Thank so much for the nice comments yesterday! I agree with each of you – Mom needs to share her secret to aging so beautifully! As promised, here is a little tutorial for the foraged arrangement I made for the dinner table.
As much as I love having flowers on the table, it is important that they don’t block the view of my dinner companions. With that in mind, I chose an oblong bowl for the arrangement to keep it low. More on that in a second.
These are the cuttings I used. Before I started I wasn’t sure what I would find in the garden, but I knew that the main attraction would be the chantilly lace hydrangeas. I basically gathered all sorts of textures with different shades of green.
Here is the bowl I used. I started by filling my bowl with water and taping a grid with florist tape. This is such a fool proof way of spreading flowers evenly in an arrangement. A hunk of oasis in the bottom would also help to hold everything in place, but I skipped that this time. Because hydrangeas were my main focus, I started placing them around the bowl.
I gradually layered in the greenery.
There’s really no right or wrong way to do this and I’m certain that if I made this arrangement today using all the same cuttings, it would look completely different.
That’s really the beauty of it.
Once finished, I decided the top needed two more flowers. So I gently tucked them in last. I hope you find this tutorial helpful.
Such a pretty arrangement!
Thank you Kristy!
I've often been challenged to help friends with flowers for a variety of events – so don't overlook my favorite – "a ditch-flower bouquet". Just about every street or road has thistles or grasses going to seed or even wildflowers that are free. One of my favorite memories is of a late May morning, just after daylight, in an SUV loaded with buckets of water, scissors and clippers – to gather what we had scoped out the day before on the backroads. Within an hour, we had collected more than enough to fullfill our needs. You may want to try that sometime when your yard has less than enough.
You are so right! Sometimes those are the best!
Such a beautiful arrangement Rene! The florist tape is brilliant! Why have I never thought of that. I need to add a chantilly lace hydrangea to the garden next year. They are so dainty but add a lot of impact. Thanks for the tutorial. I will definitely be using it for my next arrangement.
Inspiration for my next dinner with family. It will be to gather for my grand daughter's 9th birthday. A good arrangement for a birthday… Young or old. Just pretty girl stuff. Thanks for the tutorial and love your blog. xx-hb
Love it!!!! Your Mom has the most beautiful hydrangeas …I love that you put the names of the plants on your tutorial.