Flower Arranging Essentials
Let me start by saying I am not a professional florist by any means. I rely on several, local florists to provide arrangements for my styled shoots and any large-scale events I host at home. It’s only in the past few months that my interest in self-created floral centerpieces has blossomed (pun intended). I’ve taken several online classes as well as in-person lessons, but I still have a lot to learn. My recommendation is to hire a professional florist when possible, both for small and large events and when sending flowers as a gift or condolence. However, if you wish to arrange flowers yourself, I’m happy to share some of the tools you need to get started. I encourage those who want to really learn the skill of flower arranging to try an online course or in-person lesson with a professional.
Flower Arranging Tools
Floral Secateurs/Pruning Shears: You will need quality pruning shears to cut heartier stems and branches.
Floral Wire/Oasis Bind Wire: I like to use this when creating a bouquet, as it easily wraps around the flower stems to hold them in place. It’s also used to make boutonnieres, flower crowns, and more.
Clear Floral Tape: Use this to create a grid on the lid of a vase to keep flowers in place. It’s also used over chicken wire (that’s put in the bottom of a vase) to keep it from popping up. I use pieces vertically and horizontally on a lid to really secure the chicken wire. This is especially important when using heavier flowers in an arrangement or when you use a wide-mouth vase.
Floral Shears: Invest in a good pair of floral shears. The sharper the shears, the better, so that cutting your flower stems (at an angle) is easy. You want a clean-cut stem, so high-quality shears are a must.
Chicken Wire for Floral Arranging: You can “crumple” this up and insert it into your vase to help hold your flowers in place. How much you use depends on the size of your vase and flower stems. If you ball it up too tightly, you might have trouble inserting your stems, and it makes it difficult to remove stems if you need to move flowers around while creating your arrangement. I always secure my chicken wire in a vase using floral tape across the lid (run a couple strips of tape vertically and horizontally across the lid to do this). Don’t use chicken wire in clear vases, as it’s obviously visible. Make sure to use chicken wire that’s made for floral arranging; regular chicken wire is too hard to ball up.
Floral Oasis/Floral Foam: This is used in a vase/vessel to keep flowers in place and hydrated, since you soak it in water before use (saturate by submerging in water until it turns a darker shade of green). It’s not environmentally-friendly, so many people choose chicken wire or flower frogs instead. However, sometimes you need to use oasis when working with a vessel that doesn’t hold water, in order to keep the flowers hydrated. Simply cut the oasis into pieces to fit your vessel.
Vase with Flower Frog Insert: This style of vase makes it much easier to arrange flowers, as the holes at the lid of the vase keep each individual stem in place.
Floral Foam Cage: These are used to hold oasis in lieu of a vase. Professional florists use them to create “floral runners” on tables and down the sides of an aisle. You can also use them to create floral arches, since they can be secured to structures both vertically and horizontally.
Flower Frogs: These go at the bottom of a vase or dish to hold floral stems upright. I like to keep several on hand in various sizes so I can use them for a range of vessels.
