BrittanyMakes

Amanda the flower whisperer is back with a Spring installment of her flower workshop!  Over-sized arrangements are on our minds now that trees are in bloom… at least here in Cali!

My love of food and seasonal cooking has always kept me in tune with the seasons, but it wasn’t until I started working with flowers that I noticed the tiny moments tucked into a season. One week, the flower mart is flooded with hellebores. The next week, they’re nowhere to be found—but now I’m distracted by the long, lithe limbs of Lady Banks rose. The season unfolds before me in this fashion, each week bringing some new rare delight.

To properly ring in Spring, Brittany and I are showing you how to make this large scale sherbet arrangement featuring our favorite seasonal flowers — ranunculus and dogwood, oh so good!

Why so large?

To showcase the lovely dogwood branches and graceful lines of blooming spirea, we needed an urn that was substantial enough. A good rule of thumb — the total height of your arrangement should be 1.5 to 2 times the height of the vase. That keeps things feeling balanced, and not too top heavy which is often the case with garden-style arrangements.

So…where can I put it?

Though lovely, an arrangement this large would make polite dinner conversation difficult. Arrangements of this scale are better suited for entryways, bars, and low dressers. If you’re planning a wedding, this size would be great for your welcome, gift, or escort tables!

How is this different from building a smaller tabletop arrangement?

For one, you’ll use more ingredients to build a stronger foundation for the flowers. With the branches and greens, you’ll want to create a sturdy grid within the urn by weaving the stems into each other. Give the vase a little shake — if the stems stay in place, you’re ready to add flowers.

Be mindful of the length of your flower stems — these ranunculus and poppies had fairly long stems, so they worked well in this arrangement. Make sure that each stem is in water, preferably by a few inches. When you work branches into an arrangement, there’s no telling how fast or how much they’ll drink. In the time it took me to write this, the arrangement drank 2 inches of water from the top!

Use bigger flowers, or cluster smaller blooms for the same effect. In this arrangement, I wanted to echo the frothiness of the spirea and dogwood to keep the overall look very soft. That’s why I chose to use ranunculus, poppies & sweet pea over bigger blooms.

Let’s build!

STEP1 Build the foundation and shape with dogwood branches and spirea. This part takes a bit of patience, because there’s nothing to hold the first few stems in place.

STEP 2 Add the larger flowers in the dominant color— in this case, I used the larger ranunculus and poppies in a soft, buttery shade. I nestled them just right of the center, as if they were growing out of the pot.

STEP 3 Add the flowers in an accent color. I tucked a few peachy-pink stems of ranunculus mostly to the left of the first cluster at a few different heights and depths. I included one satellite to the right to create a counter. The eye likes to travel along the vertices of a triangle, something I’m mindful of when I arrange.

STEP 4 Soften any edges and fill in any gaps with the sweet pea. A little bit of negative space is appreciated in a large arrangement. Someone once told me to design with enough openness that a little bird could fly through the arrangement. I see a few different routes he could take through the sherbet!

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Amanda is the best, isn’t she? I can’t wait to one day have table/entryway to call my own (soon maybe?) to showcase such a simple yet grand arrangement.  Also, I need that Tuscan vase! (vase from Pottery Barn)

PS!!! Amanda is hosting a flower crown workshop on April 4th in Emeryville, CA at the Handcraft Studio School. I will be there! Sign up here. I mean, how bad do you want to wear a flower crown? I’ll answer for you: BAD.