DIY Posy Arrangement with Supermarket Flowers; Easy & Affordable! Back to Basics Again Series

Go ahead if you want to learn all the tips and tricks on how to make the perfect connection ever. Welcome back to what I think is going to be the third video in the Back to Basics series. We've looked at a vertical arrangement that continued into an L, and today I'm going to Come down onto the table to create a full-round arrangement that would ideally be positioned in the center. a table. Now I think this is week three, but it could possibly be week four because I've done two arrangements with the same flowers so that you can see two different versions of a posy arrangement, and the design that I'm going to do today is probably the first arrangement I would ever do normally teach beginners when they're learning floral design, but because I wanted to use the flowers without adding any extra greenery or a second bunch of flowers—I've made the design twice. I think that way you get to learn different styles of arrangement, but seeing how the same The type of flowers works. I think that's quite beneficial, but you might think otherwise. So the flowers I've already gotten keep getting cut short, and I'm going to create a Nice all-around arrangement. I think we're going to add a candle in the middle; that wasn't my plan. but I've just realized I have a beautiful candle that's going to match really well With my gerbera, and that's going to help me create a really beautiful all-around design. But before I add the candle, we'll talk about my floral foam. Now if you're making a design where You need to have wire netting, and then you'll need to have a container that will hide the wire netting. This foam here is sitting in a plastic dish, and I've positioned the foam so that the wider part of the Foam is on top. I don't want to do it this way because my flower stems are really thick. I have sunflowers and gerberas, and they have really thick stems. If I were to arrange them with the I wouldn't have enough foam to fit all those flower stems in. And then I'm going to Use the floral tape over the top, and I'm going to place it diagonally across the top. And I always go around and finish at the top so it doesn't come undone. Trust me, it stays put. and you don't want your arrangement falling apart right at the very end. So finish your floral tape on top, stuck to the tape and you know it's not going to fall apart. And then I'm going to add in this lovely apricot-colored candle. I think that's a beautiful color, a perfect match with my gerbera. Now, if you didn't have the candle, that would be where your single flower would go to create the height of your arrangement. In the other arrangement that I am going to do That's going to be where the rose will be sitting, so you can compare the two, whether you've seen it or not. It's already here, or is it coming next week—who knows? And my single rose looked just like this. So this would be where my candle is, but what I'm going to do today is set it to one side. Now Traditionally, with a full-round arrangement, we tend to have flowers balanced on either side. This is a supermarket bouquet of flowers, and it only had one rose in it, so I can't get that kind of thing. structured formal pattern like the one I had in the previous arrangement. And before I do any more I'm going to create an outline using some greenery. This one is florist leatherleaf; it's probably grows in the garden for some of you who are in more tropical conditions, but here in the UK it's a greenery that we buy at the florist shop, or if you're a florist, from your florist supplies. But what you're looking for on the outside is ideally something that's quite flat. as opposed to something that's quite bushy, like this. So the flat greenery creates a better outline. And what I'm going to do is cut three pieces that are the same length, and then I'll know my arrangement. is hopefully going to be fairly circular. You can do this with five pieces of greenery or six pieces of greenery, you can mix the greenery. I like to use three for a beginner's style. arrangement because it's easy to follow and what I aim to achieve with these is to have them Pretty much the length of my container, so they're slightly too long; we can get rid of that end. Keep that for later. You're aiming to have your green approximately the same length as the width of your container, or in my case, my foam and my plastic dish, and that will give me a fairly good balanced design, and I'm going to aim—indeed, I'm going to place it right in front of the rose. It will make more sense to you when I explain. If you think of that rose as being at 12 o'clock. I've placed my first position at 12; one of them is going to go in around four o'clock. and then one of them is going to come in around seven, maybe a little after seven. So the gap in between This one, this one, and this one here are fairly similar, and if you look from above hopefully if you follow the line around the outside, mine is quite good because I have a then you will have a circular design, and I can tell by looking at the overhead camera that This side is slightly longer, and that's because I'm at the corner of the foam, so the corner of The foam is wider than the flat section here, and if you're a beginner, you could quite easily Draw a circle on the table and then follow its shape. Now the reason I didn't use four was because four is very angular and very pointed, it almost makes your design look quite square, so if you're making a square arrangement do four, if it's round do three, five, or six because it makes the design more pleasing, and these are just