Beautiful Flowers and Some Tips

Beautiful flowers have a way of lifting spirits. Over the weekend I went to a flower workshop and have some tips to share.

“Wherever life plants you, bloom with grace”

Being surrounded by blooms makes me happy. The other week I shared some ideas for Mother’s Day, click here if you missed it. I had something special planned for my mom ( a surprise) so I couldn’t share it on the blog ahead of time, because she’s my #1 fan and blog reader. 😉 But I can share it now….

I surprised my mom with a lovely lunch in Scituate Harbor at Galley followed by a flower arranging workshop at Cross Street Flower Farm with Millie Rochon of Whitemoss & Twigs.

We had a lovely tour of the flower farm and a wonderful class with Millie.

Here’s a photo of my beautiful mom and myself with our arrangements:

Perhaps not the best photo of me. I currently have some extra weight which I’m trying desperately to loose, but also trying to do it the old school way – healthy eating (not fads) and lots of exercise.

Anyway, Millie, who is an award-winning floral designer, made it look sooooooo easy.

This post contains a few affiliate links for supplies. If you purchase via a link I may receive a portion of the sale at no additional cost to you. Thank you for helping support my blog in this way!

We started off with floral wire and made it into a ball. Millie said it’s a good idea to secure it to the vessel with floral tape. Here’s a 6 piece set with more floral arranging supplies. This became the framework to feed the stems through. The idea is to be able to have the ball support the stems and also have stems and branches at different heights, as they would be in a garden growing naturally.

The vessel is just so pretty and would look gorgeous with all kinds of blooms.

A few other expert tips from Millie:

Branches – cut an x from the bottom to help the branch drink the water

Group flowers in odd numbers – 3s, 5, 7s, 9s – as in design – it’s more pleasing to the eye

Remove all leaves from lower levels so they aren’t sitting in the water

Add fresh water daily

Remove any noddles or thorns from stems so it’s easier to place flowers in the arrangement

Floral foam isn’t good for the environment so she likes the wire better

You can open up flowers and also coax them by bending branches

I know I’m going to get a lot of questions about all these gorgeous flowers so will include a list of all the flowers and branches in the arrangement.

The Flowers and Branches We Used

Crabapple branches | chokecherry branches | double pink tulips | Bridal Crown narcissus

Blue Diamond Tulips | Siberian Tiger Muscari | Rosa Italian Ranunculus

Black Hero Tulips | Angelique tulips | Majolica spray roses | Pennycress

Saponaira | Sweet Eskimo rose | Earl Gray rose

It’s been so dreary and wet here in New England that these flowers really brightened my day and also my home. Okay, now I’m going to inundate you with some beautiful photographs of these beautiful flowers. They were even prettier in person but talking about them just doesn’t do them justice.

I couldn’t resist taking a few more in our dining room:

I want to grow that Pennycress in our yard. Isn’t it pretty?

I’ve never seen muscari in this delicate color before:

This was the perfect experience to have with my mom. Surrounded by flowers and lovely people. I know I will treasure that sunny Saturday at the flower farm forever. If your local and you’d like to sign up for a class or flower share you can do that here.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this flowers as much as I did sharing them with you. If you enjoyed this post, you might also like my Creativity Over Coffee Interview with Nikki and Cara (founders of Cross Street Flower Farm).