You will need:

* A good pair of flower scissors/secateurs

* A square or round container, not glass

* Soaked green floral foam to fit inside and come about 1.5”/4cm above the rim

Foliage:

A small selection of leaves from your garden, maybe three or four different types. Small shrubs like euonymus, ceonothus, hebe or senecio would be fine. The length will depend on your overall size but probably not more than about 8”/190cm long.

Try to cut the day before use and let them have a nice long drink in clean, tepid water.

Flowers:

Just one type. Use straight stems with a single flower head, maybe roses or gerberas, or multi-headed types like gladiola or liatris.

Between five and twelve stems, depending on the size of the type chosen.

Method:

Use the foliage to cover the foam and edge over the pot to create a pretty base but don’t crowd it - leave room to put in the flower stems as you can infill with small leaves for camouflage later. The flowers should be staggered downwards, some stems might be slightly turned to give a more natural look.

Options:

* Consider using one type of variegated foliage to give a good contrast

* Bear grass can be inserted and curled to add interest

* Leatherleaf ferns give a feathery look at the base

* Extra flowers can be added at centre-base for focal impact

* If using small flowers try two matching pots.

The photographs will give you the general idea. This design can be scaled up to be big, bold and beautiful – it might look stupendous in Church, or scaled down and used in pairs for a mantelpiece.

ENJOY TRYING IT !

 

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