guidelines, you don't have to Follow them to the letter, and it will really help you create a lovely outline shape and a circular one. design, and then what I'm going to do in between is cut myself three more pieces of greenery to a Same length, and I'm going to slip these in between. Now this one is myrtle; this is a garden. foliage as well as a florist's foliage, and I've had this in here for the weather work we've been doing on the weekend, and that now completes that outline shape. I know there are gaps in the middle, You can add more greenery if you'd like, but I'm going to leave some space in between. so that at the beginning the design isn't too cluttered. This small piece of myrtle here is not Not as full as the other pieces, so I'm going to add a smaller piece just to fill that area. out there, and I'm going to get rid of that bit because that was a bit scruffy, but we have a circular outline shape. I'm going to move that one slightly, and at this stage I would recommend placing the design on the floor, look at it from a greater distance away and you'll see whether or not there is a nice circular shape, and then what we are going to do next or what I'm going to do next is put in my really large sunflowers. I like to work with my bigger ones. Start with the flower, because once you know where those are placed, you can arrange everything else around them. it, and just like we did with that clock, imagine that to be 12 o'clock, and then we're going to put two in here, and fortunately for me, my choice of sunflowers, which came from a mixed bench, The choice that was on the bench is slightly uneven. You'll see now that this final one is quite small, and that's going to make my circular design a bit more unbalanced, but I'm not going to worry about it. So, if we think from this position, this is 12 o'clock. Four o'clock and seven o'clock, the space between them is fairly circular, and if you think about this like the center of a compass or the center of a wheel, these are all the spokes coming out from it the wheel, and that's really how you achieve this formal pattern. Formal arrangements are when You have pattern and structure; informality is when a design is much looser and much more natural. has a more countryside vibe to it. So then I'm going to place my gerbera in between each one of mine carnations, they're not carnations, in between each one of my sunflowers, and if you're arranging Flowers with soft stems, such as gerberas, when placed in foam, need to be cut straight. Don't cut it at an angle; I know lots of people will tell you to cut it at an angle, but that's Only when it goes into water. If you cut it straight across, it has much more strength. at the bottom and it will fit into your foam much more securely, and then I'm repeating that pattern and I'm placing one gerbera between each of my sunflower positions, and there we have it A very simple version of a full-range setup. Front-facing means you see it from one side. All-round is pretty much self-explanatory—it's when you can see it from all directions. and it is normally used for the center of a table; it could be a funeral tribute—it is very rare. used for a window or a tall desk because you don't see the flowers at the back, but there we are, a fairly even distribution of those seven flowers that came out of that mix bunch. Included Also in that bunch were two pink carnations; these should be a bit more open. and I've slightly peeled back the calyx and just given it a little fluff But I think they might have been cut from the plant too early and won't open. as wide as they should be, and since I have that one rose right in the center, I'm going to make Use the two remaining carnations to come up the middle. Now they don't follow the same pattern. because obviously the flower is different, but we've still got that circular shape with three flowers, so I'm repeating what I've already started on the outside, and if you haven't learned your elements and principles of design, then repetition, repeating patterns, repeating shapes, colors, and textures is something you need to know, and incidentally, if you pop over to the website and I will link it here in the cards; you can buy a really handy guide on the elements and principles of design and a care guide relating to looking after your fresh flowers If you're training to be a florist, they're an invaluable resource to have. Now I've got my basics Outlining shaping—I'm going to strengthen the outline, so I'm going to add in the foliage. some spray carnations, these also came from a supermarket, and I chose this color because I I thought it went so well with my little gerbera, or not such a small gerbera—they go well together. my large gerbera, and this is what we would call a filler flower or a secondary flower, these are the more important focal flowers, these are almost like the backup singers that accompany That soloist on stage, and out of one stem, I'm probably going to get three or four flowers. and that makes it a really economical flower to use, and I'm coming down low in between the greenery, I'm going to hold on to those and use them in a moment; I'm just going to reinforce the outline running in between each set of greenery all the way around the outside until I've completed it turn in a full circle, and ideally this should be a small flower, such as a spray carnation or a freesia. spray rose, something delicate and small to reinforce the outline, the larger flowers like the gerbera and the sunflower always turn toward the center because they are your focal point flower and the most dominant flower in the arrangement, and there we have it, your outline shape