& Pink
Pink & Yellow
Hot Pink & Bright Orange
Coral & Yellow
PREPARING
your flowers
Once you have your flowers and greens in hand, it’s time to get them ready. Tempting as it may be to startarranging them in your vase,preparing the flowers and greensfirst helpskeep your arrangement beautiful andclean, and last longer. Remember that any lowerleaves on the stems that touchthe water in your vase will
introduce bacteria and give flowers a shorter life span.
First, use scissorsto cut the stems of your flowers and greensto a manageable length. I leave on any plastic wrapping or rubber bands that may come with the flowers as I cutto ensure the stems will be trimmed tothe same length. I can easily remove the plastic or
rubber bandsafterward.
Next, remove all the lower leaves (and snip away any thorns, toavoid prickles)on the stem that are not partof the arrangement.This means all the leaves or foliage that could be submerged in the water once you putthe stems in the vase.You can cutthe leaves
off with scissors or use your hands for soft-stemmed flowers.
Then look atthe flowers and checkthe petals for anyunsightly or damaged ones. Ifthey are safe to remove, gently wiggle offthese petals. For roses, remove the guard petals, whichare the brown,
wilted outer petals of the flower, right above the sepal.
Finally, recut the stems on a diagonal so there is more surface area for them to take in water.Again, this lengthens your flowers’life
span. Now you’re ready to begin designing.
26
GETTING STARTED
guardpetals
sepals
EASY TECHNIQUES
EASY TECHNIQUES
31
MY FLOWER
equation
TECHNIQUE 1
This ismy go-toformula when creating floral arrangements. Ifyou learnnothing else from this book, remember this: flowers +greens + texture + smile (anunexpected element). With these four basic elements, you’ll never go wrong.For this arrangement, my flowers are yellow ranunculus,purple lisianthus, and white anenomes; the greens are eucalyptus and hydrangea leaves; the textureis eucalyptusberries;and the smile is the fresh mint, which delivers a lovely fresh
aroma. I arranged everything in milk bottles for a bright dining table centerpiece.
32
EASY TECHNIQUES
2
Trim the hydrangea stems so that the
flowers rest on the rim of the bottles when
inserted, and remove any leaves that may
touch the water. Place the hydrangeas
around evenly in the bottles.
1
Fill each bottle three-quarters full of water.
Place the eucalyptus branches, which
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