Large Vase Arrangement with Tropicals

Go big or go home! For a florist, that is when the fun begins. There are so many fabulous flowers blooming in the summer. With this technique, you can gather one of everything you can find and create a grand bold design.

Video Transcription 


At Floral Design Institute, we teach everything, little tiny to great big. Today, we want to share with you this, which is go big, or go home.


As I was gathering my materials, I found this vase on the shelf. I forgot that I had bought it a long time ago, and I thought how perfect is that? Then, at last, the sun is shining here in Portland and I just felt so happy and exuberant so I picked happy and exuberant blooms, some tropical, some temperate, all bright and festive. 


To begin, taking a single tea leaf and pulling off that back rib where it's very stiff to give it a little bit more pliability. Then, tucking that down inside the vessel just to get a little more interest. And just roll it, slide it in, and then let it pop free. It just adds a little bit more weight to the base of the design. Then I can go back with all different types of foliage, maybe some Italian ruscus, giving it a cut, removing the lower foliage, setting it down in, letting it fan out. 


I'm creating a weave within the vase, which then will support my flowers. Using a central binding point, adding in palm fronds, big and lush, makes you think of a warm tropical paradise. And then, just because I have it and I love it, some banksia foliage. Now you will see the banksia bloom in other videos and we've used it in class, but I had the leftover foliage and I thought, "Wouldn't that be great in here?" Using a pruner because it's so woody and strong, cut it down, dropping it in and repeating it with one more. 


For a bit of bright, tucking in some solidaster. That vivid yellow is like sunshine and bloom. Some of it is very, very long. Some of it is multiple stems on one. Some of it's shorter. We'll save it for something else because I want stems that are long enough to get down into the water and drink well. Then ginger, giving it a cut and I go both directions just to make sure it's going to drink well, weaving it in, and repeating. I had a single bird of paradise, just one hanging around and sometimes we forget that ones can be beautiful. You don't have to have threes on everything. Then sunflowers. Sometimes they're not as pretty as you want. Removing the petals gets it down to a beautiful bloom, which works in well with the tropical blooms, adding a little bit of interest, then just repeating with more of all of them until it's full and lush. 


To finish, just adding in more fun things, maybe a Kangaroo paw coming up tall through the center, finding the perfect hole to feed it down in. Adding in a Gerbera daisy, that vivid orange, adding again a bit of brightness. Pin cushion protea, vivid orange. Letting it come out more to the front, balancing off with the Gerbera and the Bird of Paradise, and then a few roses to pick up that hot pink of the ginger to finish filling. 


The recipe, there really isn't a recipe. When I was thinking about this, it made me think of James Beard and when he was asked, "How do you make soup? What's your recipe?" He just said, "You go to the refrigerator, you see what you got and you make soup?" And I thought, "That's kind of how I did this. I looked to see what we had leftover around here and then just made soup out of my flowers." To be honest, it's about 25 blooms and that's the most important thing you need to know is you need quite a few flowers to do this. And then, you want to think about size and volume. Pick bigger blooms and then some smaller textures so that you have a little bit of everything to mix and match to make a fabulous bouquet.


Big, bold, vibrant. As you're choosing your flowers, look at the website, Flower School .com. There's a flower library and you can see pictures of the different items, find out a little bit about their characteristics. It can help you choose the blooms you want to use. Then be brave and just think about getting one of everything you can find and mixing and matching. You'll find more creative inspiration on the website Flower School .com. Then it's your turn. Gather your favorites, create a big bold bouquet, then take a picture, post it on social media and hashtag Floral Design Institute. That way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.

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