- Article published at:
- Article author: Robin Blood
- Article comments count: 0
Creating any floral arrangement for an event starts with processing your flowers so they can look as if they were picked day of.
Sourcing your flowers
The first step is figuring out where you want to get your flowers from. Your can get your flowers from a local farm (like ours), floral shop, grocery store, or online. You can even grow your own! You want to make sure you source your flowers 3-4 days before the event. This way you have time to make your floral arrangments and they will still be fresh by the time of the event.
Typical floral arrangments consist of four different types of flowers: focal, secondary, filler flowers, and greens. Focal flowers are generally going to be face flowers, such as peonies and dahlias. You want to make sure whatever flowers you pick to be your focal flowers stand out and make a statement.
Your secondary flowers are going to be a little smaller than your focal flowers and you want to make sure that these flowers compliment your focal flowers. Some examples are zinnias, tulips, and snapdragons.
Filler flowers are generally small clusters of flowers that can be added into the empty space of any bouquet or arangment to make it appear fuller. Green mist/dara cacucas are some great options. Some of my other favorites are wax flower and statice.
Lastly, you want to pick some greenery. The purpose of adding greenery to your arrangement is to add volume and make it look natural. FUN TIP: Incorporate herbs! This will make the arrangement smell great. In the picture below we have lemon basil.
Storage
The first thing you’ll want to do is make a fresh cut at the base of all of your stems. Remove any unwanted foliage and thorns (if applicable) from the bottom 2/3 of them stem. For garden look more foliage if in good shape. QUICK TIP: An easy way to remove thorns is by pressing on the side of them until they pop off or using scissors or a knife to shave the thorns off.
You want to store your flowers in cool water. Two gallon Home Depot buckets work great because of their height. Fill your bucket with about 2 inches of water. If the flowers in your bucket have a stockier stem, fill the bucket about 3 inches. Make sure no foliage is your water, you want to keep your water as clean as possible. Repeat this process every two days to ensure your flowers always have fresh clean water. If you don’t have a cooler, store your flowers in a cool dark place away from from fresh fruit. As fruit goes bad, the gases released can cause the flowers to brown prematurely. Also keep your flowers away from air vents so they do not have direct air blowing on them. Doing this ensures that your flowers will last until they are ready to be used.
Here’s what your flowers should look like before and after they are processed.
Here’s some bonus tips for creating your arrangement!
Your flowers are fresh, but you want them to also look in full bloom for your arrangement. If you are working with roses, hold the stem with the flower facing down, as if you were clapping, and roll it back and forth between your hands. Doing this will open the face of them flower and give it more volume.
You can make your carnation flower look like a poppy by using these steps:
1. Pull down on the outer green petals
2. Spread the carnation head
3. Pinch out the center petals until the green center is exposed