Floral Meadow Arrangement
The late summer season abounds with grasses, wild flowers and dried materials. In this flower school video demonstration Leanne creates a beautiful foam free design in the vegetative style. The vegetative style is a design created “as nature grows” with flowers from the same region and in the same season. Enjoy!
Video Transcription
Welcome to the Flower School .com video library. I'm Leanne Kesler, director of the Floral Design Institute. And today, I'm here to share with you a wonderful floral meadow arrangement, perfect for the changing seasons.
The container I've chosen, a faux cement. I've lined it and then placed in floral netting. That way I can work foam-free and still have control of the way my stems are placed. Flowers, a variety of seasonal garden flowers. Added with foliage, berries, and preserved so that it gives the essence of the autumn season and still the vibrancy of summer.
To begin, using the elderberry, it has nice draping to it. It will break the line of the container just by its natural character. Giving it a cut, setting it down, draping over the side, maybe another piece. Coming out, then using the myrtle to create a nice vertical, giving it a break, placing it down in, adjusting, repeating. Getting that upward movement, coming back, maybe a shorter piece tucked low, adding a little more support, and another. Just playing around, creating parallel lines. Then bringing in that autumn, hear it rustle, dried and preserved. Breaking it apart, adding it in. And of course, bringing it around to the back as well.
Continuing on with the lines of the design and enhancing it with additional linear materials, salvia, so beautiful and graceful, a little softer vertical than the myrtle. Setting it in, bringing it out, looking for nice, beautiful pieces, placing it. This one has so many buds on it. Beautiful. Putting it in. A little bit out towards the back. So it ends up being two-sided, even though it truly does have a front. We go on over to this side, working with it to find the perfect spot to get it to stay upright. There we go. A little bit of sedum, gives the essence of autumn, a little lower, bring in some color round to the back. And then some hypericum berries, picking up the color of the oak leaves. Make it come up. You can see the different forms of flowers, the subtle variation on color starts to show the abundance of the changing seasons.
With the base materials establishing the form, the stem placement, it's fun to go back now and add a little bit more brightness, some scabiosa tucked in letting them grow upwards. Maybe a second one, grouping it together. A little bit of astrantia for a softer look. The astrantia has multiple blooms on one stem, giving it a cut. This lateral is going to get in the way so I'm going to go ahead and remove it. Maybe I'll use it later. Thinking about how long I want it to be, giving it a cut and placing it in, repeating that. And again, maybe going ahead and adding a little piece towards the back to get a little more fullness. Then these scabiosa are just an amazing transitional bloom. You can see it still has the florets, and it also has started to go to seed creating their little pods, and they're so tall and graceful. Placing them in over the top of the other blooms, just let them dance through the sky, finding the perfect spot, just kind of maneuvering around, then repeating that. Then looking at it from all sides, adding in additional blooms to balance, to add color, to give it the look that you want to bring in the transition of seasons.
The recipe for this meadow is easy. You can mix and match, forage, and purchase, and have fun. I started with myrtle, three stems and a couple of stems of the elderberry. Then I added in 10 of the salvia, two of the sedum, five of the pink scabiosa. Of course, I also had dried and preserved oak leaves, two stems. Then five stems of astrantia, and 10 stems of this going to seed white scabiosa, that's so fabulous. You can see by combining blooms that are very casual with a little bit more textural, and then the hypericum, three stems, very smooth, very, very shiny. That contrast is what makes this fun.
As we transition between the seasons it's fun to combine the autumn with the late summer bounty. There are so many different things you can mix and match. For more creative inspiration, check out the website at Flower School .com. If you have questions, you could reach us there or pick up the telephone at (503) 223-8089. Now it's your turn. Gather your favorite seasonal treasures. Create an arrangement. Be sure to take a photo and post it on social media, #Floral Design Institute. That way, we all can see what you do as you do something you love.
