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Home > Advice > The basics of arranging cut flowers
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the basics of arranging cut flowers
Posted in All Floristry and Crafts , May, June, July, August on 14th February 2013
How should I treat stems – bash, burn, or sear?
Anything that looks floppy should have its stem ends seared in boiling water for 30 seconds. Give woody
stems a bit longer – so bluebells only 10 seconds, whereas lilac needs one minute. Put 2.5cm-5cm (1in2in) of boiling water into a mug and plunge the stems in. The amount of stem you sear is to an extent
proportional to the length of stem you’ve cut. I sear 10 per cent. If it’s 6ft tall, sear 7in. If it’s 18in, sear 12in. Don’t leave the stems in too long or they’ll cook and disintegrate.
With short-stemmed plants, take care to keep the flower heads away from the steam. Enclose the flowers
in a sheet of newspaper. Searing is easier and works better than burning the stem ends with a match, and
you get better results with woody shrubs than by hammering their stem ends. It has a miraculous effect on
vase life. Even if they have flopped already, many flowers will make a total recovery after searing.
What do I add to the water? And why?
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Adding flower food to the water is important. You can buy proprietary brands in sachets to sprinkle into the
vase, or you can make your own. It should contain some bleach or an acidifying agent, such as vinegar or
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lemon juice. The bleach or vinegar reduce the proliferation of bacteria. Tap water is alkaline, which is ideal
for many bacteria. By adding a weak acid, you create a hostile environment for the bugs. Bacteria create
slimy stem ends that make the vase water stink. It also blocks stems and prevents them from taking up
water.
In a 30cm (1ft) tall vase, use one teaspoon of bleach or a good slurp – about five tablespoons – of cheap
clear malt vinegar. The old wives’ tale recommends that you add an aspirin, or half a glass of lemonade, to
your cut flower water. Aspirin contains salicylic acid; lemonade contains sugar and citric acid. And bubbles
are created by carbon dioxide, which forms dilute carbonic acid in water.
Proprietary flower food also includes sugar. The sugar feeds the flowers, but in my view, it feeds the bugs
too. In our experiments at Perch Hill it seems to add to the vase life of sweet peas, but nothing else. I
always put a drop of bleach in water with strong-smelling plants such as alliums, cleomes and any
brassicas, to prevent their characteristic pong from developing.
Which flowers are the most long-lasting and which are fleeting?
During the early few months of the year, bulbs are a very good bet and long-lasting. Go for things in – or
nearly in – their natural flowering season. This month that would include plants such as freesias,
anemones, amaryllis, hyacinths, tulips and the better-lasting daffodils such as 'Paper Whites’.
Do you have any tips for foolproof arrangements?
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I love just dropping single stems or small single species bunches into narrow-necked bottles and
scattering them down the middle of the table or around the room. And I like arranging stems through a
noughts and crosses flower grid. This supports delicate flower heads (or those like camellias with short
woody stems) and keeps them just out of the water in your favourite bowl.
For delicate small flowers like snowdrops, put a bunch of several stems through each square. For larger
flowers, add just one to each.
It’s worth knowing that turquoise and acid green are both very flattering colours for flowers. Look out for
vases in either of those colours. Pewter also looks wonderful – jugs, mugs, bowls and plates.
What basic kit do I need to deal with cut flowers?
I always use florists’ scissors which have stronger blades than normal scissors and their fine tips are less
cumbersome than secateurs for small-stemmed plants.
I use traditional metal milk pails for picking my flowers; they look good and are very durable. You can
easily carry two, one slung over each arm. You need two; one filled with water for plunging cut flowers into,
and the other for stripped leaves. Floristry buckets are narrower (good for tulips) but they don’t have
handles so you can only carry one at a time.
I also have pin-holders in several sizes, heavy metal discs with spikes on the upper surface to hold in place
the stems that create the structure of your arrangements. I much prefer using them to Oasis (florists’ foam).
Waterproof glue-tack is an absolute must-have. Use this to stick pin-holders to the bottom of a vase. You
need to use this when both vase and pin-holder are clean and dry, or the stuff will not stick.
How do I get a stained vase clean again?
For straightforward shapes, I use bleach/Milton tablets with a bottle brush. Cut glass vases or those with
narrow necks are difficult to clean, so I use Steradent denture cleaner and swirl it around with Magic Balls
(copper balls for cleaning decanters, available at good wine shops or from Lakeland).
Which flowers are worth buying? And which are better home-grown?
Flowers such as lilies and amaryllis, which have pricey bulbs, are best to buy, but almost everything else I
prefer home-grown. If you have only a tiny garden, grow the things which don’t last long, such as dahlias
and huge, highly scented cabbage roses. These you’ll never find to buy.
All plants picked from the garden benefit from a rest before you arrange them. This means giving the
flowers a few hours, or best of all, a night, in a bucket of water in a cool, dark place. Fill the buckets with
tepid, not ice-cold, water; the plants absorb it more easily. A rest increases vase life by a quarter or more.
Remember the order:
1) Pick
2) Condition
3) Rest (cool and dark, ideally for 12 hours)
4) Arrange
What plants do you recommend for foliage?
Start any mixed arrangement with foliage. The more leafy stuff you use, the more your arrangement will
look nicely home-made rather than florist-bought.
For primary foliage, I often use Euphorbia oblongata, its brilliant acid-green colour adds brightness and
contrast. This is one of the best foliage plants because it has a robust, upstanding structure which makes it
an ideal base for any middle-size arrangement. It also has thin stems, but a generous horizontal top, so
you don’t need huge quantities to create an effective dome. Find a foliage plant with those three
characteristics and you’ll be away. A word of warning with euphorbia: pick – and arrange it – with gloves on
so you don’t come into contact with its allergenic milky sap.
At the florist you’ll find bupleurum, which plays the same role, and the pretty, winter-flowering evergreen
Viburnum tinus is also excellent at this time of year.
The second foliage is a filler. Many plants can fulfil this role, but ideally you should choose a different
colour and form to the primary foliage. Slot it in, filling up any gaps.
The third foliage is for the upper storey, so it should have an interesting architectural shape. The idea is to
break up any over-neatness and make the arrangement as three-dimensional as possible. An interesting
grass or seed pod, or vertical leaf spike such as 'Bells of Ireland’, is ideal.
Watch Sarah create a beautiful hand-tied bunch for free on our YouTube channel, in which she
demonstrates the different layers and how to put them together.
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