Learn to create dazzling flower arrangements from Mark Welford and Stephen Wicks, owners of the award-winning destination florist Bloomsbury Flowers in London’s Covent Garden. Full of insider tips that show you how to choose flowers and foliage, color palettes to inspire you and tons of ideas for creative containers, Simple Flower Arranging(DK Publishing, 2014) offers 60 stylish projects for any occasion. In this excerpt see how you can repurpose a vintage floral tea set into a delicate flower arrangement.
Pick some small, delicate blooms from your garden and arrange them loosely in an old teapot and teacup for a delightfully simple, inexpensive, yet stylish arrangement on your coffee table to kitchen table. Choose only flowers that match the colored pattern of your china.
Vintage Tea Set Flower Arrangement
You will need:
6 small dark-pink clematis
7 centaureas
3 eucalyptus parvifolia stems
Materials:
1 vintage teapot
1 teacup and saucer
Florist’s scissors
Garden string or twine
Substitution:
Tulips in similar colors for a more modern look
How to arrange
1. Half-fill the teapot with water. Hold the stem of each flower against the teapot to gauge the right length of stem and trim it before arranging it. Start with the clematis, as it is the biggest flower heads: rest 4 clematis, evenly spaced, against the rim of the teapot and fill the gaps in between with a few sweet peas. Move in toward the middle of the arrangement, filling the neck of the teapot with more sweet peas and 3 of the centaureas. Check the blooms are evenly distributed.
2. Trim the eucalyptus down to 12 short stems, each about 1 1/2 in (4cm) long. Insert 6-7 stems at intervals around the edge of the pot and into any gaps in the center.
3. For the teacup, informally arrange the remaining flowers and eucalyptus in your hand and tie the bunch at the base of the short stems using twine or string before placing it in the cup. Hand-tying the bunch in this way helps the flowers to flare out naturally, creating a pretty domed effect, and prevents the heavier flower heads from tipping out of the cup. Add water to the teacup and top up the teapot.
Insider tips
• Although the sweet peas won’t last long—at most, four days—change the water after two days to prolong their life.
• Place just one variety of flower in each container for a change, or to recreate this design en masse, arrange more flowers in a line of teacups or white mugs.
For more DIY Projects from Simple Flower Arranging, read DIY Cherry Blossom Vases.
Photographs and text reproduced by permission of DK, a division of Penguin Random House(USA) from Simple Flower Arrangingby Mark Welford and Stephen Wicks. ©2014 by DK. All rights reserved.
