Flowers In Bloom

One of the things I love most about the coming spring is the sudden abundance of flowers in the shops. It really starts around Valentine's Day but once March arrives so do all the tulips, hyacinths and daffodils. One hobby that I have always wanted to try my hand at is flower arranging. So many of the magazines I love to flip through are filled with images of beautiful bouquets. They adorn table tops, fireplace mantles, window sills and coffee tables. Flowers are the perfect way to bring life and lightness to a room, which we are all more than ready for this time of year. 

I used to be a bit snobbish about using real flowers. I thought fake flowers were tacky and lifeless. However, what is available for fake flowers has come a long way and besides, real flowers can be exorbantly expensive. So I opened my heart and home to fake flowers, making sure that the ones I chose caught my eye and were not crumpled or damaged. 

I like to approach it from a very intuitive perspective, having some idea of what I am looking for and then letting chance do the rest. There are a few things to bear in mind when putting together your own flower arrangements:

• know where in your home you wish to place the flowers, i.e. the kitchen table, a window in the livingroom
• what kind of aesthetic are you going for, i.e. a simple subdued arrangement or something big and grand (bear in mind, this will relate to the first point, you don't want to put an overbearing arrangement on a tiny side table where it could get bumped and just be in the way)
• the size of the container or vase you will use; a general rule of thumb is for the flowers to be one and a half times the height of the vase and three times the width

Next comes the fun part, choosing your flowers. There are four main catagories to consider: focal flowers, supporting flowers, filler flowers and foliage. The focal flowers are the showstopping blooms that will grab your attention, for example roses, hydrangeas and dahlias. Your supporting flowers are midway in size and can also include tall straight stems, for example delphiniums, snapdragons and campanula. The fillers are usually the most delicate and will fill in the gaps, for example waxflower, astrania and cow parsley. Lastly foliage is important for creating structure and contrast for the flowers to stand out against, for example ivy, grasses and eucalyptus. 

When putting your arrangement together, start with your focal flowers, then your supporting and fillers, finishing off with the foliage. The point is to fiddle around with things until you get it looking the way you want it to. This will take time and practice but you will get a feel for it as you go. 

Remember that these are guidelines only. At the end of the day it's your flower arrangement in your home so make of it what you will. I like the idea of starting with fake flowers because it's much cheaper and the upkeep is much less fussy. If this is something you really enjoy and want to grow into real flowers, an excellent resource I would recommend is House of Flowers by Ashlee Jane. 

Happy arranging!