Bouquet blueprints
How to get beautiful bouquets from your garden
Here’s a formula for a longlasting, stylish bouquet from your garden
Early summer bouquets can feature irises, poppy, lupines, English blue bells against a backdrop of highbush cranberry.
This is my blueprint for a great bouquet that will last a week. In fact the base can last for several weeks and just keep switching out tired flowers and adding in a few new ones.
I choose flowers that have longer stems and keep a fresh blossom for a week, or if they drop their blossoms quickly, they keep producing new blooms in the vase.
Flower arranging is a matter of taste. My personal style is a loose natural look with few show-stopper blossoms and a number of cheerful little allies - hopefully some being scented. Other approaches can be stunning, like going with just one flower type (nothing like a bunch of daffodils or tulips), although I usually just have a few of any variety.
From the start, I bring a bucket of water and sharp scissors or pruners with me when I go to collect the flowers. Many say to collect in the morning. I choose flowers that are just opening or just about to. I make a point of getting the stem into water immediately after cutting to prevent them from drooping (which might
happen a few hours later, after it has been placed in a prominent place where everyone can watch it flop over been there).
Foliage gives a backdrop. Branches of a woody shrub or tree give a rigid structure within the vase that holds the flowers upright and in place and this structure is hidden by
the bush’s attractive greenery. Try the ones in your yard and see what works (some of these wilt, so experiment with different kinds). My own favourites are highbush cranberries, purple smoke bush, peony leaves, ninebark and magnolia but watch out later in the season since the new soft growth of these may wilt.
For show-stoppers I include two or three of one type of flower, different heights, that are big or have a striking form, a long-lasting bloom(s) and bright in colour. In the early summer, a couple of iris flower stalks, lilies, work and later on, consider peonies, dinner plate dahlias or gladiolus.
For accomplices, use smaller showy flowers, such as brown-eyed Susans or daisy, day lilies, bee balm, cosmos, lupines, either singly or in small clusters of two or three, scattered around the lower part of the bouquet, with one or two higher than the showstoppers.
For brightening, splashes of white especially or yellow shows up the other colours. Queen Anne’s lace, when just about fully opened, will last for the week. These and feverfew are just as nice as daisies. I include the wildflowers pearly everlasting, and goldenrod flowers when they are still a bit greenish.
For softening lines with fine foliage, use a plant with a delicate form that extends a little taller and/or wider than the rest of the bouquet to give a special effect. My go-to favourites are asparagus fronds and Solomon’s seal.
I don’t worry too much about balancing colours, with a sense that just about everything looks great together, but I do find that it is difficult to brighten up a bouquet with too many dark red or purple flowers.
I try to lean in one of two colour directions. I go towards oranges, wines and reds in some bouquets, or I go with pinks, blues and purples in others. White and yellows usually go everywhere with style.