reinforced; if you'd like to add more greenery, you're very welcome to do so—I don't I want to fill it up with greenery and then find it difficult to get my flowers into the foam And since we have this circular outline, I now need to keep adding flowers. in the same color going up toward the top, so that the color is carried all the way through, We don't want it just on the outside because it almost splits your arrangement into tiers. We don't want a ring of that peachy color around the outside, and no repetition of the color upward. towards the top, so I'm going to keep going, adding in all the way along, some up the middle, Some in between, I really love the little beds, look at that— isn't that just so sweet? Because It introduces a different shape into the arrangement; it's a small flower, and it's Going to help link and join together all the different shapes, colors, and textures in the arrangement. Now I teach many beginners here in the studio, and I always encourage them to get an outline. shape before you start filling in, people are quite often really eager and keen to get those flowers, but then they lose the outline shape they're trying to create, so rather rather than rushing in and trying to get your flowers in first, take a little time to work on your outline will then seamlessly connect with the remaining flowers and foliage fill in the little gaps as you go along. Now this design will be perfect in the center of a table at Christmas, perfect for any type of dinner party and wonderful for a wedding centerpiece, and if you don't have matching flowers like I've got here, just think about putting your bigger flowers Place your larger flowers towards the middle and your smaller flowers towards the outside to achieve that nice shape. Among that assortment of benches that came from the supermarket was a really pretty flower called A September flower, it's from the Aster family; they were quite large like this when I bought them. them originally, but they've been cut down into two separate pieces, and that gives me the ability to spread the color throughout the arrangement so we don't just have it concentrated in one spot, We have it all the way around, and what I'm going to try and do now is spread this nice purple color out, I felt that this was a really good color combination; for me, it represents the end of the summer and the start of the autumn, nice big bright yellow sunflowers and then moving into the peachier shades that we generally see as we move into a different season, and then one more final piece of that little September flower, and we have a really exciting design which is quite Simple to make with one mix bench from the supermarket and some spray carnations to go with it. Just going to grab my foliage, now in that mix bench from the supermarket was one piece of pittosporum which I've cut down into smaller pieces, and one or two pieces of the rhododendron, so don't panic if you have one piece and you're not quite sure what to do with it Yes, see if you can break it down into smaller sections; it will fit a much more compact design. And then what I'm going to do with this is fill in all the gaps, so keep turning the arrangement. Around, if you don't have a turntable, it's a really good one to have in your toolkit, you can get a fairly inexpensive one from Ikea, which is ideal for home use or if you're looking for a stand, look for cake stands because they're easier to get hold of, and I'm a bit limited with this greenery because it's already been cut to one size and one length, but what I need to do Just feed it in between the flowers, don't overwhelm the flowers or hide them—the foliage is there to enhance the flowers, it's there to strengthen the outline, it's not there to take over the arrangement and hide all those beautiful flowers, so I'm going to keep on working all the way a way around until I can't see any more floral foam—if you didn't have greenery, you could use something like gypsophila or September flower, you could even use some moss, quite tightly compact around the floral foam right at the very beginning, so with the small bits that I've got the left side of the original leaf; I can add these more toward the center so that there's a link with the greenery that's on the outside, otherwise it tends to look like two separate designs, a design with foliage that gives us a collar or an outline and then nothing to match in the middle, and that's all there is to rhythm and repetition—it's about repeating textures, colors and shapes toward the center, also used myrtle, so any short pieces of myrtle are going to come in handy, just up here at the top again so that we have a connection to what's on the outside, and one of the reasons that I've done two arrangements with the same flowers is because I know that many of you can't get hold of greenery, so I've also done the same type of arrangement but without the candle, so that you can understand how to create a design if you don't Have any extra greenery, and that's my design completed if we look at it from overhead. Camera, hopefully we've got a really good circular shape and even distribution of all the colors. flowers, and if this were placed on a table and you and I were sitting opposite each other, there would be something exciting to see on both sides of the table; at this point, I'm going to remind you to Subscribe to the channel and hit that notification bell so you're alerted every time I upload a new tutorial. Like and share, comment in the box and let me know what you think and whether or not you've Learned something new today, so we'll see you next time. Thanks for watching, goodbye for now.