Have you found yourself eager to work with flowers, but you’re unsure where to start?
Are you a new flower farmer with buckets of blooms, but you don’t know how to create anything with them?
Have you wondered what types of flowers are in season in the Spring?
You’re in the right place! Let me walk you through how I make special Spring flower arrangements here on the flower farm.
Spring Flower Arrangement Demo
This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click through and make a purchase, we’ll make a small commission at no cost to you. Thanks for the support! Read our full disclosure here.
Spring Flower Arrangement Ingredients
What flowers are in season during late Spring?
It will vary depending on your growing zone, but here are some examples of what’s blooming on my farm in the Midwest in late Spring.
Spring Blooming Flowers
Focals:
- Ranunculus
- Anemones
- Peonies
- Garden Roses
Fillers:
- Snapdragons
- Stock
- Sweet Peas
- Orlaya (White Lace Flower)
- Nigella (Love-in-a-Mist)
- Bachelor Buttons
- Larkspur
- Yarrow
- Feverfew
Foliage:
- Bupleurum
- Mountain Mint
- Blackberry Leaves
- Raspberry Leaves (‘Joan J’ is a fantastic prickle-free variety)
- Honeywort
- Solomon’s Seal
- Hosta
How To Set Up Your Vase
There are several different container options to choose from when you decide to create an arrangement.
The easiest option is a mason jar. I like to use the wide mouth quart jars for larger arrangements and the regular mouth pint jars for petite arrangements.
I also like to use old pasta jars or pickle jars!
Scavenging antique stores for cheap vases is also something I like to do. I have found some beautiful vases for a fraction of the price than what’s offered by the floral supply wholesalers.
For this demo, I decided to use a fancier vase that is very shallow with a wide mouth. Because the mouth of the vase is so wide, I need to do some setup first.
If I don’t provide some support, the stems will splay or fall out of the vase.
Balled up chicken wire is great for providing support for your stems. For an additional layer of support, you can use waterproof tape to make a grid across the mouth of the vase. The tape and chicken wire will be hidden once the arrangement is complete.
Make a Greenery Base First
Before I start adding focal or filler flowers, I like to make a base of greenery first. Using large leaves the base helps provide lots of support and helps to hide the top of the container.
Hostas, Solomon’s seal, raspberry leaves, and blackberry leaves work great creating your greenery base.
Make sure that the stems are criss-crossing each other. For example, I add one stem that angles towards the left, then add another stem on the opposite side, and so on.
This creates a little pyramid of stems at the bottom of the vase that will also provide support for the blooms we will add later.
Criss-crossing the stems is especially important if you are using a jar or vase without the tape grid or chicken wire. It’s not as important here in this example because I’ve created support already with the wire and tape. But it’s still a good rule of thumb to follow.
Add in Your Fillers and Focals
Focals are any flower that has a large presence. They are what draws your eye to a center of focus.
Focal flowers in the Spring include ranunculus, anemones, peonies, and roses.
Filler flowers are more light and airy. They provide depth, dimension, and texture to a bouquet or arrangement. They are often different shapes and sizes, but for the most part their overall effect doesn’t say “look at me” like a focal flower.
Instead, fillers provide you with an overall feeling of awe. “Wow, this is beautiful”. You might not even know where to look first if the arrangement is mainly made up of fillers.
And that’s okay! Sometimes that’s design preference.
This is my favorite order to arrange flowers: 1) Greenery base first, 2) Focals, 3) Fillers, and 4) Add more greenery to fill in the gaps.
Tweak the Arrangement as Needed
If you’re writing a paper, more than likely you will need to edit it after it’s complete.
This is the same way for arranging flowers. You will need to “edit” or tweak your arrangement at the end to make sure everything looks pleasing to the eye.
Don’t be afraid to take something out or clip off a leaf here and there.
Sometimes you might need to add more focals and fillers, too.
And also, sometimes you might need to step away for a few minutes and come back with fresh eyes.
I can’t tell you how many times I come back to a flower arrangement and want to pick it apart a day later.
But there comes a point when you need to stop! So don’t get too worked up about it. And if you’re giving the arrangement as a gift, remember that most people are not scrutinous about how their flowers are arranged. They just love the flowers in general!
Improving Your Arranging Skills
The best way to improve your floral arranging skills is by practice.
And the best way to practice is by getting your hands on some flowers!
If you don’t already grow flowers in your backyard, then I suggest reaching out to local flower farmers. They will often be growing flowers that you can’t get at Sam’s Club or the floral wholesaler anyways. And even better, the flowers will be freshly picked!
Obviously if it’s the Winter, it may be harder to acquire flowers locally. But don’t hesitate to reach out to a local farmers because we often have dried flowers or even greenhouse grown flowers, too.
The best way to improve your flower arranging skills is to practice, practice, practice!
Want to grow your own flowers, but you don’t know where to start?
Snag our free e-book titled The Summer Bouquet: 6 Ingredients & How to Grow Them.
Summer annual flowers are some of the easiest to grow. In this guide, you learn what to grow and how to get them started.
Once you’ve mastered Summer annuals, then graduating to the Spring blooms like ranunculus and anemones won’t feel as daunting.
Leave a Reply