the flower stems that will be touching or inside the water. Go ahead and remove those.
- Then add filler flowers and any other little greenery or berries to fill in the gaps.
You can see that I used a kitchen bowl for my vessel and had a variety of flowers in my arrangement. But I only had a few “stand-out” florals and the rest filled in the extra space nicely. Be sure to watch the scale of your arrangement and keep it interesting!
A beautiful arrangement can take fewer flowers than you think. Spend the money on a few impact flowers and keep the cost down by making the rest inexpensive options, placing your expensive florals front and center.
Remember, it doesn’t have to be expensive to be luxe.
How to incorporate flowers from your yard into an arrangement
Pick leafy branches and all kinds of different flowers, large and small. Weeds can even be added for color and interest. Make the stems wirey or dense. The more variety the better.
If you have a garden, mix your flowers and use all different textures and shapes.
Now follow my 7 steps to successful flower arranging above to create a gorgeous arrangement.
How to arrange grocery store flowers
You can follow my 7 steps to successful flower arranging above to create a beautiful arrangement that your friends will think came from a florist!
Grocery store flowers usually come in a wrapped variety pack. By using the same principles in these kinds of arrangements and keeping the greenery at different heights, etc. you will add interest to any generic bouquet.
I recommend you take a little time on this. The flowers will all come cut to one length in a store-bought bouquet so I like to cut them at various lengths to keep it interesting. Be careful, though, not to cut them too short.
Think about purchasing some extra greens or berries from the floral department to add to it!
If you don’t have time to do an arrangement, the floral department will do it for you for free!
Let’s say you’re having a party, and you only have time to shop for party food, take your own vase into the floral department, buy some of their flowers, and the florist will arrange them for you for free!
Isn’t that an incredible tip?!
I think this is amazing. Just to be sure they still do this, I asked the florist in my local grocery store the other day and she confirmed this! I have done this before but I still wanted to confirm. You may want to call ahead of time to see how long it will take and what a good time would be to come in.
Isn’t that just amazing?!
I learned a lot of this when I was forced out of my comfort zone in order to grow and learn new techniques and skills in my business and life in general. And I am so glad I did!
As always, I hope that you have found inspiration with these creative floral design tips to just try. Or grab a beautiful book on my list and a cup of tea and dream of what you can do!
Until next time, stop waiting. Start creating!
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