Blue & Green Hydrangea Hand-Tie
In this Flower School How-To Video, Leanne creates a stunning hand-tied bouquet featuring an analogous color harmony of violet, blue, and green. With hydrangea as the base and a medley of scabiosa, delphinium, bachelor buttons, echinops, and more, the design flows in a cool, calming palette. It's foam-free, full of texture, and packed with professional floral design tips. Perfect for late summer blooms and color theory inspiration!
Video Transcription
The hand tie, ever popular, going to the cool colors. Oh, so fabulous. You know I tend to work with a lot of reds, thus the tulip. Today, let's start with blue and green. Let me show you how it's done.
When you're creating a hand tie, one of the simplest mechanics is to start with mother nature's armature. It's just using hydrangea. Remove the foliage. You don't need all of that. Separating it down and then clustering it in your hand. You can leave some or take it off, and this becomes the armature for the entire bouquet.
With the green base coming back in, the bluey lavender of echinops, feeding it through and repeating, getting a little bit of movement. Coming back with the belladonna delphinium, brighter blue, feeding it through, finding the perfect spot, dividing it out and feeding. And as you work, go through that central binding point. Every stem feeds in through the hydrangea into your hand and then you radiate, coming around, repeat, and begin the base of your bouquet with all that beautiful blue and lavender mixed with the green.
Next up, the beautiful scabiosa, that soft lavender, feeding it in, finding the perfect spot, and then filling in with additional. Some of them will be doubles. Just kind of let them be a natural approach. And turning, bringing in more. For a little softer look, bachelor buttons in this soft lavender. They're a little smaller, letting them dance over the top. And turning, bringing in more. And then as you work, looking at it in a mirror so that you can see front and back, side to side. If you're balancing out, giving it that natural symmetry. And then adjusting, finding the perfect spot, I think that one goes right in there, so that you can get all the blooms together. And then turning it again and placing in another, radiating through that central binding point.
Last steps, adding in a few more of the scabiosa, thinking about where it should go to balance, adding a little more extension, feeding it into your hand, turning, maybe adding on this side. It's a little bit of a bald spot there. Tucking it in and repeating, getting a little more togetherness. Looking at it again side to side, making sure it's balanced, and then adding some fatsia right at the base, creating a collar, bringing that darker green, pulling it around. Double checking, making sure all your mechanics are concealed and then tying it off, ready to hand tie.
The recipe, I started with three green Hydrangea. That's the base. Then I filled in with a combination of Echinops, 10 stems, and local Belladonna Delphinium, 10 stems. For the lavender, the Bachelor Buttons, just use nine stems of the bachelor buttons, and then back to 10 with the Scabiosa. To finish it off four stems of Fatsia to create a beautiful collar.
Creating in the analogous color harmony, going to the cool water colors makes you think of the ocean. You'll find more creative inspiration and education on the website, flowerschool.com. If you have questions, you can reach us through there, but now it's your turn. Find your favorite blues, greens and lavenders. Create an arrangement. Be sure to take a picture and post it on social media, #FloralDesignInstitute. That way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.
