Flowers + Plants 101
Recipe 2: Light and Lovely
Monday, May 22, 2017
Hi, everyone! I’m back with another DIY arrangement from The Flower Chef. This time, we’re working with another difficulty of 2 from the book: the “Light and Lovely” bouquet. The arrangement turned out beautiful, despite my initial insecurities – and even taught me a couple life lessons along the way. Let’s get to it!
What you’ll need: * 3-5 stems of white hydrangea * 1 bunch of tuberose (or a few stems) * 1 bunch of pink sweet peas (could substitute ranunculus or freesia) * Thick green floral tape or something to bind the bouquet * Medium cylinder vase
Let me start off by saying that I went into this one feeling pretty darn confident. I mean, my first attempt at channeling my inner Carly turned out beautiful. This one would surely be no sweat, right? Wrong. I quickly realized I was a bit too confident in my floral arranging abilities – as I winced and second-guessed myself throughout the entire session.
Moral of the story: While it’s important to trust in your own abilities, thinking you’re on your way to becoming a professional florist on your second attempt is probably not the best plan of action!
Steps 1-4: Prep & Assemble As always, start by prepping the flowers you plan to use. I had hydrangeas, ranunculus, and a bunch of hyacinth to substitute for the tuberose.
Once you have your stems trimmed and flowers prepared, start by spiraling the hydrangea blooms. (See how to spiral here.) This part of the process was very satisfying, as the hydrangeas were beautifully full and created the dome shape almost effortlessly!
Once you have achieved the dome shape with your hydrangeas, pull through the tuberose (or in my case, hyacinth). This part gave me some troubles, if I’m being honest. The hydrangea blooms were so full, it was hard to find the gap in-between to place the other flowers! I managed to pull them through despite a small struggle, and continued to do the same technique with the pink ranunculus.
Steps 5-6: Secure the bouquet Once you have spiraled and pulled through your stems, secure the arrangement with either a rubber band, floral tape, or satin ribbon and corsage pin. After learning from my previous mistake, I used floral tape to bind this bouquet together and it was much easier than the rubber band fiasco I suffered through before!
Step 7: Don’t second guess yourself! I’m not going to lie… I really didn’t like the way this bouquet turned out at first. I even considered starting from scratch after I placed it in the vase. Have you ever had those moments when you leave the house feeling like a million bucks, then glance in the mirror to find all your insecurities jumping out at you? That was this arrangement to me. I went into it uber-confident, and left feeling more than just a bit defeated.
I added in this step as lucky number 7, if only to serve as a reminder to myself for future bouquets; because a few days later when I looked back at these photos, I was really glad I didn’t destroy my creation. The ranunculus, that seemed to stick out like sore thumbs at first, add the perfect pop of color – and the fullness of the white hydrangea mixed with the texture of the white hyacinth made for a simple yet striking combination.
Can’t you picture this as a centerpiece option for a feminine baby or bridal shower? Or even a little girl’s first birthday party? It turned out so sweet and elegant, and even taught me a valuable lesson along the way: don’t overestimate yourself, but don’t sell yourself short, either.
What do you think of this arrangement? Let us know if plan to recreate it, and be sure to share your photos with us when you do @BloomsyBox!
Moral of the story: While it’s important to trust in your own abilities, thinking you’re on your way to becoming a professional florist on your second attempt is probably not the best plan of action!
