So, the flower arrangement from last week was a little bonkers, and not the easiest thing to arrange or maintain. So, in the spirit of giving out actual useful information I'll talk about some simpler flower arrangements made from the same bouquet.

This project would be good to note if you're thinking about doing your own simple arrangements for your/anyone's wedding. I could have saved myself a lot of money if I had some simple, accessible arrangements to crib from. Still, I carry with me some hard-won lessons. Leave flowers with multiple, large blossoms arranged vertically to the professionals. {Also, I will never be ready for floral foam.})



Statice is a great flower for anyone just getting into cutting their own. They'll put up with a lot of abuse (extreme temperatures, forgetting to water them for a day) and dry well if you're nervous about timing fresh flowers correctly.

Just fanning one type of flower in a vase is about as easy as it gets for arrangements. This works best for tree branch-shaped flower stems with multiple blossoms at different levels. Trim off anything that would be underwater and make sure you have a nice assortment of heights. Using multiple colors of the same flower will also add interest.



Fossflowers are a popular annual and will grow in most lawns. They sprout chaotic stems thick with little, hairy blossoms. Just a few stems will fill a lot of space and create informal, natural looking arrangements.



Delphinium are also easy yard flowers. I like to leave a little foliage on them to break up the columns of purple.



For two big, attention-getting flowers with single, circular blossoms like sunflowers and zinnias I like to treat them as equals and arrange them in one big ball. They'll tone each other down and and won't drown out more subtle blooms.



Otherwise, two different flowers with different blossom arrangements sometimes work best when placed at different vertical levels. Columnar snapdragons dominate the top half of the arrangement while puffy Joey Ptilotus (I think that's the right name...) fill in lower down. There is a little bit of mixing, especially with the ptilotus creeping up top, just to keep the bouquet from looking completely bifurcated.

Labels: flowers, projects

posted by Alison 9/01/2009 03:19:00 PM : (0) comments : splink