How to Arrange Flowers in Large Open Vase

I'm going to show you today a tutorial on working with vases or vessels that has a wide opening. This one is a little bit lower, I want to say it's about six and a half inches high or so, but it is wide as well, so it's about six inches wide as well. So typically if you don't have it created right, so whatever that you put in, just to show you, a little stem, eucalyptus kind of hangs out, so it's fine, but if you're going to put, let's say, a rose or something in, it might fall out and you're not going to be able to, just like this here, so fall out. So what we want to try to do is create a container, excuse me, an arrangement without using floral foam or anything else in the vessel, since it's clear, so that you can create a nice round arrangement without it falling over or leaning out too much and having it more secure and bottom line is look good on your counter or your table, okay? So first and foremost, I do have water and flower food in here, I'm looking for my towel, which is in my apron, and what we're going to do is make sure we dry off the top really, really good. So I'm just using my microfiber towel, we do use a lot since they do help absorb water from the counters or wherever spills. We do have on the counters, okay, so I'm just making sure it's really dry because we're going to use what we call bowl tape, it's just clear tape. If you have, I want to say, magic tape or scotch tape, those are fine as well as long as they're, I want to say, no more than half an inch wide. Ideally, I would like to use a quarter inch, but we're out today, so I'm using the half inch and I'll show you a trick on how to thin it out too. So let's see, turn this towards me, so what we're going to do is create a grid and this is kind of far here because my table is a spinning table here and it keeps spinning. So what I want to do is cut bowl tape and I'm going to go not directly in the middle, but I'm not going directly in the middle. I'm kind of envisioning my middle here and I'm going in between from there, so this is my middle line here, I'm going to go one, two, okay, so in the middle of my imaginary middle line, so it's even. Let's say like it have a middle line here, it's evenly in the middle and here and the end of the vessel here. I've got one, two, one, and you want it to come down the bowl here about at least a good half inch so that it can be secure. So again, I'm going to create, kind of imagine my middle line again and I'm going to the middle of that. So after you have all your tape down, you should have a square in the middle. So I've got four pieces, one, two, and then one, two. So now I have a square in the middle here, really tell because it's clear, but trust me, it's there and I can't really angle it enough much, but I don't know, you can see that it makes a difference. So what we're going to do next is we're going to do this tape back here. I'm going to, since again, it's half inches, I'm going to pinch this together, just going to pinch it together so that it's just sticking on itself to kind of create a little bit more space for myself, pinch, pinch, you don't really have to, but this gives you a little bit more room when you're actually putting all the flowers in. So this container is a little bit wider. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to add another one actually in the middle. So I think you would benefit from that. It's a grid. So now I actually have here, I'm going to say three, three, three, three, that's 12 holes. Okay. Earlier I had nine, but I added one more since the center is a little wide. So now I have, and these squares or holes right here on the sides are triangles, but nevertheless, they're areas where we can enter, put in our stems. Okay. And this grid will help your stems from falling apart and falling out of your vessel. Again, I'm just going to, before I do anything else, move closer so you can kind of see, I'm going to tilt it a little bit so that, so my water doesn't fall off. Okay. So again, first and foremost, as with a lot of the arrangements that we've done, we want to start with some greenery and that greenery, again, we're still, regardless of the tape, we're still going to use that greenery to build a grid to hold our flowers in place better. So here today, I have some lemon tips. Again, lemon tips are just a smaller version of your silao. Okay. Again, I want to have at least three different types of texture. You have my seeded eucalyptus, which is here. This is some texture there. That's my seeded eucalyptus there. And then I have a guinea euc. So it's still eucalyptus, same color as your seeded eucalyptus, but the leaves are different. So it's a different texture, different look. So we're going to start with our lemon tips first. And this is where you have shorter stems that you can trim off. Okay. So just a reminder again, we're going to cut everything in an angle before we insert it in, because when we cut everything in an angle, it opens up more space for the greenery or flower or whatever that you don't want to drink. So I'm going to just stick it in like that, this other one. So again, as with any of the other arrangements that I've instructed, you know, gone through with you guys, you want to do right and left, and then I'm going to turn and then you're going to do right and left. So we're kind of build a little bit, a little of a circumference. And a lot of people ask me like, how far out should you go? Again, it's your arrangement. You can pretty much design however way you want, but kind of the rule of thumb and what works best is to not have it lean out more than the height of your container. Otherwise