Colorful Spring Hand-tied Bouquet

Video Transcription

Springtime is color. Today, a colorful hand-tied bouquet. Polychromatic, so many fabulous flowers. Thanks to Florabundance for providing these to make it amazing. I can tell you, this one's going home with me.

Spring is filled with color and thanks to florabundance.com, we have beautiful things. Fabulous pink tulips, renunculus, and that bright vivid orange. Mint green carnations. I know, you say, "Carnations?" But they are so wonderful to fit in. Paperwhites, grand fragrance to add to the design. Then clematis, this beautiful purple to set it, in and then the star of the show, oncidiums. Now, these are unique and they don't have quite the same freckles, but that bright yellow will be fabulous with all the other colors to make a polychromatic design.

As you begin, prep all your materials, have them ready and set. And that way you just gather a stem and a stem, place it in your hand. Look at how it fits. Maybe there's a leaf that's too long. Go ahead and pull that off. Then fill in, adding in and get a cluster started. So really right now I've added a tulip, a carnation, a paperwhite, and a ranunculus with the Israeli ruscus. Then you want to just turn that and repeat. So add another tulip, another ranunculus, another carnation, and maybe another paperwhite. And it's okay if you want to add two, just tuck them in at the same time. Then turn and repeat. Tulip, maybe this time I'll bring in a bit of the clematis, giving that purple, tucking it in, another ranunculus, and turn. And that's the trick. Everything you do, you add it in at an angle, and then you turn it and continue adding.

The challenge of a hand tie is how does it really fit together? And that's something we deal with with every single student in basic floral design, is how does it really fit? The key is everything you do angles so that when you place it in your hand, it comes in at the exact same angle, and then you turn and add the next bloom, exact same angle. I'm going to exaggerate now. Turn again. Sometimes I don't turn that many times because it's okay to have things together and do multiple stems at the same time. But then you turn and bring it back in and think about, what do you want? Do you need a little bit of purple? Do you need a little bit of white? Do you need a little bit of pink? You get to choose, but the key is you place it in your hand and then you give it that turn and then go back and add.

As you finish, continue adding flowers, bringing them out, looking to see where the color needs to go. Think about a little bit of green everywhere, a little bit of the white everywhere. Turning. What's missing? Maybe a little more of the purple and a little more of the orange. Then as you go along, keep turning, double checking. Look what color needs to go to make it balance. And then to add a little bit of vavoom, some excitement, bringing in the oncidium orchids, letting them trail outward, giving a little bit of movement. Learn to group them together so that they go on one side. But with that, go back. Fill in. Maybe you need another carnation. Maybe you need another ranunculus, but look at it. And it helps sometimes to look in the mirror, to see what looks like that all the way around, then turn and continue on adding in the last few blooms until you love it.

As you finish, you want to think about how is your balance? Add in a little stem if you need to to fill in. Add in a little more. The paperwhites are so fragrant. So turning it and bringing it in so it adds that white to the side. Everything still spirals around. Then go back with a bit more foliage to create a collar because this will protect all of your stems. You can pull off the lower. Give it a turn. Double check, oftentimes in a mirror, to make sure everything's perfect. Then go back and add another. Give it a turn. Double check. Decide if you need maybe one more carnation to fill in that mint green and then a little bit more with the ruscus to complete the collar all the way around.

Once the bouquet is perfect, you want to tie it off. Bind wire works well. Just grab it, give it a cut, and then tuck it under your finger and wrap around. You want to go around two or three times. Depends on stability, but two to three times, then twist that together, and go back and cut your stems so they're all the right length.

Once it's cut, you can wrap it in tissue for a gift, or you can set it into a vessel. Ready to go. Beautiful. The recipe, I use 10 stems of the Israeli Ruscus. Seven of the Ranunculus. Aren't those beautiful? Seven Tulips. Seven Carnations, that mint green. And then nine of the Paperwhites. The Clematis, back to the seven. And then the Oncidium, just two stems. Thanks to Florabundance for providing so many fabulous flowers to make this beautiful hand tie.

Designing in the springtime with so many fabulous colors, polychromatic, my absolute favorite. You'll find more creative inspiration and more ideas for your designs on our website, flowerschool.com. If you have questions, you can reach us through there, but now it's your turn. Gather flowers in every color you can find. Create a polychromatic design, post on social media and #FloralDesignInstitute. That way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.