3 Tips to DIY Bouquets

Wow Them With Flowers!

At work when we have a flower delivery everyone gets excited. Who is it for? Who is it from? Is it someone’s anniversary or birthday? Everyone is curious and sometimes envious when it’s for someone else. The bouquet adds some fun to an otherwise normal day. So why wait for a flower delivery, do it yourself!

DIY: Bring in your own and brighten up your desk or the whole office.

1.  Start with flowers. You can simply buy a bouquet at your favorite florist, grocery store or road side stand. Feeling more creative? Pick them from your garden. That’s the easy part, now for arranging them.
2. Let’s get creative. Take a little time and recut the stems and arrange them in a way that you can enjoy each gorgeous bloom. There are various ways to create an arrangement. A common way is to build the arrangement in your hand by adding one bloom at a time and rotating the bouquet as you add each flower. It makes for a beautiful arrangement in the round and is perfect for designing smaller bouquets in short vases. For a larger bouquet in a tall vase or flower bucket, I like to build it in the vessel (I need both hands). You can start with greenery like ferns or green plants like the variegated solomon seal (they both hold their shape for a few days and won’t wilt) and place them in the back, leaving them nice and tall. Then add the tallest flowers in the middle and put shorter stemmed flowers around the tall ones to hold them up. Note:  Make sure the taller stemmed flowers have a strong stem or the flower’s bloom isn’t too top heavy. If the bloom is heavy like a sunflower cut it short and place it in the front of the bouquet as a focal point and build around it. 
3. Have FUN. The key is to play and have fun, but if it’s just not your thing, ask a creative friend to help you out. My sister does gorgeous arrangements so when she comes over to my house, I let her make them. I also like to pick a 5 gallon buckets worth of flowers and take them as a hostest gift for a cookout. I’ll either make a bunch of arrangements for the hostess once I get there or let the other guests join in while we wait for the burgers. It’s a great way to socialize without having to worry about small talk.

Don’t stress! Even a simpler bouquet is beautiful. Don’t be afraid to just pick one type of flower. There is nothing prettier than a vase full of tons of daisies, daffodils or black-eyed Susans. The perk of creating these simpler bouquets is using your creativity with non-traditional vessels as a vase, like a watering can or an old tin. I’ve seen bouquets in mugs, boots, galvanized buckets, ceramic jugs and antique glass pitchers.

The key is to just enjoy them and make sure to notice your friend’s or co-workers reactions to them. You’re guaranteed to hear at least one “Wow!”