Arranging artificial flowers: a beginner's guide

Arranging flowers yourself looks more demanding than it is. With about half an hour and the right moves you get an arrangement that stays beautiful for good. This guide takes you through it step by step.

The difference from a bouquet of cut flowers is not just how long it lasts. A shop-bought bouquet lasts seven to fourteen days with care, tulips more like five to seven, and after that the work is gone. An arrangement of artificial flowers can be taken apart, rearranged and recomposed with other colours as often as you like. The material stays the same.

1. What you need

• Artificial flowers: 12 to 24 stems, depending on the size of the arrangement. For a first attempt, 12 to 15 is easy to handle.
• Greenery: around 5 to 10 stems of eucalyptus, fern or other foliage.
• Vase: to suit your interior style. There is an important note on choosing the vessel further down.
• Floral foam: one block of dry floral foam per arrangement.
• Side cutters or florist’s scissors: artificial stems have a wire inside. Household scissors quickly reach their limit here.
• Optional: ribbon, a bow or further decoration.

Floral foam and cutting tools are available at craft or DIY shops. Both last a long time and get reused for every further arrangement.

2. Preparation

1. Lay out all materials in front of you so you are not hunting while arranging.
2. Cut the floral foam so it fits into the vase and protrudes one to two centimetres at the top.
3. Set the block firmly into the vase. It must not wobble, or the whole arrangement will shift later.

3. Build the framework

The key point: work from the top down and think in a dome or triangle shape. An arrangement in which all blooms stand at the same height looks flat.

1. Shorten the longest blooms to the height you want, for example 35 centimetres.
2. Insert three of them centrally at the top. They form the peak.
3. Set three to five medium-length blooms in a circle around them.
4. Fill the lower areas with the shorter stems.

4. Filling out

The most common beginner’s mistake is being too sparing. An arrangement may well be dense.

1. Reckon with a good fifth more blooms than you first estimated.
2. Turn the arrangement as you go: is the back filled too?
3. Work evenly all the way round so no gaps remain.

5. Working in greenery

Foliage is the difference between a heap of flowers and an arrangement. It fills the spaces and takes the stiffness out of the composition.

1. Cut the greenery to different lengths.
2. Distribute it in the middle, at the sides, and let individual sprigs stand out from the gaps.
3. The greenery should stay visible, not disappear beneath the blooms.

6. Finishing touches

1. Look at the arrangement from every side.
2. Close remaining gaps with smaller blooms.
3. Trim individual stems that fall out of the shape.

What gives artificial flowers away, and how to prevent it

Whether an arrangement looks artificial is rarely decided by the bloom itself, but almost always by the same four things:

• The vessel. A clear glass vase without water gives artificial flowers away fastest. Ceramic, stoneware, a basket or opaque glass look entirely natural. If you really want glass, you can fill it with decorative gravel or resin water.
• Equal heights. Nothing in nature grows to exactly the same height. Five to seven different cutting lengths immediately look livelier.
• Straight stems. Artificial flower stems have wire inside for exactly this reason. Bend each stem slightly; none should stand dead straight.
• Missing greenery. A bouquet of blooms alone, without foliage, looks as if it came straight out of a catalogue. Foliage is the cheapest and most effective trick of all.

And an odd number: three, five or seven main blooms look calmer than four or six. It is an old florists’ rule and works surprisingly reliably.

Five rules that always help

1. Vary the heights. Three to five different heights look alive, a single one looks artificial.
2. Limit the colours. Up to three colours keep the picture calm. More quickly looks restless.
3. Keep the shape in view. From the front and from above, a clear triangle or dome should emerge.
4. Work densely. Better a few stems more than visible holes.
5. Weight at the bottom. Large blooms low, small ones high. That looks more natural.

Common mistakes

Mistake	Cause	Fix
Visible gaps	Too few stems	Work in about a fifth more blooms
Looks flat	All blooms at the same height	Five to seven different cutting lengths
Looks artificial	No greenery, all blooms free-standing	Work in foliage, let it slightly overlap some blooms
Looks top-heavy	Large blooms at the top	Move large blooms lower
Stands out immediately	Clear glass vase without water	Opaque vessel, decorative gravel or resin water

Three arrangements to copy

Classic mixed

• 4 roses in red or pink
• 4 hydrangeas in white or cream
• 4 mixed blooms, for example delphinium
• Eucalyptus to fill out

Calm and timeless, suits almost any room.

Festive

• 8 roses in white and cream
• 6 hydrangeas in white or blue
• 6 stems of foliage, for example eucalyptus and fern
• A larger vase for a fuller overall picture

Suitable for weddings, christenings and anniversaries.

Restrained and modern

• 5 large single blooms, for example protea, orchid or a large rose
• 8 stems of fine foliage
• A narrow, tall vase
• Deliberately loosely arranged

Looks tidy and gets by with few elements.

Tips for starting out

• Practise with five or six stems first, before working through all your material.
• Use side cutters. With household scissors you tend to crush the wire in the stem rather than cut it.
• Photograph the arrangement from several angles. Gaps show up more clearly in a picture than in real life.
• The first arrangement is rarely perfect. The third usually looks noticeably better.

Keeping it looking good for a long time

Dust is the only real enemy. Every two to four weeks, a soft brush, a feather duster or a microfibre cloth is enough; a hairdryer on the cool setting, held at some distance, works too and gets into the gaps better. Twice a year, a more thorough clean: spray with lukewarm water or rinse briefly under the shower, without pressure on the blooms, then leave to dry in an airy spot.

The second enemy is direct sunlight. A spot that does not sit in the midday sun for hours keeps the colours fresh considerably longer.

Suitable material

Single stems for free combining are under Single stems, ready-tied versions among the bouquets. The matching vase is under Vases & decor.