Lemon Floral Centerpiece
Nothing is as refreshing as a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer day, except, perhaps, a lemon-inspired floral arrangement! In this Flower School How-To Video Leanne shares a time-tested technique for designing with citrus, using roses, peonies, lisiantus, dianthus, and more in lemony shades of yellow and whites, and of course -- lemons. Enjoy!
Video Transcription
Designing with flowers and citrus, on trend again. Yes, the 80s are back. Let's take a look and see how it's done.
When you work with produce, lemons, limes, oranges, you need two containers. I'm going to turn this so that you can see. There's a yellow container on the inside, so the lemons are going around the outside. By using yellow, if there's any spots that are missing, it still looks good. You could do clear, but then you have to be more careful. When you line it you slide the lemons down and you can see some will come up over the edge. You can go ahead and just cut those to line it back up. You don't have to be perfect because it's not going to show, but you don't want it to be quite so tall. Then when you do the water, you want fresh water on the outside because then the lemon juice just mixes in and on the inside. You want to do fresh water mixed with flower food because that's where your flowers are going to go.
As you begin, just start a nest and it can be a mixture of foliages and flowers just feeding through. Use your central binding point, crossing through. Eventually, as you place everything, you'll break the line of the container. Carnations are perfect because they give you a lot of color very, very quickly, just tucking down in. And I go through and do a fairly full arrangement of carnations and ruscus before I add in the beautiful flowers.
With the base set, your mechanics are covered. The illusion has begun, but you don't have proper scale, so that's where you come back with additional blooms. Maybe some beautiful roses. Let them be a little taller coming out, extending the design. Peonies. Yes, tree peonies come in yellow, perfect for that lemon hue, tucking that in, finding a perfect spot. Some spray chrysanthemums, giving a little lighter look. Maybe cutting it apart so you have some smaller blooms, letting them come outward and then tucking below to pull the eye inward and repeat to get full and lush.
To finish, look for holes. I've got a spot right up here on top, tucking in another rose. Adding in a few more of the vivid yellow spray mums to give it more dimension, more color contrast. And then for a little bit of fluff, almost like whipped cream on the top, coming back with some white lisianthus, letting them tuck in, just to add one and more element of color to make it look more interesting.
The recipe, the vessel is a six inch cylinder and I used seven lemons. Yes, quite a few. Then the flowers, six of the roses, six of the spray mums, six of the lisianthus and three peonies. For foliage, 10 stems of the ruscus to finish it off.
Most important on this demonstration is to remember to use two containers. You need to separate your flowers from your citrus. You'll find more creative inspiration and instruction, education, fabulous information on the website, flowerschool.com. If you have questions, you can reach us through there. But now it's your turn. Find two containers, fit one inside the other. Choose your citrus and create away. Take a photo, post it on social media and #FloralDesignInstitute. That way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.