it will look a little over proportioned. So you don't want something that's coming out this way, unless structurally, that's what you want. And that's the style you're going for. There are designs that are like that, which is like the high style or the Ikebana, but that requires less foliage, foliage meaning greenery and other flowers. So here, this, I mean, that's for the sake, we're going to keep it just like a traditional arrangement. So I'm not going to go off too off tangent with the design. So we're just doing traditional all around. And if you can't see what I'm doing is I'm sticking it into the holes. This first layer of greenery, I'm sticking in the holes that are furthest on the outside. So it is hitting the collar of the actual container. Okay, so now that I have right left and front back, I'm going to go in between the sides now. So now that I kind of have the greenery, they're pretty much filled in pretty well there. I do have other greeneries that I do want to put in, such as my eucalyptus. So I'm going to start with the seeded, it's a little more of a bunchier feel, as opposed to my green, which has much more of a slender stem, which I can insert in a lot easier later. I'm just kind of breaking it up into multiple stems and picking spots where I can put it in. And I want to make sure it sits in well, and that it's the texture is dispersed evenly throughout. I have my green. So I'm going to cut all these little branches off. Because they're long, I don't need them to stick up too much. Again, I'm just going to evenly place it throughout so the textures can be seen. And again, we don't want anything underwater, no leaves underwater. And the only thing you should be able to see in the bottom of the vase, especially if it's clear, but you only see stems and no leaves. So I'm going to kind of strip these off. And they come off really easily. If you have a stubborn one, that gives you a lot of sap, and some eucalyptus do have a lot of sap, especially actually seeded eucalyptus. If it does, what you can do is use nail polish remover. That really works. I would say that would be a lot more safer to use and won't hurt your skin as much as I want to say goof off or paint bears. So here is my container. All you should be able to see there are stems. I know this is a crystal vase, so you can't really see, but it should be very clean as far as the stem goes. And I have an even disbursement of my greenery. It should be pretty even. So let's go over the recipe. I wanted to make this, since it's a nice crystal bowl, I want to make a very nice feminine, kind of semi-rustic arrangement. Nothing too confined or compact. Something that would be nice to sit on a coffee table or an island. But keeping with the soft feminine colors. So here I have some really nice deep silver and very nice lilac roses there. It has a really nice tip. Almost that rustic, antique, vintage pink there. Next I have my pink roses, which are one of my favorite pink ones. I'm just going to pull off some of these leaves that we don't need. Rose leaves aren't the most attractive, so if they don't look good at all and they dry up really quickly, you can just go ahead and pull them off. These are what we call pink mondial. And the outside has a little tint of green on the guard petals. If they don't look too well or too good, just go ahead and pull them off. Again, they're guard petals to protect the flowers. Leaving a little bit will be nice. It kind of gives you almost that two-tone color there. I'm just going to pull off some of the guard petals that have been damaged. Because their whole purpose, again, is to protect the rose and we don't want to have them looking beat up in the arrangement itself. Especially if you're making it for someone. For our delivery orders, we want to make sure they arrive nicely. Not just from the top, but on the sides as well. So they're not bruised. So we remove the guard petals. Let's see. Next, we have this awesome honeycomb dahlias there. Look how pretty they are. They're a really nice blush color there. Then we have, and I wanted to add in a little bit of the carnations. They're white. A lot of people associate carnations with funerals. They work really well in an arrangement. Also because I like the contrast of texture in and throughout the arrangement. These always last a lot longer than roses. So when we do build arrangements, especially we get to choose what type of flowers go in here. We want to choose a range of flowers that would, from short term to lasting a lot longer. So that way your arrangement will last a lot longer. And then also tulips are another long lasting flower there. So we've got some white ones to work with. So again, we'll have a very nice soft white palette going on. I wouldn't say white, but soft. Blush, nice lilac. So a nice feminine palette. Okay. So what we're going to do first is I'm going to start with my pink mandiole roses. They are a lot more larger head. And I want to say the roses would be your focal flower, your main flower in this arrangement. So the other flowers being an accent. So here I'm going to, I want to make sure I disperse the colors evenly. Okay. And these open up really big and they are a lot heavier than let's say these ones right here. The deep silver. Here and here. So what I want to make sure I do is I want to put them in focal point areas, but since they are bigger head rows, I want to probably put that one in the middle as well. Because it has a lot sturdier stem. This one has a thinner stem. So if I put in the top, I don't want it to start going that way. So I'm going to cut again in an angle with my stems. So that just gives it a wider mouth. So