How to Make a Floral Foam Arrangement

Floral foam must be soaked before you trim it, position it and then arrange the flowers and foliage. Drop a block of floral foam into a bowl or bucket of water and lift it out as soon as it appears to have completely absorbed water or sunk to the bottom of the bucket. Don’t leave it in the water too long or it will begin to disintegrate. It's also worth using a hand spray regularly while you work to refresh the flowers.

Materials Needed:

• floral foam
• shallow bowl
• craft knife
• stem tape

• florist's scissors
• foliage (2 types)
• flowers (3 types)

Gather Your Flowers and Tools

Use 6-8 stems each of two different types of foliage and 7-11 stems each of three varieties of flower (or 2-3 stems if using spray flowers) for this small arrangement. Condition your flowers and foliage. The stems will be cut quite short when you arrange them, so they don't need to be left too long when you condition them.

From left: white single roses, purple veronica, white lisianthus, salal stems and eucalyptus stems (image 1)

Place half a block of soaked floral foam in the shallow bowl, trim the corners of the foam with a craft knife and bind it to the bowl with stem tape (image 2).

Insert the First Stems

Trim the smaller stems from the different sprays of foliage and use one variety of foliage to create a skeleton framework. Insert a stem at an angle in each side of the foam at the base (so the leaves are angled downward to hide the base of the bowl). Insert three stems in a line across the top of the foam. Press the stems firmly, but not too far, into the foam, about 3/4 inch deep.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-DK - Fresh Flower Arranging © 2011 Dorling Kindersley Limited

Add the Second Variety of Foliage

Add a few stems of the second type of foliage at an angle to fill the natural spaces in the foam. You want to achieve an even, rounded shape with the angled leaves, but not all the foam should be hidden at this stage.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-DK - Fresh Flower Arranging © 2011 Dorling Kindersley Limited