My weekly flower pickup + arranging is one of my favorite rituals.
Over the years, flower shopping, arranging, and keeping my arrangements alive each week has become a hobby of mine and so therapeutic, too! Having fresh flowers around the house brings me joy.
Over the years, my arrangements have become much more simple, inspired by Ikebana, originating in China and Korea but arrived in Japan at the same time as Buddhism when Buddhist monks would place floral offerings on the alters of temples.
Consisting of three main stems gathered closely together, the display represented a harmonious relationship between heaven, man and earth. The 3D elements are important, too – height, width, and depth. Asymmetry is important to emphasize the lines and the biggest difference to western arrangements that tend to be full and crowded is the use of negative space, or MA as it’s called in Japan. It’s a less is more concept, and the negative space allows a viewer to appreciate the materials used in the arrangement. {source}
I usually only use 1-2 flowers max in a vase. My favorites include roses and orchids – also because they are cat safe. I like to add some greenery or baby’s breath to the mix to add a garden vibe, too.
A few of my go-to tips and tricks
My newest skill is reflexing flowers and I highly recommend for a unique and designer look, especially for roses.
This is a technique many florists use for opening flowers by hand. Some say that your flowers won’t last as long when you reflex them, but mine have lasted up to two weeks, reflexed. If you want to play it safe, try reflexing your flowers for a special event.
On keeping florals alive as long as possible:
Make sure that when you place your flowers in the vase that there are no leaves touching the water. The leaves add bacteria to the water.
The second you start to see your flowers wilt, boil some water on the stove. Dump the old water from the current vase and refill with fresh water. Once the stove water is boiled, add it to a glass container. Cut the stems of your flowers at a 45 degree angle and put them in the hot water for one minute. Then, put them back in their vase with the fresh water and watch them come back to life!
Leave a Reply