How to Choose and Prepare Flowers for Arranging

Gorgeous floral design starts with good flowers. Find out how to choose the best ones, and prepare them for your arrangement.

Excerpted from Fresh Flower Arranging
Filed under: How To, Flowers

Select the best quality flowers available from your local florist or grower; stay as seasonal as possible with your choices. As a general rule, buy a maximum of four to five types of flower in three or four harmonious - or two complementary - colors. If scent is important, ask your florist for advice before you buy. Whether a flower has a lighter or stronger scent may impact where you place the flowers, as some scents can be overpowering in small rooms.

Buy and Conditioning Flowers

For arrangements that will last longer at home, buy flowers such as lilies, amaryllis, roses, ranunculas and tulips while they are still in bud or just starting to open; they shouldn't all be completely closed and neither should they all be almost open. If you need flowers as a short-term decoration for a special occasion such as a wedding, buy flowers that are already beginning to open up so they will look their best on the day.

It's important to condition your flowers and foliage as soon as you have bought them so that they remain in peak condition for as long as possible. Strip the excess leaves from the stems and split the ends of any woody stems. Place all the flower and foliage stems in a deep bucket of cold water for about an hour before you start to trim the stems and arrange the flowers. This will help to hydrate the flowers and ensure that they will bloom while they are still fresh. If the flowers have enough to drink at this stage, they shouldn't need quite so much water once they have been arranged in a display.

Choose Flowers with Blooms in Various Stages

Healthy Roses

To check whether the roses you want to buy are really fresh and likely to last, gently squeeze a few of the flower heads near the base where the petals meet the sepals. An older rose has a soft base and tired-looking petals, while a fresh rose has a firm base and tighter, crisp-looking petals; choose the fresh roses, which have a longer life span.

Choose Healthy Fresh Roses for Arrangements

Stripping Stems

Lay the flowers and foliage out on a table. Take one stem, stand it upright on a table and run a craft knife down the sides of the stem to remove any thorns and unwanted leaves.

Leave a few leaves near the top of each stem, but remove any leaves that might stand in water. Foliage often has shorter stems than flowers, so cut off lower side shoots to create longer stems.