Plant Arrangement 1/2 - Fundamentals of the Art of Floristry

Plants, whether potted or cut, bring colours and life into a room. They brighten up both the space and your mood.

So treat yourself as well, bring the beauty of flowers into your life!

There are many ways to arrange plants, from dense round bouquets of a single flower species through arrangements symbolising nature to modern austere and elegant shapes.


It depends on you which type suits you and your home, and also on the types of flowers and accessories you have available.

In this article you will learn: choosing the right type of arrangement, selecting flowers, basic binding techniques, a few words about aesthetics, a vase is not just a container with water, and how to keep flowers beautiful.

Choose the Right Type

For flowers to work best in an interior, besides our enthusiasm, we must also consider the environment where they will be placed.

We try to harmonise flowers with their surroundings. In other words, in a country cottage we won't use an extravagant arrangement of anthuriums and palm leaves, but rather choose flowers reminiscent of a flowering meadow - daisies, bluebells, forget-me-nots, sunflowers, marigolds, grass leaves and the like.

Conversely, a similar arrangement would seem out of place in richly decorated or ostentatiously modern rooms.

For modern interiors, we select rather shapely interesting plants and not overly dense bouquets; often a single unusual flower in a narrow tall vase works brilliantly (anthurium, orchid, gladiolus, tillandsia, lisianthus, amaryllis).

For decorative apartments with historic massive furniture, we'll choose rather heavier, richer arrangements of traditional flowers, for example hydrangeas, lilies, gladioli, peonies, roses, lisianthus.

In a large hall or entrance lobby, a small arrangement will get lost, better than several small ones is one large one, positioned so it's clearly visible from the entrance.

On the other hand, in smaller spaces don't let yourself be overwhelmed by flowers; their purpose is to complement the room, not grab all the attention.

The most common way of arranging flowers is tying them into a bouquet. However, we don't have to stick with this method - flowering plants can be freely inserted into containers, pinned into floral foam, using various fixation techniques and aids.

Complex stem and branch fixation techniques are particularly known in ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, where spiked bases, pebbles, sand and complex fixations using twigs inside vases are used to achieve the final effect.

In this article, we will focus mainly on the most common discipline - flower bouquet arrangement.

Choosing Flowers
As we have already mentioned, one of the criteria for selecting flowers is the type of arrangement and consequently the space where it will be placed. Other important elements are naturally the colour of the flowers and their texture.

Last but not least, we must also pay attention to the condition of the plants - flowers that are too far in bloom, dried leaves and flowers with drooping heads are definitely not suitable because they won't last long.

We must also work with consideration for the temperature conditions of the environment where the bouquet will be placed, as well as the possibility of temperature shocks and lack of watering, for example during transport.

Cooler rooms particularly require spring bulbs and generally flowers that bloom in spring, as they fade very quickly in warmth.

On the contrary, meadow flowers or lilacs wilt immediately without water.


Colour
Apart from being able to choose colours according to our favourites or according to the colour scheme of a room, there are principles for combining individual colours in a bouquet.

If the arrangement is not monochrome, it is necessary to find the right colour balance.

The basic principle is contrast - contrasting colours emphasise each other the most. On the colour wheel, the strongest colour contrasts are positioned opposite each other - purple and yellow, pink and green, purple and blue.

However, contrasts used too strongly appear tasteless, so they need to be softened by adding other neutral colours that unify the composition.

This can be, for example, cream, green, grey or white. A strong contrast is also created by white with darker colours and black with light ones.

Subtle contrasts can also be created simply by using different shades of one colour.

We shouldn't overdo the number of colours in an arrangement - for variety, it's better to use perhaps another shade of one of the colours or a different texture.

For a start, it's better to make do with three to five types of flowers - two or three can have contrasting colours and another one or two unifying ones.

By texture we primarily mean the size and quantity of flowers. Arrangements made only of large flowers (roses, peonies, sunflowers, gerberas...) appear heavy and monotonous.

When using only small flowers, nothing really catches the attention.

If we want to enliven the bouquet, it's advisable to use different sizes - larger flowers (usually a stem with a single large flower or inflorescence), medium flowers (they tend to be smaller, sometimes having multiple flowers on a stem.

Some carnations, chrysanthemums, calendula...) and supplementary flowers and greenery, which can perfectly complement the arrangement and add that "something" that's missing (small white chrysanthemums and santinis, baby's breath, statice, hydrangea, leaves...).

Besides flowers, we can also enliven the bouquet by adding fruits and berries, or various interesting objects, dried fruits, skeletonized leaves and similar items.

Basic Binding Techniques

Bouquets can be created using several methods - by inserting flowers directly into a vase, using a construction, pinning, or classic binding, usually in a spiral.

Before starting to arrange or bind, always prepare everything in advance - remove leaves from stems (about 2/3 of the height, and possibly remove flowers too - don't regret them, they would really interfere with binding), sort the types and sizes of plants, prepare a sharp knife, string and any other materials - construction, vase with fixation material, etc.

Inserting into a vase is the simplest method, suitable wherever the bouquet doesn't need to be removed from the container. For easier creation, we can use fixation materials in the vase (if it's not transparent) - there are special substances and gels that look aesthetic even in transparent containers (colored gels, etc.).

However, ordinary perlite works excellently too, into which we stick the flowers; sand can also be used (though it's very heavy and some flowers won't tolerate it).

An excellent solution is to place an ordinary mesh or piece of wire netting under the neck of the container - this way you can insert flowers through the openings and the bouquet holds its shape beautifully.

Pinning is a relatively old method of easy arranging, which additionally doesn't require flowers to have long stems.

We place water-soaked floral foam into the container (sand or moss were also used in the past), into which we pin shortened cut flower stems.

In the result, the floral foam and any dish underneath shouldn't be visible, although today colored decorative floral foams are available, which can be left largely exposed and thus shape the appearance of the arrangement.

Working with floral foam is simple, the results are striking, and flowers stay fresh for a very long time, because they are constantly supplied with water and the stems are short (the longer the stem, the worse the plant absorbs water).

The most commonly used floral foams are from Oasis, which offers a wide assortment - besides ordinary foam blocks, they also produce various shapes, placed in plastic containers for water refilling, holders for pinning hand-held bouquets, and those equipped with suction cups for attachment to smooth surfaces.

When soaking floral foam, it's necessary to place it on the water surface and let it absorb water on its own and sink to the bottom. Don't try to push it under the surface or hold it under running water - if the foam absorbs water from different directions, air pockets remain trapped inside.

This limits the amount of water for plants, increases the fragility of the foam, and stems that we push through to these dry spots wilt. If the foam absorbs water only from one direction, usually from below, all air is pushed out on the other side.

Using a support structure not only makes binding easier, it can also become an effective addition to the entire bouquet.

Try binding cut twigs into a triangular or otherwise angular grid, attach wires at three points that will lead to the binding point (the place where the bouquet is held and is narrowest).

You can easily insert flowers into the resulting simple grid. The structure should be visible at the edges of the bouquet, completing the final effect.