How to Arrange Flowers and Foliage from Your Garden

If you have a garden (especially a cut flower garden), you have the makings of beautiful foliage arrangements at your fingertips.

When you combine the seasonal leaves, flowers, and branches, the creative possibilities are amazing!

With a few tips, you’ll be on your way to crafting centerpieces for your home and making thoughtful gifts to give to friends and loved ones.

The art of floral arranging is an ancient and fascinating one.

From the elegant simplicity of Japanese Ikebana to lush European designs, the sky’s the limit when it comes to expressing your creativity with nature’s bounty.

In this guide, we’ll take a look at how to create your own arrangements.

Define a Theme

Take a walk through your garden and see what’s there for you to choose from.

Do you have some nice leafy branches, English ivy, budding roses? Or are there mums, bittersweet, and mini pumpkins?

Choose a decorative container that will reflect two things: the season and the atmosphere you wish to create.

Maybe your mom is coming over for tea. How about some rosebuds and ferns, in a cute teacup on a saucer?

Are the kids having a Halloween party? How about carving out a pumpkin, lining it with plastic, and filling it with sunflowers and berries?

Containers can be as rustic as a tin bucket or as elegant as a crystal vase.

Use your imagination!

Flower Arranging 101

A common artistic style includes greenery, focal flowers, and filler flowers.

Greenery

Greenery refers to plant material like ferns, ivy, ornamental grasses, and branches.

This goes into your container first, to act as a supporting structure for the flowers you will then add.

Focal Flowers

Focal flowers are the largest, showiest flowers in your vase. These are the highlights of your garden.

Filler Flowers

Filler flowers are smaller. Place them decoratively among the larger flowers.

Varieties like limonium, statice, or gypsophilia (baby’s breath), are light and airy, and serve to fill the gaps between the greens and focal flowers with a lacy accent.

Choosing a Container

Any vessel that can hold water is a candidate for a fabulous floral display. And once you’ve made your choice, ask yourself two simple questions:

1. Is my container clear or opaque?
2. Is it vertical – like a vase – or horizontal – like a soup bowl?

This will inform what type of arrangement you can create.

Clear and Vertical

If you answered clear and vertical, you’ll see stems beneath the water in a vase that will support flowers and leafy greens and branches well.

Clear and Horizontal

If you answered clear and horizontal, you’ll see stems beneath the water in a vase that probably won’t support your display without assistance.