Simple Ideas for Floral Arrangements

Variety Is Key to Floral Design

• Don't be afraid to use a variety of flowers. Choose cuttings with unbruised leaves and buds that are just starting to open. Recut the stems and set them in a mixture of cool water and flower preservative, since this will allow you more time to create your arrangement. Once you have arranged the flowers, enhance your design by adding greenery such as fern fronds, ivy, moss or eucalyptus. Combining flowers and greenery creates different textures, shapes and effects. To make your floral arrangement stand out, use unadorned containers or ones with simple designs. Baskets, plain glass vases, iron urns and ceramic pots are all options.

Bouquets and Posies

• Often seen at weddings, a bouquet of flowers in a vase is an elegant design accent and can make a colorful table centerpiece. A posy is simply a smaller hand-tied English bouquet. Choose long-stemmed flowers such as snapdragons, roses, tulips, irises and lisianthus. Complete your bouquet by balancing the flowers with variegated strands of greenery such as eucalyptus and viburnum. Tying the bouquet with a ribbon adds a sweet, romantic touch.

Floral Arrangements Using Perennials

• Many beautiful floral arrangements use only cuttings of perennials (plants that live for two or more growing seasons). Consider pairing cuttings of dwarf pink delphinium with coral bells of medium height. As always, composition is key. Place the tallest delphiniums in the container's center and surround them with the coral bells and shorter delphinium cuttings, working down in height toward the edge. To complete the arrangement, add moss at the base of the cuttings and have strands of common periwinkle trail slightly over the container's rim.

Floral Arrangements With Annuals

• Cuttings of annuals (plants with life cycles that last only one growing season) can make colorful bouquets and table centerpieces. Annuals that bloom in the spring will not last, however. For longer-lasting arrangements, choose summer-blooming annuals such as zinnias, petunias, cornflowers, asters, sunflowers and daisies. Linie the edge of the container with sweet alyssum or moss. For arrangements of annuals that will grow all summer and into the fall in warmer climates, transplant and root cuttings in a clay or plastic pot.

Butterfly Garden Arrangement

• Create outdoor floral arrangements in your garden to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Begin by placing water-soaked florist foam in a pedestal bowl in your garden. Then build your arrangement with varying lengths of stems, placing the taller flowers in the center and the shorter ones on the sides. Snapdragons and buttercups are good choices for butterfly garden arrangements, as are also lobelia (cardinal flower), cosmos, coreopsis and minature Shasta daisies. Consider rooting cuttings in more permanent potted floral arrangements, with lily turf (also known as monkey grass) at the base of the design.