again, I'm going to insert it and I want to make sure it goes in between on the tapes. And if you have a green dry, if you stick it in, it should stay. If I have it hanging out, it should stay kind of where I want it to be. Again, I don't want it to come out too much. Probably I want to say a little bit in, probably about an inch in from the greeneries. So I'm going to put one on the side, since we want this arrangement to be viewed all around, one on the other side, and then I'm going to put one in the middle. I like that idea of having one in the middle there. So I'm going to look at my roses. This one's a very straight stem and this one has a curve. So the curve ones I like to put off leaning on the counter of the collar of the vase. So this again, about the same, hit the bottom of my table here. So just to be even. So if I'm looking at this side, I'm going to see the pink and I look on this side, I'm going to see the pink. And then as far as height goes, I'm doing about one and a half times my container here. So this is kind of exactly. And again, I don't want to force my stem in because now that I build a good grid, I don't want to dislodge it. So that would probably be the highest point. So I kind of create this dome, this curve. From here, you can't, but you can see kind of the levels that it's at. So once I have that, I'm going to go next to my other roses here, my deep silver, and I'm actually going to look at my stems too and see the curve. So these two here have the curve, mostly this one is a little more straight. So I'm going to use these two and I'm going to go, you guessed it, right and left. So here now I kind of have almost like a crisscross as far as placing them pretty even. So now I do have one more rose here. I'm going to kind of, I can't put it in the middle because I already have that in the middle. So I'm just going to look and see where I think my biggest gap would be and where it would look nice at. So after turning it around, I kind of want it right here. I know this is an all-around arrangement, but regardless of an all-around arrangement, you do still have the main side, like a front. So here I'm going to stick it right there. Ideally, I would want this to be my front, because it's going to look a little more fuller with the extra rose there. But then we still have our other flowers to fill in, so I'm not too worried about that. Next I'm going to put, I'm going to use our pretty honeycomb dahlias. And these are a really nice soft, kind of look like a blushy lilac. I'm not sure how to explain it, I'm just pulling off all these dead leaves. Don't throw away these buds, although if I stick an arrangement in, they're just going to look awkwardly sticking out. But we can cut them off and use them. This gives you a different textural look. Of course, it looks totally different from this. That's why we want to keep it, because it makes it look a lot more like a garden, a little more of a natural setting. So we don't want to toss them. I'm just going to place it off to the side, because we're going to add that in later as like a filler. But for now, again, so I'm going to look. Where I placed my last rose is where I saw the biggest gap. Now you're going to have the other gaps, like here, here, here. So you're going to stick your next full flower, which is your dahlia in there. So I'm going to cut my stem again. And I'm going to place it on my counter here, kind of eyeball where I would want it to land. Again, this is a dome, round shape. So I kind of want it to sit in between my first and top layer. So I'm just going to put it here. So I'm just going to wrinkle it in. Again, you don't want to force it. So if you have a good grid, and again, with your greenery grid, your flower should stay pretty much where you want it to be. And actually, I want it a little bit higher. So I'm going to gently wiggle it out. Unlike foam, because once you stick it in with foam, it should hold where you want it to be. So it's a little different than working with a vase. Especially, you know, unlike foam, you can't, you can't. So here, a little higher than I want, but I can fill that in with something else. But it's a little bit shorter. If I look here, I have created that round shape top layer, second layer, and third layer. I've got a good grid there, and it's staying. And you want to make sure your stems stay. So even if I'm spinning this kind of semi-fast, it's not going to move. Just like if it's sitting in the cargo, and we're delivering the food. So next, we have our carnation. Again, texture. So I'm cutting it, and I want to put it in, probably more that second level there. And carnations do have these nodes, and we want to carefully clean it off. Again, these are their actual, kind of the way they're leaves, and we don't want any leaves of foliage hitting the water. So, and they're not too attractive anyway. So we want to have a clean insertion. With carnations, especially carnations, carnations, some of the stems of the flowers, have these nodes, and they break off really easy. They snap off really easily, and we don't want to force it in. If there's leaves on them, it'll make it a little difficult to put in, and if you force it, it'll snap off. And we don't want it to snap. I have a good grid, so it just stayed where I placed it. So I'm just going to spin this around, find another empty spot, and I'm just going to pull it off carefully, so I don't, if I pull, yank at it, it's going to break off. Next, I have my tulips. And tulips are a kind of temperamental, but they're phototrophic. So what it means is they like to go towards the sun. And in water, they're one of the few flowers that will