You’ve made a trip to your local florist, bought a bunch of stems of flowers and taken them home to arrange them. Stepping back from your creation, you look at it and think, why can’t I get it to look like the photo off of Pinterest? Well, here are a few pointers of what to avoid that will help you select, create and enjoy flowers in your home.

Choosing Too Many Colours

When choosing flowers for an arrangement, it’s best to select from a limited colour palette. Pick flowers with colours that are complementary to each other, or are close in tone. Too many colours, or colours that don’t blend well together usually end up making your arrangement look inharmonious.

Mismatched Flower Shapes

Flowers, as you know, come in all shapes and sizes. If you select flowers according to familiarity, preference, or sentiment, think about how those flowers will actually look together in a vase. Play with balancing out tall with round, full with slender, and ruffled with straight. With that in mind, if for example, you’ve chosen to work with roses, use the same colour roses in your arrangement, not two of one colour and one of another.

Wrong Container

Choosing a vessel for your flower arrangement is just as important as your flower selection. A vase that is either too tall, or wide for the arrangement looks just as bad as one that is too small or narrow. If your vase is wildly colourful, or uniquely shaped, those attributes are harder to work with and often don’t lend themselves to a pleasing overall outcome. Remember, the bigger the vase, the more flowers you need to fill it.

Playing it too Safe

All one colour and type of flower can be attractive. If, however, you tend to default to choosing the same flowers over and over again because it’s easy, try and challenge yourself to experiment. Go with what’s in season, try a different style or add things from your own garden!

Improper Flower Care

Some basic flower care while making your arrangement, and during the time it’s in your home, can go a long way to improving the overall look of your flowers. When you’re ready to arrange your flowers, fill your vase with ordinary tap water, Forget about the pennies, the soda, sugar or what ever else you’ve heard. Plain water with a few drops of bleach is all you need. Cut your flower stems before they go in the container. Forgetting to trim your flowers before they go in the vase can shorten the vase life of your flowers. Clean the water if it looks dirty. Dirty water means decomposition of the flower stems and bad smells! Lastly, keep your flowers out of direct sunlight, away from heat registers, and fireplaces. Flowers will definitely last longer if kept cool and away from any source of heat.

Keeping A Flower Arrangement Beyond Its Time

This one is pretty self explanatory. When your flowers are gone, throw them in the compost bin. Arrangements that are dead or dying are not attractive, and no atmosphere is enhanced by flowers that have seen better days.

Thinking All Flowers Are Equal

All flowers have value and add beauty to our surrounding, yes. But not all flowers are equal. Some flowers are inexpensive and long lasting. Others are more expensive and only last a few days. Some flowers are bred for petal count, others for colour or scent. That is partly the joy of flowers. Because they are temporal their value is great and need to be enjoyed for their brief beauty.

“Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day-like writing a poem or saying a prayer.” Anne Morrow

All images by Flowers and Company

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