Luscious Jewel-Toned Bouquet

Video Transcription 

Welcome to the Flower School .com video library. I'm Leanne Kesler, director of the Floral Design Institute. And today, want to share with you a fabulous summer bouquet all in jewel tones. 

We're so fortunate now that peonies are almost a year-round flower. So, I started with intense burgundy peonies, added blueberry roses, some scabiosa, eryngium, and some beautiful red ti leaves. I didn't want them to be quite so long. So, I've manipulated using a UGlu dash, placing it right on the tip, top side, pulling the tab off, and then just roll it around on itself, securing it to the back, to get a nice little roll. And I can repeat that for each of the leaves and work them in. The vessel, tall enough to do natural stems. No netting, no foam, just fresh water premixed with flower food.

 A quick and easy way to secure your blooms and create base mechanics is to start as though you were doing a hand tie. Gather things in your hands. Some Italian ruscus, Israeli ruscus, seeded eucalyptus. Then give it a turn. Add in the tea leaf, another bit of Israeli ruscus. Give it a turn. Seeded eucalyptus, tea leaf, Israeli, turn, and repeat that. Always turning, tucking it in your hand. You can do more than one at a time. Then looking at it for balance, making sure you've got everything extending evenly. And last, a few fatsia leaves to help build a collar at the base. Turning the same direction. Doing a foliage nest like this and the hand tie technique is a great way to practice your skill to make sure you truly understand how to balance things. Then when you get it all together, don't tie it. Just cut it and set it in the vessel. 

With the base, it'll easily support your bloom. I start with the larger things first. The peonies. Cleaning off damaged leaves. Giving it a cut. And then just tucking it down in. Repeat that. Angling through using a radial binding point. The roses. Then turn it and fill in the opposite side. And continue until you've used up all your flowers. 

As a final touch, adding some texture with the beautiful eryngium. Bringing it down. Giving it a cut. And just placing it in, again, radiating to that central binding point, keeping everything organized. Then adding a little bit of brightness with the lavender scabiosa changes the look and enhances that dark of the roses and the peonies. 

The recipe for this design. We started with 10 of the red ti leaves. Then added in Italian ruscus, Israeli ruscus, and seeded eucalyptus. Three to five stems of each. It's going to depend on how full your stems are. Then there are seven peonies, seven of the roses, five stems of the eryngium, and six stems of the scabiosa. The beauty of this technique is you can pull it out, change the water in the vessel, put in fresh water, and put it right back in, and nothing will shift. Nothing will move. It stays just where you want it. 

The intense days of summer call for the intense jewel-tone colors. They're wonderful transitions into the autumn season. You'll find more creative inspiration on our website, Flower School. com. If you have questions, you can reach us through there or pick up the telephone and give me a call. We're happy to chat. Now it's your turn. What are you going to create using the intense colors available to us now in this late summer season? Gather your favorite blooms. Create an arrangement. 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.