Do you always find that when you get flowers home from a florist or delivered to your home they’re never quite as good when you put them in a vase as when they are in the florists display? Well, here are a few tips to make the most of that lovely flower bouquet: 1. Make sure you have a clean vase. Simple, but effective. If you leave water too long in a vase you will get marks as the water evaporates and algae builds up. By ensuring you have a clean vase the focus will be on the flowers and not the dirty vase. 2. Take your foliage first and snip the ends off to the size you want and then start criss-crossing the stems into the vase so that you have stems all around inside the vase. This provides a base for the flower arrangement and also makes it easier for placing the flower stems. 3. Decide if you want a tall or a short arrangement and match your vase accordingly. It will look better proportioned and a tall vase will support tall flowers better. Sometimes you have no choice but if you do consider the types of flowers you have. Flowers such as gladiolas, blue delphinium, lilies, snapdragons and some tulips look great as a tall arrangement. 4. For a small arrangement place the flowers evenly around the inside of the vase. The more stems you have in the vase, the easier it will be to have flowers stay put. The rows of flowers are going to be higher each time you get them in until you have a nice rounded arrangement. 5. Do not make the mistake of placing the flowers in a vase perfectly evenly as it does not look natural. Nature isn’t even and the eye will quickly pick out what it sees as a regular or unnatural pattern. 6. With a good mix of varieties, an effective tip is to group flowers together in odd numbers such as three or five roses together of slightly different lengths and at different heights. 7. Finally practice makes perfect! Look closely at flower arrangements in florists windows and in online florists. Collect pictures of flower arrangements you like and use the tips above. Pretty soon your friends won’t know the difference between flower arrangements made by the florist and you.
Clinton Porter is a search engine optimisation consultant with Nvisage (http://www.nvisage.co.uk/whatwedo/search_engine_optimisation.asp) for Flowers4 Online flower shops and florists (http://www.flowers4.co.uk/) specialists in Wedding and bridal flowers, Funeral and sympathy flowers. Order and send fresh flowers online for same day and next day delivery.
