Tall Centrepiece With Cascading Orchids DIY

Hello. Today I'm going to show you how to create a tall orchid centerpiece. This is an incredibly elegant and beautiful arrangement and it lights up the room quite nicely, pulls the room together. For this arrangement we're going to need a tall vase. This one is approximately 24 to 25 inches in height. However, you are able to use whatever vase you like. However, the taller the vase, the more aesthetically pleasing it looks. And we are also going to be using some dendrobium orchids, some hydrangeas, some curly willow branches, some potted phalaenopsis orchids, as well as our usual array of floral tools. So for floral tools you will need some floral scissors, some floral tape, a glue gun, some floral sponge, as well as some waterproof ribbon and a plastic tray. To begin you're going to want to fill in the inside of the vase. Now this is an optional step, however, we always like to complete this step because it allows the arrangement to look more aesthetically put together and it helps fill in the blank empty space inside of the vase. It's a really good idea to fill in this space because, once again, it helps connect the arrangement, it helps it look quite unified and quite beautiful. So we're going to take a couple of stems of the dendrobium orchids and some curly willow branches. The curly willow branches you can cut to fit to ensure that they are not poking out of the top because you're going to be sealing the top with some floral sponge. So insert the branches just to ensure that they fit and then take some dendrobium and make sure you're putting the dendrobium facing outward instead of inward so that all of the blooms are visible and all of the blooms are facing your guests. So as you see here this is all you really need to fill in that empty space and to create a more unified, whole, and complete look as you see here. And you can gently fix and rearrange the flowers just to ensure that everything is level. So this is what it's going to look like and following this step you can begin to put in the floral sponge and sealing it off. So we are going to take this plastic container here, this is approximately five inches across, and as you see this container is perfectly suitable for the floral sponge. And we really like using the plastic containers because you can segment them off, you can cut them to size so that you ensure that the sponge is secured in a way that is going to work for your arrangement. Always measure the plastic cup before securing it just so that it doesn't fall in underneath the weight of both the oasis and once you start inserting the stems. You can cut it to fit so as you see here I am trimming the excess and ensuring that I still have a little bit of the plastic protruding so it's not completely sunk in. You don't want it to sink in because it will collapse and it will end up not looking quite nice and it will not hold the weight of your flowers. So as you see here I'm going to take some pre-moistened sponge and I'm going to measure it off. You do need quite a bit of sponge here. This is an arrangement that is composed of a lot of stems of flowers. Significantly you have hydrangea which is very very needing of water to be constantly feeding it and keeping it supple. So as you see here I'm using quite a bit of sponge. I cut off some of the edges in order to securely fit into the plastic and measured it just to ensure that everything is fitting nicely, that it's not collapsing. The next step is to take some chicken wire as it's called or alternatively it's called garden wire. This can be found in any home department store and this is a very essential step. Please do not skip this step. You do want the chicken wire to be firmly secured around your oasis because if you do not, number one your stems will come loose, number two your oasis or your water sponge is going to crumble, number three in transportation it's very likely that the flowers will come loose, that they will crumble, that they will break. You do want the chicken wire to secure everything together. If you skip this step you do run the risk of having everything fall apart and all of your hard work going to waste before you can really appreciate the results. So once you've measured off the chicken wire as you see here, you can fold it into the shape that will sort of form this dome shape over the oasis as you see here. Again all of the sizes and the measurements depend on the type of vase that you're using, how wide it is, how wide the plastic cup is. So just use your visualization here a little bit and the garden wire can be pulled and stretched a little bit as well. Then you're going to take some of your waterproof floral tape and you're going to secure it firmly onto the neck of the vase as you see here. This is a very essential step so please do not rush through this step, do not cut corners because if you do not do this step correctly all of your hard work following this step is going to be for nothing because it will fall apart and crumble. So do take your time here. So as you see here after I've secured the waterproof tape I'm taking the tape and I'm going around the neck again. The goal here is to seal the spaces between the plastic and the neck of the vase because water will be pouring once you start inserting your stems or watering the arrangement and when the water pours it will slide between the cracks and it will start to fill in the vase and it creates this very foggy murky dirty look. So do take your time to ensure that you're sealing in the little gap between the plastic and the glass vase. And as you see there are going to be little pieces that are excess and you can just take them off flip them up and seal them. So the next step is to ensure that you are covering up that green tape. You don't want that to be visible because it does take away from some of the aesthetic and since we are not working with any greenery to cover up the neck it's ideal to take some waterproof ribbon here as you see here. You can use satin ribbon or any other ribbon but ideally it should be waterproof because like I said you're going to be inserting stems and when you insert the stems it's going to displace water and it's going to start leaking and you want it to be waterproof so then you can just simply wipe it away with a cloth. So as you see here I'm measuring it and I'm just going to take some glue from a hot glue gun and I'm going to secure that ribbon just to cover up that green floral tape so that it doesn't peer through and it's not visible. And of course if you don't want to use plain white ribbon and you have some waterproof gem ribbon or other ribbon you can use that as well it's just that it's very important that it's waterproof and can be easily wiped