A Simple Guide to Floral Arranging
There’s nothing better than a home filled with fresh florals…
Ever since I spent a year in France, I have loved the idea of traditional French floral design. I am by no means a professional florist, but I do spend a lot of time studying floral design, and I love taking a $40 Trader Joe’s flower purchase and turning it into a beautiful arrangement.
This is my beginners guide to making a beautiful floral arrangement – from finding inspiration to keeping your stems in place and tips on flower care.
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Step 01: FIND INSPIRATION
I love to find inspiration from professional florists on Pinterest and Instagram. I am most drawn to asymmetrical floral arrangements with a romantic, ethereal feel inspired by the texture and changing of seasons in nature. I take inspiration from one of my favorite florists, Sarah Winward. Sarah is a destination wedding florist that creates floral arrangements that evoke the feeling of freshly gathered garden flowers with their natural variations.
Another floral designer that sparks creativity from nature is Catherine Muller. She only uses fresh and finely arranged elements in her designs to create bodacious blooms that are out of this world. A dream of mine would be to study floral design at her world-renowned flower school located across from Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, France.
Step 02: CHOOSE A VESSEL
Anything that can hold water can become a vessel and the more unique it is, the better! Keep in mind, the wider the mouth of the vase, the more stems you’ll need. I typically look for vases that have an opening around 3-4” wide, but I’ve seen arrangements in low, wide bowls, like antique soup tureens and footed compote bowls.
Waterford Rose Bowl | Waterford Marquis | Waterford Lismore | Blue & White Chinoiserie | Designer Urn | Gold Urn
Step 03: ADD STRUCTURE
The key to getting stems to stay where you put them is to use some type of structure to your vase. For clear vases, I often use either a floral pin frog or a tape grid. Low wide bowls or opaque vessels, I like to use chicken wire (which creates a nice base for inserting stems and can be reused) or floral foam.
Step 04: USE A FORMULA
This is your key to having a professional looking arrangement and I use it time-and-time again. The formula is: foliage/greenery + focal flowers + filler flowers.
Base: Greenery
By placing the greenery in first, you will start to build a base for your design. If possible, I typically like to mix two types of greenery together to add texture. For summer I may use foraged greenery and branches of apple blossoms, for winter it could be evergreen and holly branches. For woody stems, it’s a good idea to cut a vertical slit into the bottom of the stem and cut at a diagonal to increase the water intake and help your arrangement last longer.
Next: Focal Flowers
Next, place your focal flowers into the vase in a clockwise motion crisscrossing the stems. Focal flowers are typically your largest, most statement-making blooms. Odd numbers are most visually pleasing and for more organic arrangements, I like to stagger the heigh of the arrangement with one side scaling upwards and the other side creeping down towards the base. Imperfection is very welcome in arrangements, so if you have a floral that’s drooping to one side use it!
Final: Filler Flowers
Finally, filler flowers should be used to fill any gaps and empty spaces in your arrangement. I love using smaller flowers or one with multiple blooms on one stem to help fill the space and add dimension. Some of my favorite filler florals are daffodils, hellebores, and foraged field pennycress. Foraged flowers are my favorite.
Step 05: FLOWER CARE AND MATERIALS
I always use flower food in my arrangements as it provides an extra boost of nutrients that helps the flowers last longer in the vase. Trim all your florals at an angle, refill your vessel at least 1x per day and every 3-days I would recommend recutting the stems to help with water recirculation. This traditional French floral knife is a must in my floral toolkit which allows me to get a cleaner cut where shears or other tools can’t.
If you’re interested in taking a French floral designing workshop and are located in the metro-Atlanta area, I highly recommend Le Jardin Français. You will learn how to create a seasonal floral composition from start to finish in the traditional French way, as well as proper processing and handling of floral products for optimum presentation and proper hydration.
