Flower styling at home with Freddie
It won’t come as a surprise that I love creating floral centrepieces at home; I love using interesting vessels for arrangements that are sculptural and wild looking. These are best done using a flower frog: It supports the stems and holds them in place.
Flower frogs come in different sizes, depending on the kind of arrangement you’re after. You can use small ones for creations that resemble the minimalistic style of the Japanese flower arranging technique called Ikebana. Or you can let your creative juices flow with a large flower frog holding many stems.
Regardless of the size you’re after, here are my top tips for taking your dinner party tablescape up a notch.
Step 1
Pick a fun vessel that’s NOT a vase: it must be shallow, but deep enough to cover the flower frog with water.
Step 2
You could also use something flat like a cake stand so long as you have a ramekin or something similar to place your flower frog (and water) in.
Step 3
Put your flower frog into your vessel and cover it with water (it doesn’t need to be fully submerged, just enough so the flower gets water)
Step 4
Lead with long flowers in the centre: make sure your dinner guests can still see each other over the top.
Step 5
Start with structural, floaty flowers with clean stems to create the arrangement shape. Think anemones, ranunculus, tulips, daffodils, mimosa, icelandic poppies.
- If you use flowers like roses, I would recommend a clean steam but leaving a few leaves around the flowerhead for a pretty effect.
- My top tip for tulips: Reflex their petals when they’re about a week or so old to create a cool new look.
Step 6
Work your way outwards with longer stems in the middle and shorter ones towards the edges, trimming them to length.
Step 7
Create a bit of a nest adding hellebores, clematis or other foliage.
Step 8
Add extra width and wildness with a few longer flowers towards the edge.
Step 9
Cover the flower frog with tulip leaves, moss or stones (if you like).
Step 10
Remember to top the water up regularly to keep your arrangement fresh.
And just like that, you have a jaw-dropping floral piece of art for your home. Easy, isn’t it? If you’d like to watch me in action creating a flower frog arrangement, just pop over to Instagram. Happy arranging!
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