How to Arrange Flowers Like a Professional

Put down the grocery store bouquet! You are better than that! This past weekend I popped into Whole Foods to grab my mother some pretty petals. Their pre-arranged bouquets were predictable, boring and reminded me of stock bouquets from ProFlowers. Womp womp….There was no creativity, no interesting color combinations, no exciting mixture of petals. They were just all wrong in every way. So I bought worth of all different flowers and accents, brought them home and DIY’ed the bouquet myself. Here’s some tips to arrange your own if you are sick of grocery store bouquets too:

Choose a Color Palette

Whether the bouquet is for your home, office, or a gift for a loved one, decide what mood you want it to create. Go into the store with a theme word in mind. Mine was sunset. It helped me quickly zone in on specific flowers that were in the sunset palette, instead of getting overwhelmed/over-inspired by everything offered.

Texture is Your Friend

Don’t be afraid to mix textures in a bouquet. That’s what makes it interesting. I love the fluffy peony next to the smooth airy tulip. More texture creates interest and drama, and gives the eye a lot more to admire. I also love using greenery for texture–dusty miller what what!! Or in this case I threw in some yellow billy balls to add a little bit of the unexpected.

Focus on the Petals, Not the Stems

Get your flowers home and remove everything on the stems. It might feel scary, or like each stem looks naked, but I promise this will make the flowers sing! Too many leaves left on the stems can overpower a bouquet and take attention away from the petals. If you aren’t comfortable with removing everything, try removing most and leaving just a few leaves.

Trim at Varying Heights for Interest

I’ve been stalking floral designers like Kiana from Tulipina Design. I love how she incorporates varying heights to make her arrangements look wild and free. I feel like the flowers can better dance when you don’t cut everything the same height! Remember to cut some shorter so they are closer to the opening of the vase. You want to see flowers at every height, not stems.

Trim the Stems at Angles & Remove All Foliage In Water

Trim the bottoms of each stem at a 45 degree angle. This helps them drink the water better. Definitely remove any extra leaves or foliage that is in the water of the vase–these will go rotten.

Get Creative With Your Vase

The vase is half the fun! One of my favorite vases of all time is so versatile and goes with everything, and it looks like a real birch tree. Find the vase here. Or try an unexpected color like this one (learn how I painted it here). The possibilities are endless, and whatever color you choose can really change the vibe of your bouquet.

Put them in the Fridge to Last Longer

I’ve read that all the other weird tricks don’t help flowers last any longer. (Put a penny in the water? No.) Clear out all those old leftovers and pop the bouquet in the fridge overnight. Doing this every night will give your flowers several days longer to live.

Trim the Stems whenever You Change the Water

My mother taught me this one: Whenever you change the water, also trim the stems again. You’ll notice the ends get a little funky while sitting in water. Trimming them again (just 1/2″-1″)  will help them better drink the new water and therefore live longer.

The good thing about florals, no matter what you do with them, they always add beauty.