Tips on arranging flowers!

This is a post from last year. I thought perhaps there are some moms out there who got flowers today and could use a few tips. I got some beautiful peachy pink roses. I'll post some new pics of mine tomorrow. Hopefully this will hold you over until then. I hope you all have a had a wonderful day. I also want to honor all those who don't have children of their own for I am sure you have mothered someone. Blessings!!!

I am a wedding coordinator, which I love, it's a really cool time to be with families, everyone is so happy!  One of the fringe benefits is that I usually end up with some pretty flowers for my home (and sometimes even delicious cake!).  Today I came home with some roses so I thought I would give you a few tips on how to arrange some fresh flowers.  Now I am not a professional, I have just learned some tricks of the trade along the way and I thought I would share them with you. But firs,t I apologize for the quality of these pics, I started this project in the daytime with better lighting and then my camera battery died ( don't you just love when that happens) and so I had to charge it and that took time and so I finished this project in the evening.

These are beautiful red roses not orange like they look. You may notice they aren't in water, never a good thing, always keep your roses in some water, but I took them out just so you could see them.

You'll need to find a container, be creative, don't just go for the vase, I love to use all kinds of things, and if they won't hold water, or they are metal I  put a mason jar inside.  Always fill your container with water and make sure it doesn't have a leak.  Whenever I get a dozen roses I usually make up at least 3 arrangements so I can enjoy them in different rooms, so look for more than one container to use, all sizes and varieties.

This is what a typical rose looks like, bad petals and usually really tightly closed, right? I always work to get all my roses prepped before I start.

I know, I have not lost my mind! The things I do for you people!!! I am blowing in the rose, it really works, it helps to loosen the petals so they can open.  After I blow I gently put my finger in the center of the rose and loosen it up. They will look beautiful the next day!  If there are any bad petals on the outside of the rose go ahead and remove them. I promise you this works, just try it!!!

You see it was all for a good cause, isn't that much better??? This is the same rose, I promise! (You see the bad coloring of these pictures??? I am not orange!)

Okay, this is one of the pet peeves I have mentioned before.  Remove the leaves of the rose!!!! Did you hear me, remove the leaves of the rose.  They are unattractive and they mess up the water and just droop.  I usually only leave the top leaves on.  Either buy some greenery or just go out in your yard and cut some from a tree or shrub.  Lots of things will work.

It's important to put water in your vase before you get started and be sure to mix in that plant food stuff they give you it will make a world of difference.  Now there are a couple of ways to do this but with this vase I would just layer the greenery.  (If the mouth of your vase is kinda big, get out your scotch tape and tape from one side to the next making a grid or put the tape like you would cut a pizza.) You notice in the picture how I have crossed the branches across each other?  As you put your greenery in you need to layer it across the other stems, this will help it stay up and help your roses too.  Also notice that leaf in the water, not a good thing, they rot, smell and kill your roses.(I removed it after the picture!  (This is where my camera died and I had to retake some pics)

It's hard to see with this angle but see how I kinda put a flower on each side, you want to do the same thing you did with the greenery.  You kinda put the flowers in at a angle so everything crisscrosses itself, it helps it stay in place.  I always work the outside first and then start filling in the inside. And remember I said roses don't like to be without water, well I cut the rose under the faucet with the water running. You'll want to cut it about twice as long as your vase, better to cut it a little long and recut than go too short.  I cut it at an angle and put it right into the vase, if you don't air will get in and then it won't stay pretty.  You ever see those roses that look like they have little broken necks?  That's what happened, they got air in the stem and can't get a drink, kinda heart breaking isn't it???

Here they are without any baby's breathe.  All of these roses are cut the same length and just played with until they are all about the same distance from each other. When you add the baby's breath, cut it, don't use the big wad you get from the store, cut it into pieces you can work with.  It should be below the roses and not cover them up, the red of the roses really pops up against the white of the bb. ( I sound like I'm on HGTV, sorry) (These colors are killing me, my wall is green not grey and my cabinets aren't orange, hope to paint them white soon!)

So this is a more traditional way of aranging them and they are pretty, kinda hard to make red roses look ugly.... well maybe that isn't true.  However, I prefer something a little more untraditional. As I mentioned before look for containers around your house that aren't your usual clear vase.

I love the contrast of metal with flowers, a watering can is a great idea.  An old coffee can with sunflowers and daisies is great or a mason jar and fill the bottom with slices of lemons, oranges, limes, whatever works with your color combo. Go out into your garden and see what else you can add.  I cut some crepe mrtyles and some calidiums, gardenias for greenery and just some other things I don't even know what they are called. I don't know if it will last but there's plenty more where it came from so if it doesn't I can cut some more when I change the water.

Here is a top view. I am loving the roses with the calidiums!!! I hope they hold up well.

And my very fav flower right now is this dragon leaf or angel wing begonia, it looks so sweet with these roses, just dainty the way the petals droop down. I think the begonia will root like this too, so when I am done, I'll have a new plant as well. The last thing I will mention is it's important to change your water, if you arranged criss crossing like I suggested all you will have to do is pull the arrangement straight up and fill the container with fresh water and plop them right back down.  Don't have any flowers???? Go out and buy yourself some right now, you deserve them, they make your house feel so pretty and happy, yep that's it, fresh flowers in the house make me feel happy!