You may remember we recently gave one lucky winner the opportunity to attend the Leafy Couture One Day Flower School. We were absolutely over the moon with the fantastic response and are delighted to announce the winner of the prize is RMS reader Kirsty.
As we can only have one lucky winner we wanted to give the rest of you lovely ladies an opportunity to learn a few tips from the pro, the very talented Sarah Richardson. So without further ado I’ll hand over to Sarah from Leafy Couture.to share her top tips for floral arranging at home…
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- When buying flowers always look for flower heads that are strong and that feel solid to the gentle touch. Look at the leaves and ask yourself if they seem healthy. If they are dry or brown then avoid.
- Get to know when your florist has a delivery so you can get the most out of your flowers and choose a busy shop as it’s a sure sign they have satisfied customers.
- Choose flowers that are more closed if you want them to last longer or more open if you want them to be at their best on a certain day.
- Make sure that all your vases and vessels are clean with a drop of bleach.
- Think about what vessels you want to display the flowers in. You can get so many inexpensive ones now with lots of high street stores stocking home ranges, we love H&M, Wilko, Waitrose and lots of vintage finds from charity shops and salvage fairs.
- Be careful if using vintage jugs or vases. It may be best to slip a plastic pint glass inside to protect against leaks or any other damage.
- Small bud vases are a really great way of displaying flowers in your home and you can buy single stems or put in small groups. Flowers that work really well like this include roses, peonies and dahlias. Flowers that have a large head and look better low down work best in this style. You can take little groupings from your garden and display them really easily bringing a touch of outside inside.
- If you want to have a modern display why not use just foliage? Tropical leaves may cost a few pounds but will last for three weeks and can create fantastic silhouettes. Choose leaves such as xanadu, monstera (cheeseplant) or aspidistra. They look great in groups of three in clear vases or coloured glass bottles.
- When opting for a larger arrangement choose seasonal flowers to get the most for your money as they will be the best quality at that time of year. If you can, buy British flowers to reflect the seasons, and support local growers.
- For a simple look choose a monochromatic scheme of all one-colour and you can’t go far wrong. White and green will always look elegant. The more textures you have the more of a country feel, the less the more modern. Look at different shapes such as rounded head, star shaped heads, pointed heads and multi-headed where you have lots of little shapes to add interest to your displays.
- Think about the room that the flowers are to go in and use that to choose your colours, they can either blend in or pop as an accent.
If choosing an arrangement for a living room coffee table look for flower heads that will look great looked down on. If you are opting for a large vase for a console then think about something that looks interesting from the side such as mollucella, foxgloves or gladioli. - When you get your flowers home from the florist, supermarket or market, re-cut the stems and give them a good drink in clean cold water for a few hours. By re-cutting the stems you are letting the flowers drink and by cutting on an angle you are maximising the surface area.
- If you want to create a simple posy choose your stems, lay them out on a table in front of you and build a hand-tied arrangement in your hand by taking a stem then adding more slowly at an angle. The stems will then gradually spiral so they are not crossing and the flowers will spread round evenly. You can practice this with a small bunch of the same flower such as stocks or small roses to get the hang of it then secure with ribbon or twine and place in a vase. The water should be a third full in the vase.
- To make your flowers last as long as possible change the water every three days and keep out of direct sunlight and heat sources.
- Go for scent, go for colour and go for what you love and you can’t go wrong.
Who is planning on nipping out to their garden or local florist right this very second? I know I am. Do drop us a comment if you’re inspired to try something new with your blooms.
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{Sarah’s Favourite Seasonal Blooms}
Spring- Tulips, Anemones, Pussy-willow, Blossom, Ranunculus, Viburnum-opulus
Summer- Peonies, Garden Roses, Sweet William, Sweet Peas, Cornflowers
Autumn- Dahlias, Tom Pearce, Blooms, Crab Apple Stems, Hydrangea
Winter- Amaryllis, Spruce, Eucalyptus, Ilex Berries
{Flower School}
If you are interested to learn more and would like to attend The Leafy Couture Flower School then you can book your place on the Leafy Couture website. From one-day taster sessions to mentoring sessions for established florists, there’s a variety of courses to suit all levels of expertise and enthusiasm!
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I love this article.
I recently did the flowers for my wedding – bouquets, button holes and the flowers in the venue. We didnt have any training I just watched a couple of youtube videos – we saved an absolute fortune doing it ourselves. I loved doing it and since then have become a fan of having beautiful flowers displays in the house. My friend has even asked me to do her bridesmaid bouquets for her wedding next week so I will be using some of these tips. My style is definitely the ‘wild country’ style as they don’t need to look to perfect but I am considering taking a course in it as I enjoy it so much.
Carly, how wonderful your friend has asked you to do her wedding flowers. Such a compliment.
Wild country is definitely my style too x
It’s my little girls christening in a few weeks and doing some pretty flower arrangements in glass jam jars/bottles a bit like in the stems picture, so nice to know I am on trend!!! Hoping to use lots of flowers from our garden to supplement what I buy, and have some cute pinwheels to add too. Thanks so much for the well timed advice!!
Aww Danielle, your decorations sound beautiful. Have a fab time x
Right, I’m off to the florists this lunchtime!!
Race you…. x
I loved this article, thank you so much for all the tips! We currently live in a 2 bed flat in Clapham and I love putting flowers around the place but as you can imagine we don’t have that much space. We are moving ‘up’ in three weeks and the thing I am most looking forward to after all of our renovations are done is being able to add flowers to all of the rooms. This was very timely and inspiring! Thank you, off to buy some peonies now….
Hi Mrs R, congrats on the move ‘up’.
Gotta love a peony or two 🙂 x
I’m trying to get better at my floral arranging skills as I’ve got a serious lack of! I did get some super simple tips from a wholesale and event florist on how to keep fresh cuts happy, which I’ve shared on my blog…http://fortandfield.blogspot.com/2017/10/fresh-cut-flower-tips.html
Fantastic article thanks Lauren, lots of top tips on flower arranging.