floral basics: setting up
Here you are. You have ignored our sage advice about letting the professionals handle the flowers for your event, or you are just starting out and are reading everything about tips and tricks for better arrangements… So, let’s dive in to “How-to-Floral,” shall we?
Set Up
tools needed:
water
cleaning material for cleaning buckets etc
trash bags and/or drop cloths
buckets of different heights and sizes, if possible
water
flower snips or pruners
flower scissors (tie with ribbon so they don’t get confused with ribbon scissors)
stripper for leaves or thorns
water, for you this time. Stay hydrated, friends, this is not a sprint!
patience
Tools appreciated:
gloves
wire cutters so you don’t use your good snips to undo bunches of flowers
first aid kit
commercial packets of flower food
Prep your work space and your material
Best to work in a cool, water resistant, if not waterproofed, environment. Floral work is messy and wet. Buckets of water (and finished arrangements, to be honest, are heavier than you think). Sturdy surfaces are a must. Risers are helpful to bring the arrangement up to eye level and save your back. Turntables (lazy susan to you haters) are great for turning the work from front to back etc to finish it well on all sides.
We cover our surfaces in reusable plastic. Depending on the surface area, sometimes with plastic drop cloths, but often with good old large trash bags that get pulled up and used for clean up at the end of the arranging. (We feel we should have some sound badge or notification that dings when we hit a SUSTAINABILITY hint. SPING! That is the sound of the planet thanking you).
We also use line sturdy cardboard boxes with the trash bags for cutting and leaves as we are working. Once the bags are pulled, we use the boxes to transport arrangements for events. SPING!
As you set up your work area, think in terms of setting up an operating theater. Yes, really. You will be working with perishable, living things and you are about to open up wounds. (Technically, cut flowers and greens are dying things, and you are only staving off the inevitable, but let’s go with the metaphor here). Flowers are fragile and thirsty. Greenery less so, but still needs care. Everything you are using should be clean: buckets, snips, scissors, pruners etc should all be cleaned before you start. (Honest to Pete, if you are doing this more than once, they should be PUT AWAY clean! grumble, grumble).
Ahem. Operating room. As you are creating wounds by cutting into your material, everything possible that causes or exacerbates bacterial growth should be removed. When floral material arrives it should be removed from whatever bondage it has had to endure to travel to you (away with plastic sleeves, rubber bands, twist ties and the like), go in a containment spot and dunked into buckets of clean water, hopefully sorted by type: delicate flowers with other delicate friends, greens with greens, and wooden stems by themselves, etc.
Strap cups together, put in bucket for gathering.
Place cut stems, by type, into divided bucket.
Ideally, all material would get a fresh cut before the first dunking, but it is most important to get stems in water. The next step is really important. It is no fun and takes awhile— but will help your flowers and greens stay pretty for much longer! All the leaves and growth that go below the surface of the water should be stripped off, a fresh cut made and placed in fresh water — hopefully water that has a bit of floral cleaner and/or food from a commercial packet.
This job takes time. If you have a lot of material to work with, it takes a lot of time. Wholesale flowers typically arrive in boxes bunched together by type with really long stems. Grocery store or retail store flowers have already been stripped, cut and prepped so typically need less work, but less is not zero. Stems should be rinsed and any wet leaves or growth removed which will sit below the water line in your receiving bucket, leaving at least 6-9 inches of just stem to go in water. Depending on the variety of flower, the “free stem” might be really long— that’s okay, in fact it is super (see Alstroemeria). You actually want to start with as long a stem as possible.
Greenery, is a whole different category, and, depending on the type, needn’t be stripped quite as severely. Most greens love an entire water bath and can be immersed in a larger tub, to be shaken out and used when called into service— just don’t forget that fresh cut when it arrives and another before being inserted into floral foam or vase.
Snips are your friends. Clean them :)
If you have picked flowers or greens yourself, they require some special attention. We have rushed some retail flowers into arrangements on an emergency basis because they had actually been prepped on arrival to the store. Picked flowers need time to get used to their non-rooted condition. Some may not make it. Best to allow for “conditioning” time for floral material to harden off and overpick to account for wilters if these flowers are intended for display at an event. Cut picked flowers or greens with clean, sharp implements. Cut longer stems than you think you will need so they can be recut and still usable. Try not to pick a lot of new leaf growth (greens that are brighter in color or softer in feel) as these usually don’t hold up well when cut. Try to pick flowers that are coming open and, as tempting as it is, not those that are fully open as they are actually in decline and on the way to being “blown.” Older flowers will most likely wilt faster and not make it to your event. Once fresh flowers are conditioned, it is possible to hold them fairly steady if kept really cool or to accelerate bloom by using warm water and direct sunshine.
Place cut stems in bucket with a little clean, warmish water (you don’t want to shock pores closed with cold water) as you pick. Get picked materials into a cool darkened area, gently rinse off all material, recut stems and place in cool water in clean buckets. Then, let them rest…. see who makes it. Hopefully, you will be greeted with robust beauty when next seen!
Once the stripped floral material is all in buckets, they can rest drawing up water and strength for what is to come— and you should too. Good job. You have prepped your tools, your work area and your material. You are ALMOST ready to make an arrangement!
For more tips and tricks, take a look at our Floral Design and Floral Arranging DIY boards on Pinterest.