continue to grow, meaning they're going to reach. They're going to reach for the sun, reach for the sunlight. So tuck them in. We don't want them hanging out too much, since, you know, if it's like this, let's say hanging out this much, by time, in an hour sometimes, it can be like right here. They'll grow another inch really quickly. So I'm going to tuck them in. Because, like, you know, if you're working with lilies, then you know you need to make sure they have room Stem is kind of weak, so I'm going to just stick it in somewhere else where it's a little bit stronger. Like lilies, if you were working with lilies, you'll need room for them to open. Okay, with tulips, you want to make sure you leave room for them to grow here. So if you look on the side, it's not coming out too much. Later on, if it does decide to grow, that it will be still, it would still look appropriate. I'm going to use the rest of my greenery before I add in any of my fillers. In this case, we're going to be using this right here, which are the Queen Anne's Lace. But I do have some noticeable gaps that's not holding me, so it doesn't look too good. So I'm not going to use that one. So cut this. And again, we still have our dahlia buds. Don't worry. These, again, we're putting in for textural preference, not because they will open, because they will not open. It will count on them opening and looking pretty like that. So I'm going to kind of fill in the little gaps with the greenery, get a bit of the greenery in there, have that branch there support, support the tulip until it starts shrinking Once it starts shrinking, again, the stem will be very strong, so you don't need to worry about that. Tulips can be actually out of water and be very limp for like five or six hours. And then once you put them in water, they will revive just like nothing. Some other day. And this will work really nice, like on the, I want to say, even as a centerpiece for a wedding. So with this color scheme, as far as like the blush, softer, romantic palettes, we call them, pretty even, all new shade. It's pretty even all over. I'm not going to use any more of the greenery there. What I'm going to do now, a little touch of color would be the Queen Anne's and also to fill in the gaps. Really soft and fluffy. This one is called Chocolate Lace. It's called Chocolate Lace, but it's not Brown's. If you can actually see the color, they're a little bit more of a plum, purple, purplish. And then some of them can be just a little bit white. I love Queen Anne's Lace. It's just like exactly what it is, lace. It's a lot more delicate looking. Even here. This is all from the same bunch, but a little bit different as far as the shades go. So I'm going to, as with any filler, you're going to find the gaps. Like right here, I have this gap right here that I want to fill in. And again, I'm just going to hit the counter and kind of eyeball. That's kind of the level I want it to go. So I'm just going to wiggle it in. Fills up that little space there. And let's see. I'm going to make this one a little bit taller. And these side buds, again, don't throw them away. They add a very nice textural look to it later. Textural and color differences, variation there. And this one, I think I'm going to have it push this tulip up a little bit and have it down here since I already got them, the other ones down there. So at least it's up in the middle almost. So I do want it to have a variation as far as, you know, having it not just at one level, but up and down different levels as well. So I'm just spinning. I think I want to put something else here. That looks a little empty there. Let's see. This one is nice. So I'm just going to cut these little buds off. We're just going to keep them. And this one's a little bit shorter because I have already two kind of mid-range and then create more of that depth in the arrangement. So I would just, not just one level in between. It'll help build volume that way. And then from here, I'm going to gather all my separate stems here. I'm just going to cut them suitable for insertion. So I'm just going to cut into certain levels and then just kind of see where it goes well. Like let's say I want something that comes up in here. And you kind of have to eyeball where you want it to go. You see a gap and you want that balanced feel. Your fillers are supposed to help you continue that round shape, that dome, that dome look. Whether it's coming out or just going straight up. Okay. You want to have that balance look throughout. As you put in more stems, your stems are going to have a little more difficult time going in since it's going to be a little more tighter as we go because we already have a lot of stems in there. Okay. So I'm just balancing this out. This is pretty, it's getting there. About that and then about there. And then last but not least, we have our bud. Again, this job again is to even everything out for us. You want a nice clean insertion. So you're looking at the arrangement. I'm going to push it out a little bit here. I'm just kind of eyeballing and then I'm going to put this on the floor counter, bottom of my counter here, kind of hit and kind of visualize. There is a focal front part. You still want your arrangement to be overall evenly dispersed and as balanced as far as texture goes, colors go, and have it pleasing to the eye, especially if it's a centerpiece in the middle of a table. You want your guests to all like it from all sides, no matter if they sit on the right or the left, right? Okay, thank you so much again for joining and spending your time with me. Hope you enjoy this tutorial and happy creating. Thanks. Bye. See you next time.