Learning how to arrange bouquets is a lot easier than you might think! This post covers everything you need to know in order to learn how to arrange bouquets like a pro in no time at all!
The Basics of How to Arrange Bouquets
Some people say cooking for others is like sharing their love with another person, giving them a hidden look at their inner world.
Cooking doesn’t do that for me. But home-grown and arranged bouquets? Now, that’s what lights me up!
In this post, I’ll cover the basics of arranging bouquets like a pro, including cut flower care and classic formulas for the arrangements of your dreams.
How to Arrange a Bouquet from Scratch
The Rule of Three’s in Arranging a Bouquet
Ever heard of the rule of thirds in visual art? Well, as it turns out, the secret key to mastering bouquet design also comes in thirds.
If you’re harvesting flowers from your garden, ordering online, or buying at a store, keep the following in mind. There are three main ingredients in every bouquet: showstoppers, greenery, and filler flowers.
But how much of each? That’s where the lucky number 3 comes in.
- 1/3 Showstopping Flowers
- 1/3 Filler Flowers
- 1/3 Greenery
The above formula guarantees you lush, stunning, and well-balanced bouquets time after time. Plus, you can use it when planning your cut flower garden too!
A Must Have for a Professional Looking Bouquet: Color
Before you begin arranging your bouquet or cutting flowers, find your color theme. There are two basic themes:
- Monochromatic
- Complementary
Monochromatic bouquets display only one color, but with different shades. So, if you chose purple, you could include lilac, hyacinth, lavender, larkspur, and perhaps some sage for the greenery.
Complementary bouquets may require a little more planning. Take a look at a color wheel (or color theory wheel) and draw straight lines between opposite colors. For example, red and green are directly opposite each other and are therefore complementary colors.
From there, you can pick and choose similar colors in that vein (such as red orange, blue green, etc.). Zinnias in their red and orange glory would look beautiful with some green!
Of course, you could also choose whatever colors you want and just see what happens!
How to Arrange Bouquets with Spatial Awareness
Like everything else in this world, flowers take up space. Some stretch high into the sky, others drape over themselves, while others stay short and bushy.
When arranging your bouquet, ask yourself how your chosen flowers take up space. How is the bouquet working horizontally and vertically? For example, if you have lots of tulips, they’ll make for a vertically oriented bouquet. While beautiful, that may be a little boring to look at. So, is there any way that you could incorporate horizontal pieces too?
Let’s say you have some gladiolus and trailing silver spurflower hanging around. The combination of the two uses both vertical and horizontal space for an eye-catching arrangement.
So, if you have a ton of gorgeous, long-stemmed dahlias, consider adding something bushier to fill in the horizontal space.
Preparing Your Flowers & Vase for your Homemade Bouquet
Before you start arranging, there’s some important prep work to do!
- Always remove excess foliage and leaves off focal and filler flowers, especially anything that would touch the water. That’s a recipe for bacteria-infested, unhappy flowers.
- Cut your stems at an angle to further shape the bouquet and give them more water.
- Pick your vase carefully. You want your bouquet to be at least as tall as the vase, if not double.
- If you want to use a wicker basket or planting container as your vase, put a clear plastic liner in the bottom. Your arrangement will hide it from the world, but your flowers will still get watered, and your basket won’t get ruined. Win-win!
- Use chicken wire or floral tape (or plain old tape) to create a grid over the mouth of your vase. This offers structure and prevents the flowers from moving around or damaging each other.
How to Arrange Bouquets
So, there are two basic ways to arrange, and both involve spirals!
- Inside Out
This method begins with placing your focal flower in the center of the vase. From there, you’ll spin the vase as you add more filler flowers and greenery. This trick works wonders because it makes sure each flower faces a different angle, giving the effect of a full, lush, and glorious bouquet!
- Outside In
You can also start from the outside of the vase and then work your way in. The rim of the vase is usually the base layer, or the greenery. Once your base layer is down, spin the vase and add more filler flowers and greenery as you go. Eventually, you’ll reach the center, which is where your focal flower(s) will go.
When designing my bouquets, I always make sure I have an odd number of focal flowers! Arrangements with even amounts of focal flowers often look overly symmetrical and unnatural. Keep to odd numbers for a more natural, wild look. The same thing goes for container planting!
One last tip: If you only have a couple of a certain flower or greenery lying around, save them for last. With such a small amount, it’s better to use them as accessories or decorations, instead of as the base or filler.
Tips for Taking Care of Your Bouquet
Cut flower care is pretty simple. At least, it’s a whole heck of a lot more simple than when they’re still in the ground!
All you need to do is:
- Change the water at least once a day, maybe every two days. I always say if you wouldn’t want to drink the water, neither would your flowers!
- Give them some flower food to start.
- Give stems a fresh trim at a 45 degree angle every time you change the water.
- Keep cut bloom away from drafts, heat sources and sunny windows, the cooler the surrounding temp the better!
I add my favorite flower preservative to the water before placing any of the stems in. By the way, try and make sure your water is always clean, fresh, and untreated. Your flowers will appreciate it.
There you have it, folks! With these tips on how to arrange bouquets, you are well on your way to becoming a bouquet master!
Feel free to share your progress down below and any questions—I always love to see what other gardeners get up to.
Xoxo,
Christine
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