TIPical Mary Ellen host Mary Ellen Pinkham shows numerous basic yet creative tips for arranging flowers.
- Arrange flowers around fresh fruit in a glass bowl for a special event.
- Use containers in which you would not normally not expect flowers to be displayed. How about a sun hat turned upside down to place the flower bowl in or a brass urn or a teapot? Avoid steel and iron, as these deteriorate the flowers.
- Remove all the leaves under the water line. They decompose, turn the water brown, and wilt the flowers.
- Slice the stem vertically--about an inch--to allow for more water absorption.
- Put marbles in the bottom of a glass vase to hold the flowers.
- When putting long-stemmed flowers in a wide-mouth vase, stretch plastic wrap over the mouth. Put the stems in through that, and they will stand up straight.
- If your flowers are too short for your vase, crunch up the cellophane that the flowers come wrapped in, and place it in the bottom of a clear vase.
- Attach green straws to the ends of short-stemmed flowers to give them some extra length.
- Use various flower lengths to give the arrangement a more dimensional look.
- Add various accessories to your flowers if you are celebrating a special event. A rattle or nookie for someone with a newborn is a nice touch, as well as streamers and confetti if it's a birthday party.
- Change the water daily and give them a fresh snip to make them last much longer.
- Don't wait for company to put out fresh flowers to enjoy. Treat you and your family every now and then.
