There’s nothing like a fresh bunch of flowers to breathe life into a space – whether you’re preparing to welcome guests or putting your home on display for prospective buyers, there are ways and ways to arrange flowers in a vase.
Even when you have spent a bomb at your local flower shop, short of having a professional on hand to pimp your posy when you get it home, having an arrangement that looks stylish and effortless on your dinner table or kitchen bench can be a challenge.
Here are 5 tips to making your flower arrangement look like a florist did it.
1. Stick to one colour
Keep things simple and elegant by choosing all of your blooms in one colour, if you’re going for colour choose bunches graduating shades of just one colour – pink or yellow works really well to produce an elegant display.
Of course, all white is a classic look – very high end!
2. Trim the stems first
When you’ve chosen your vase, stand the bouquet next to it in your hand to gauge the appropriateness of the size – be sure it will fit all the stems and support the size of bouquet and remember to remove the leaves below the water line of the vase.
Trimming the stems will also make your flowers last longer. Be sure to snip the stems every time you replace the water (preferably daily) for best results.
3. Cut the bunch tie
This can be scary, so before you actually snip the twine or rubber band, fill your vase with water (and flower food if you have it) and sit the bunch inside.
Then lift the bunch a little and snip the tie and remove it.
4. Loosen the foliage
Once you have your bouquet sitting in your vase, give it a little primp to anchor it and spread the bouquet evenly.
If you’ll be positioning the vase against a wall, gently ease the showstopping blooms to face forward.
5. Support your blooms
If your flowers have not been arranged by a florist but picked up from market in bunches, a good way to support them in your vase is to create a grid with florist- or sticky-tape criss-crossed over the rim of your vase. You can then feed flowers in stem-by-stem and they’ll sit evenly in the vase where you want them to.
If your flowers need a little va-va-voom, form a base first with foliage – perhaps taken from your garden – and positioning your blooms in on top. This will make for a fuller bunch that looks more professional.
If all else fails, don’t hesitate to simply “chop and drop” your flowers straight into a simple vase with no embellishment or fuss – this elegant look will still feed your soul and, as Coco Chanel says, “Less is more”.
