If you follow along on Instagram, you know I love flower bouquets. I buy them for work and styling projects, Nick buys me them almost weekly (cutie pie) and sometimes I just pick them up because arranging flowers is a total zen, calming hobby for me. I am not a pro, I just pick up flowers I like and arrange them. Since this can be a VERY expensive hobby, I pick up flowers from grocery stores- mostly Trader Joe’s, sometimes Whole Foods (they tend to be more expensive there) and other grocery stores.
For the flower arrangements you see here, I picked up two bunches of peonies, mini roses, carnations and um, whatever the white flowers are. I made four bouquets out of them for teacher gifts! I spent $31 which is a bit over $7 per bouquet. (I used eucalyptus from my backyard) I did NOT do that to be a cheap gift giver (they also got more gifts) but because I wanted to make something personal and pretty for each of the girl’s teachers.
The first step is to remove any greenery that will hit the water line- even on the eucalyptus. This will help the bouquet last linger and look cleaner. I often remove all greenery from the flowers. Trim the flowers at a 45 degree angle. You can use scissors for this, but floral scissors are awesome and cut the greenery easily too.
The peony is my feature flower for the bouquet, so I picked 2-23 for each bouquet and then arrange around it. The greenery and carnations are filler for the bouquet. Carnations are very affordable and come in so many colors that I think they make a great filler flower.
Because I was gifting the flowers, I did not use tape or any sort of arranging in a vase. I filled a small clear bag with water and tied a rubber band around the bouquet and bag and put in a cup so that the teachers could easily take it home and not worry about spillage. In hindsight, I should have done a vase but I did not think about it til the morning of… But this simple trick is easy to do at home and makes it easy to give flowers to someone and not inconvenience them with holding it between their knees when driving to avoid spilling water everywhere… There are other floral sponge soaks you can get but that requires going to a craft or floral store. Use a bag and make life easy.
There is not a specific method I do with the arranging. I turn the vase as I fill it so that it looks good from many angles and I separate all the flowers. I do not want huge clumps of same flower so, as I separate them, I add a rose, carnation, greenery and fill as I go.
Hope you enjoy these flower arranging tips and you can make some beautiful, affordable bouquets at home!
Also, if you like flower spam, here are a few examples of grocery store flower designs from my instagram feed that I made at home:
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a bouquet in one color with no filler is a simple fix:
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what i do if the flowers break, fill a bowl up-
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farmer’s market selections
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ranunculus- one of my favorite flowers
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wildflowers picked on a walk!
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mini roses-
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