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Tips for Arranging Flowers Like a Pro

Celebrate spring with beautiful flowers

-The Betty editors

What better way to celebrate the first days of spring than with flowers! But what to do with them when you get them?

Here are a few tips from The Art of Floral Arranging by Eileen Johnson from Gibbs Smith Publishers that will help you maximize their beauty and your enjoyment of them.

1. When buying flowers make sure the leaves are fresh. That will give you the best clue to whether the flowers are old or not.

2. When in doubt, go monochromatic! Mixing several types of the same color flowers can make a dramatic statement.

3. As soon as you get flowers, cut them and put them in clean, cold water. Flowers need to drink! Change the water every day.

4. When you arrange flowers, make sure there are never any leaves in the water. The leaves make bacteria, which will cloud the water and eventually kill the flowers.

5. Cut roses on the diagonal so that they have the maximum ability to drink in water.

6. A centerpiece for the dinning table should be no taller than the distance from your elbow to your fist.

7. Chicken wire or florist’s foam makes a great base to help flowers stay in place.

Photo credit: Brie Williams