We try to send out our beautiful bouquets from Make Their Day Flowers Cheltenham as easily transferable to a vase as possible but we know it can still be tricky to get them looking perfect, so we thought that it would help if we explained how best to arrange them so that the look full in the vase. These tips to perfectly arrange your flowers in a vase will also tell you how to keep them looking their best for longer!
When you arrange your flowers in a vase, sometimes you see gaps in the flowers as they don’t quite stay where you want them to, just in the same way as when you are arranging your hair on a bad hair day!
I am going to share some of my tricks to place the stems in such a way to maintain the volume and stay in the shape that you want them to.
1. Spread all the fresh flowers that you have out on a surface and group the ones that are the same together. Place the soft stalks together; the mid-length ones near each other and group the longer ones separately.
2. Start with the mid-length stems to create the base of your bouquet. First they need any leaves that will be below the water line to be removed. If left, these will rot in the water, making the water go cloudy and there will be no oxygen for the flower stem.
You may remove more leaves if you prefer, but the leaves higher up are good at filling the spaces between the flowers and framing them so that you see each flower individually.
3. Cut off the bottom 1cm (1/2″) of the stems at a 45° angle and place them crossways in the vase.
4. Turn the vase through 180° and place the next mid-length stems over and between the first ones. This way they will be looser in the vase so that each flower may fully bloom in it’s own space. Keep turning the vase in the same direction and placing all the mid-length the stalks in one at a time crossways until they are all in.
This helps to keep the flowers in place. It is also more attractive if the stems can be seen.
Stand back and look at your creation regularly to check that you have good colour distribution. If you want a good mix, count the stems of the same colour and spread them out by putting them into the vase one colour at a time before changing to the next colour. Always remember to keep turning the vase so that the stems go in the same direction.
5. Next it is time for the soft stalks. These stems are best cut straight across. If they are cut at a 45° angle, they are likely to get damaged putting them at risk of getting an infection. They need to be placed resting on the stronger stalks to give them support if you want them to stand straight, or placed round the rim of the vase if you want them to drape over the edge.
You can experiment with each other of flowers to have different looks during the week when you change the water.
6. Now it’s is time to place the longer stems into your framework. These flowers are the ones that make a statement in your bouquet by adding both height and depth.
They too need their stems snipped at 45° ready to be placed with the stems going in the same direction. It would be so easy to cheat, but in so doing, you will lose both the volume of your design and the elegance in the stems going in the same direction.
7. The water will need topping up during the course of the time that you have the flowers.
The flowers will last longer if you remove the flowers; rinse their stems; discard any flowers that have past their best as well as the old water; clean the vase and refill it with fresh water. You will then be able to follow steps one to six including snipping the ends again before rearranging your flowers, to create a new display.
It is worth making the time for this as they will last better. See it as a small, fun, mindful activity and not a chore.
It is also fun to see who notices in your household!
I hope that you enjoy rearranging your flowers every time.
So there you have it, there really is a bit of an art to it if you want to make sure you arrange your flowers in a vase and have them looking as good as they did in the bouquet you bought them in! Don’t forget that we do same day delivery on flowers across large areas of Gloucestershire and The Cotswolds, see our delivery area page for more details. If you want to bring some longer term greenery into your home, we also have a large range of indoor plants and some tips here on the easiest ones to care for.