off. So this is the base of your arrangement and then you can begin filling it in. As you see here the chicken wire you will quickly notice the chicken wire is going to help form this base and this base is going to be very tight and it will keep all the stems together and it will prevent them from coming loose or falling apart especially in transportation this is very key. So the next step is we're going to take some hydrangea and the hydrangea is quite important because it's very full and it will cover up a lot of that middle and it's important because you do have this green water sponge and with the hydrangea it will cover up any peering green spots and it'll ensure that none of that is visible and it will of course add fullness and it's going to be quite lovely once it's finished. So as you see here I'm taking some hydrangea you can split the stem you don't have to use the whole stem as you see me doing here because the goal really is just to fill in those gaps. So go along and fill in around the oasis around the water sponge as you see me doing here and take your time with this and ensure that this work is done quite thoughtfully because you don't want to have the arrangement complete and then have some of that green stuff peering through. You do want it to be all white all uniform and quite finished looking so just go along and fill in those spaces before you begin working on the other steps. As mentioned previously you don't have to use the whole entire chunk if you're simply trying to strategically place these little bits and pieces into certain areas you can split the stem you can peel off little segments and you can put them wherever you like you don't have to use the entire hydrangea stem because it could be a little bit wasteful and then you're going to leave little space at the top. The space at the top is going to be for the branches so we're going to show you how to do this next step. Once your centerpiece looks like this you can begin by taking your branches and filling in the top portion of your arrangement. So I've taken a handful of this curly willow of course you can use whatever branches you like whatever branches you have access to you do not have to use specifically curly willow but we like using curly willow because it gives it that very forest mythical look to it. I'm going to take a handful as you see here and I will cut them down so that they're all of a uniform length. Of course it doesn't have to be symmetrical there's no specific pattern that you have to follow just use your visualization and get a sense of the dimensions you're looking to achieve here and then begin putting in the stems of the curly willow in this instance as you're seeing here and once again this is where the chicken wire garden wire is incredibly helpful because as you see here when I'm inserting the stems they're going in between the little holes of the garden wire and they're securing everything together and these things will not come loose or fall out or crack and break the water sponge. So once you have this look here you can begin assembling your orchids. Once again it doesn't have to be symmetrical it just has to be visually appealing and up to the standards that you're looking to achieve so whatever visualization you have in mind just follow that as closely as possible. You're of course not going to achieve perfect symmetry when you're working with natural branches. Next we're going to take some dendrobium orchids. We're working with some white dendrobium orchids. You can use 30 to 40 stems it really depends on your budget and the size of your centerpiece but since we are making this to order for a client we're going to be using 40 stems because that is her request. So as you see here we are taking our dendrobium orchids and we're going to begin placing them around the centerpiece we've already created to create a branched out look. It's going to be cascading, it's going to be quite lovely. So as you see here you're just going to follow some of the pattern that you've already created and the idea is to create a spray cascade. So once again there's no uniform pattern to follow here it's just to create these stems spaced out a relatively uniform distance from one each one another but in a spray fashion and this is actually quite easy when you don't have to follow a specific guideline and you're just simply following your own visualization it's quite easy to create this because you're working with the dimensions that you are seeing and you're working as well with the support of the garden wire that you're using. So as you see here I just go along and I try to maintain a bit of a uniform distance between the stems so that we don't have stems that are too clumped together in clusters because you do want to create that spray cascading look. So this is what it looks like and then you're just going to continue along spacing the stems a uniform distance from one another and creating this really beautiful tree-like branch-like very ethereal look as you see here with the stems cascading outward. This is the final product as you see however we are not quite done we are going to be using some potted Phalaenopsis orchids just to add another texture to this arrangement. We are using Phalaenopsis orchids that are potted as you see here because they're always quite beautiful the stem is always quite thick and it adds that very expensive looking luxurious texture to the flowers that you're working with just an additional touch. Of course when you're removing the flower from the orchids especially if they're potted this is very sustainable you can always regrow these orchids and enjoy them once again. So we're going to be using approximately five potted orchids here just to create that added look. So as you see here I'm going to take this stem and I'm going to add it into the arrangement to create a little bit of variety here and it really makes it look quite luxurious. So you're just going to go along and add these around the base of the arrangement to add an additional cascading textured look. Once again because you relied on the garden wire everything is going to be securely nested inside so when you are transporting it and as you can imagine this is very nerve-wracking to transport so you do not need any additional worries of it coming apart coming undone because of all this work that you put in. This is the final product as you see here once again it's very beautiful it's very luxurious it adds a very lovely ethereal look and it's quite a fan favorite but it doesn't take too too much work it does take some time and patience but the end result is well worth it. Once again as always thank you so much for watching leave all of your comments and questions below and hope to see you in our next video.