Arranging a handtied bouquet into an arrangement
So you've got a hand-tied bouquet... but now what?
How do you arrange a beautiful bouquet into a vase arrangement? Here is a step by step guide for what we do here at Three Berry Flowers.
Unwrap your bouquet and start by separating the flowers by type. I like to organize the large focal flowers, the textural flowers, and the filler flowers.
There is a general rule that you need 3 focal flowers, 5 textural flowers, and 8 filler flowers to make a good balanced bouquet or the 3-5-8 rule but I believe you can bend the rules a bit.
After all, who doesn't love an all roses or peonies bouquet?
A good beginner vase to use is one that is fluted or curves outward.
Then I begin with focal flowers or the flowers I love the most and criss cross the stems while gently rotating the vase quarter turns.
Take branching stems and separate them into multiple stems to break up masses or to have more stems to work with.
Voila!
Clean off all the leaves and branching stems that are going to be underwater because you don't want to encourage rotting.
Using the textural and filler flowers, tuck your stems into empty spaces at varying heights to create your arrangement.
It might seem hard to know how high to cut your stems - often, I'll hold them up against the side of the vase to see where I am going to line up but remember, you can always cut a stem shorter but you cannot add length to it once it's cut. So give yourself more length to start with.
A lot of our University of Illinois customers tell us that they have to get creative with their vases....
If this is you, a simple drinking glass or mason jar works great too!
Same rules and technique mentioned above for this size vase too! With this size bouquet you could make 2-3 arrangements for around the house or to share with a friend.
I also love putting little bud vases around the house.
Want to learn more about floral design? We have three workshops happening this summer and we would love to have you there.