From One, Many

Let me start off by stating that my experience in flower arranging is limited to DIY projects that can best be described as "fly by the seat of my pants" and "off the cuff;" you know, code for "I have no idea what in the world I'm doing." But it's the creative, trial-and-error process that I'm after; the end result is really just a bonus.

I have a fairly large collection of vases that I've amassed over the years. Most of them are either re-purposed glass jars or thrift store finds, but I have a few from the occasional flower bouquets I have received. So when I start rearranging, I pull most of the vases out of the cabinets and just start plunking things in here and there until I find something that I like. The structure exists in that there is no structure at all. I didn't use any special floral tape or products for these projects, just the following items:

• Vase(s).
• Tepid water with a few drops of bleach to keep the water from spoiling.
• Scissors to trim the stems at a 45 degree angle underwater.
• Flowers.

Pretty easy, right? Okay, now that we've got all that together, we can get started. Remember these flowers from last week? I divided that one arrangement into seven to place around the house. It would also be nice to give one of these to a friend, neighbor or coworker.

The tall stems did come in handy. I pulled out a nice, big vase from the cupboard. The flowers are dropping their petals pretty quickly. So, in order to prevent the tiny petals from being visible in the vase, I dropped in some bougainvillea blossoms that I snagged from the yard into the water.

I thought the bougainvillea flowers might start fermenting in the water, but a week later, they were still holding up.

I color-blocked some of the chrysanthemums into two separate arrangements, tied together with rubber bands that I had saved from other flower purchases at the Farmers' Market. I also reused some glass jars that I have saved as vases, as you can obviously see from the expiration date on the side of the glass on the left. I did mention I am not a professional, right? Because I'm pretty sure a professional wouldn't do that. At any rate, I'll keep these two together as a grouping because, well, they look best as a pair.

Chrysanthemum, chrysanthemum, chrysanthemum. That's fun to say, right? And did you know they are native to Asia and northern Europe? I sure didn't. You can learn more about these versatile flowers here.

This arrangement reminds me of a cupcake. I'm pretty sure I don't want to eat a cupcake with green icing, but I still like the squat vase and the fluffy blooms of the carnations and chrysanthemums. Oh, and the raffia bow helps tie everything together. (Get it? Bow? Tie? I crack myself up sometimes. Seriously though, if you can't amuse yourself, then who can?)

Bougainvillea makes another appearance here, along with the fern-like fronds of the filler that I submerged in another large vase. This came about from one of those aforementioned "I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'll try this" moments.

The Gerbera daisies found a new home in this slightly-rectangular vase, along with some palm fronds that I submerged in the water and wrapped around the interior of the vase. It took some maneuvering and trying different lengths of fronds, but eventually I got them to stay in place.

And that's all she wrote! For now, at least.

P.S. You knew I couldn't stop there, right? I just wanted to mention that I didn't delve into all the details about how to care for flowers, just some basics, as I wasn't intending for this post to be all-inclusive, not that I know that much anyway.

P.P.S. Thank you for reading this all the way.