Even though they’ve been designed with all their pretty faces showing, it’s hard to tell what is actually IN any mixed bouquet you buy. So, I always recommend getting two of the same mixed bouquets – they are pretty cost effective. And, one usually leaves me just wishing for more anyway … one more focal flower, one more of “that” color, or one more little arrangement to accent a larger one – or give away to a friend.

There's More Than Meets the Eye

When you are ready to design carefully remove the wrappings from the bouquets and put them aside. Then separate all the flowers and foliages from the bouquets, sorting them into groups of the same, and take inventory of what you have. Re-cut the ends of the not-to-be-used-at-this–time flowers and foliage and put them back into your Holding Station.

Having a Styling Vase handy allows you to keep the flowers and foliage that you are going to use organized, separated into their groups, and drinking while you prepare to style. And, it shows you a lot about the flowers you’ve just purchased.

Styling Vase - work vase, utility vase

Snip the ends of your flowers and place them into the vase. You’ll be able to see which are the tallest, largest, most vibrant, heaviest, lightest … in other words, you’ll get a feel for how they will lay in a design and interact with one another before you begin to arrange them.

And, now that you know what you have to work with you can begin to dream your design into being and gather the containers, tools, equipment, or enhancements you need to style your flowers to perfection.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 12th, 2010 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Arranging Flowers, Busy Moms, Buying Flowers, Living with Flowers, Making Flowers Last, Uncategorized, Using Flowers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.