how to arrangeflowers in a vase
Our easy flower arranging guide shows you how to create a gorgeous floral arrangement in a vase, including how to prepare your stems and top tips for arranging your flowers.
All of our flower bouquets are delivered beautifully arranged - just trim the stems and place in a vase with some fresh water and flower food.
What Equipment Will I Need?
- A Clean Vase - Disinfected and half full with fresh, room temperature water
- Sharp Scissors - The sharper the better!
- Knife - For removing rose thorns
- Flower Food - So your flowers will last longer
HOW TO PREPARE YOUR STEMS
Stripping leaves
The 'Rule of Thirds'
Tips and Ideas for Arranging your Flowers
Be inspired by your vase! Let the vase shape inspire your arrangement. In our example we use a round medium height vase, this is best suited to round arrangements, but have a go at improvising according to the vase shape.
Flying Flowers Pro tip "If you have a small round vase, then the ideal floral arrangement would be more compact, for longer vases use the length of the stems, embrace the shape of your vase, don’t fight it.”
Where to Cut Your Flowers
Be careful to cut away from notches (nodules or nodes) in the stem. For even better results cut them at an angle, this will help them drink more water so you can enjoy them for longer.
Flying Flowers Pro tip "Keep the stem you’ve just cut – it’ll be a useful guide for cutting the rest of your bouquet”
Cut and Place into the Vase
Don’t let flowers dry out - make your flowers last longer by cutting each stem as you are about to place it into the vase. Roses are especially prone to sealing soon after they’ve been cut.
Criss-Cross Your Stems
Place the flowers at a slight angle in the vase, using a criss-cross method as you place in more stems, this creates a more professional finish and holds the arrangement in place
Arrange Your Flowers In the Vase Using Layers
- Greenery first - Anything without a typical flower at its head use these to build as a base first, this will give you a base to build from
- Then smaller flower heads or more subtle colours - These are your 'filler stems', they will add shape to the arrangement
- Colourful, large or most impressive flowers last - These 'focus stems' form the show stopping element to your arrangement, they may be the brightest, largest or simply the most stunning flowers that you have.
Use a Centrepiece Flower
This does not need to be the biggest or brightest flower, but the one which will show off the rest of your arrangement the best.
Flying Flowers Pro tip "Beginners often use a large headed closed lily as the central focus flower. When the lily opens it can cover and detract from the arrangement. Take this into consideration when selecting your centrepiece flower - we suggest you use the highest quality flower instead.”
Odd Numbers Look Better
Arrange Colours and Flower Types Evenly
Spread colours and flower types evenly, so if you have lots of roses and lilies, try to make sure that all the roses are not on one side.
Flying Flowers tip "You can use your hand as a guide to create a balanced arrangement of colours and flower types. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right first time, you may need to move your flowers around to find the perfect combination."
