Kate from Edinburgh-based florist Foxglove Stockbridge has put together some tips and step-by-step instructions for making a gorgeous Mother’s Day bouquet at home.
1. Choose a vase big enough to hold all your flowers without them being overcrowded!
If possible the neck should be narrower than the base, that way you can angle each bloom away from the others. Remember to change the water every couple of days and remove individual stems as they start to wilt.
2. Gorgeous, long lasting flowers you can pick up at the supermarket…
… they include: lilies, tulips, astra and (hopefully soon) peonies, but also think about bringing a little bit of nature inside by clipping greenery, cherry blossom and spring flowers like daffodils and hyacinths to add to indoor arrangements.
When shopping for flowers, avoid blooms that are already fully open, starting to brown around the petals or feel slightly mushy at the bottom of the stem (the bit that sits in the water.)
3. When choosing your flowers I’d recommend going for three different varieties in complementary shades…
….so maybe one bright colour to pair with a couple muted or neutral tones. You also want flowers that have a very different look from each other so your finished bouquet has lots of variety whichever angle you look at it from.
4. Once you have all your supplies, it’s really important to prepare the flowers properly
We do this by stripping all the leaves and greenery away from the bottom half of each stem.
If you imagine the flowers in water in the vase, you don’t want any greenery below the water line, while keeping the top ones on will help the flowers open. As we’re putting the flowers straight into a vase, you’ll also want to snip off the bottom of each stem at an angle. This fresh cut will help them suck up water.
You can even go the extra mile by adding a little DIY flower food to the vase full of water with this simple recipe: 1 teaspoon of bleach and 1 tablespoon sugar. The sugar feeds the flowers while the bleach helps kill any bacteria on the stems below the waterline and will prolong the life of your arrangement.
5. Once you’ve done all the above prep, it’s time for the fun part!
Start adding the flowers one by one, making sure to space them out evenly and working your way around the entire arrangement. Sometimes, I spin the vase as I’m adding flowers to make sure there aren’t any uneven areas or big holes forming.
Any additional greenery you have should be added last around the edges of the vase and should be slightly shorter than the height of the flowers.
I hope you all have a wonderful Mother’s Day however and wherever you’re spending it, and I can’t wait to see the finished results! Love, Kate x
