Spring Arrangement
I picked up some flowers and greens at the grocery store this week and cut some fabulous smelling viburnum in the yard. I got the idea from a picture in a Southern Living magazine. (Again!) Here’s the how-to for an easy, spring floral for easter or just to celebrate spring! The weather has been getting really nice here on the US East Coast.
I try to have fresh flowers in the house, as much as I can. In the summer, they usually come from the yard and gardens. In winter, several of our local grocery stores (Wegman’s, Fresh Market and Trader Joe’s) have beautiful selections of flowers. Many times, you can get a bouquet from them and add some foliage, branches, vines or berries from the yard and have a really pretty arrangement.
Here’s what I put together this week - this one has more flowers than the winter one I did, but it is still pretty easy.
Gather your supplies
I bought greens, and flowers at the store. I cut the fragrant viburnum (x carlesii) from my yard. That is the white pom pom looking flower.
You also need some good clippers. I use Joyce Chen scissors.
I learned once, that when you use a white vessel for an arrangement, you should have white flowers in the assortment.
I put chicken wire in the bottom of the urn, to help secure the stems. You just tuck the ends in until it is snug inside the container.
Then I added the greens (lemon or salal leaf) as a base for the arrangement. I always put the greens/foliage in first. A good rule of thumb is 1 1/2 times the height of your container. When the container is very low, you can go higher.
Once you have your base, you are going to add the heavier blooms as the base throughout the greens. You want your eye to wander throughout the arrangement. So you’ll try to space the same blooms all throughout.
I added the largest blooms first - the viburnum.
When you are working with woody stems, you should make a cut at the bottom and split the stem, so that it can drink more water.
Here are the heavier blooms that you want to give weight to the arrangement. That one way up high on the right was kind of wonky, so I cut it and added it lower to the base. I wish you could smell this - heavenly!
Next I added some purple hyacinth from the store. These also smell heavenly!
Here is the hyacinth added around the base - also a larger flower. And there’s that wonky one on top that I haven’t cut yet…
Here’s a good shot of the mechanics of the arrangement. The chicken wire holds the stems well, without the use of floral foam.
Next I added another larger bloom - some scabiosa (pincushion flower) from the store. These were really big and I only had a few. But they were really interesting.
Next, I added some pink and yellow roses - sometimes they aren’t looking so great from the store, but you can to a little work on them.
If the buds have bad looking petals, you can pull them off at the base. If they are really tight buds, you can gently ease them open with your finger.
It’s looking good!
I wanted some orange in this and I couldn’t find anything except for more roses. I bought a small calla lily instead of flowers. A bonus, because I got the pretty leaves as well!
You can see where I added the calla lily foliage around the bottom to hide the chicken wire
Next I added some hot pink - hypericum berries. They always come with their leaves at the store I am just interested in clumps of berries, so I take the leaves off.
One last thing. I wanted something tall and wispy, so that it wouldn’t look so much like a ball.
I got some wax flower, which I love. You should always remove all foliage below the water line, to prevent bacteria in the water.
I pulled off all the leaves and divided these into different sizes.
AND YOU’RE DONE!!
I do spray bouquets and arrangements with this Floral Life Clear Crowning Glory, especially when using fruits/veggies/flowers from the grocery store or florist.
