A friend brought me flowers last week from a local farm stand. They came in a mason jar and they were perfect. I wanted some flowers for my dining room table (it hasn’t had any in so long!), something a bit fancier, but still light and airy and summery, so I went to the farm stand myself, bought a bouquet, and deconstructed it.
I used a vintage silver bowl to dress up the flowers, and added some foliage from my own backyard (lace cap hydrangea, ferns, and ivy). I used most of the flowers from the farm stand bouquet: sunflowers, strawflowers, zinnias, gomphrena, and rudbeckia. This is more of a variety than I would typically choose, but I enjoyed the challenge of making it and love how cheerful it looks on my dining room table.
Some Dos and Don’ts:
- Do use any bowl that you love.
- Do use floral foam, a flower frog, or chicken wire (scrunched into a ball which can be used again many times).
- Do start with foliage—anything green and leafy, sturdy and viney. Create the shape of your arrangement with this ( it should be about 70% of the arrangement if possible).
- Do add flowers in odd numbers (1, 3, or 5).
- Do vary the height and texture of your blooms.
- Don’t forget to recut the stems at an angle and fill the bowl with plenty of water.
- Don’t worry about negative space—it adds light and air and movement to an arrangement like this.
- Don’t fret about not using everything from the original bouquet (whatever you edit out of your arrangement can go in small vases around the house).
- Don’t worry about making a mistake! (you can always fix what you don’t like).
I hope you get the chance to make a summer farm stand flower arrangement of your own and enjoy the process as much as the final product…
Cheers!
Holly
photographs by Michael Sneeringer, Jr.
Elegant Country Style 