Luxurious Hand-Tied Bouquet

Welcome to the Flower School .com video library. I'm Leanne Kesler, Director of the Floral Design Institute, and today, I'm in the studio with amazing flowers from Florabundance.com. We're going to create an abundant, luxurious, elegant, and fabulous hand-tied bouquet. 

When I choose my materials I'm often inspired by color and I love Florabundance.com for that one reason, you can shop by color. Then I was looking for complex hues. I wanted something that seemed wintery, holiday-ish but I didn't want it to shout red and green, so I started with more muted bronze and burgundy. They had so many grand complex hues, carnations, and then an interesting color that goes beautifully with lisianthus also in that muted complex color palette. Then moving forward to a little bit brighter chrysanthemum in that bronze and then darkening to gerbera daisies in the burgundy. 

Of course, I had to have roses. The Purple Moon picks up that same complexity, lavender, but with that copper in the center. Then I turned to Gardenrosesdirect.com and grabbed a garden rose to give it that really luxury touch, adding some value. I picked Tess, which is a David Austin garden rose, and it comes tagged so you know you're getting the real thing. Then I just filled in with foliages and textures and I'm ready to create. All of my flowers are already prepared. They've been fully hydrated. I removed the lower leaves, took off the thorns and then put them all back in water so that they stay hydrated while I work. I picked some foliages, my favorite berried myrtle so grand, some Aussie pine. I start with this because it gives me a nice full look just with two stems. Maybe a little bit of the agonis to bring in that darker hue. 

Then I start adding my flowers and as I work I want to think about the spiral technique. Bringing in a stem but angling it, never putting things in your hand straight up and down. Maybe a rose angled a bit and turning. Another chrysanthemum, turning. You could always bring in a little more foliage but it too comes in at that slanting feel. Carnations. It's totally fine to add more stems at once but every time you do it it's head one direction, stem the opposite. Then turn it and continue adding. Bring in more of the roses. A few of the nigella pods for some texture, clustering them together in my hand and then just putting them all in at once. Then turning. You can adjust a little bit, bringing in one of the Tess roses, getting that brighter hue. I can just weave it in, maybe doing two of them to give it greater value. And then once again turning it and continue adding. Heads in one direction, stem the other. 

As you're working keep thinking about your color balance. If you want to bring in a little bit more of the burgundy to this side, just slide it in there. And then be thinking about your foliages. Maybe you want to bring in a little bit more of Aussie pine. Again, always heads one direct, stem the other. Then there'll come a point where you have a lot of stems in your hands and you're feeling a little awkward like things will be shifting too much. That's when you can take some bind wire and tie it off, secure it in place. Give it a cut and wrap above your hand nice and snug, just twisting the wire ends together. Then when that's secure, you can lay it down, you can rest your hand, you can switch back and forth. Then go back and start adding in more flowers. Bringing in more of the roses, maybe more of the eryngium. Turning, coming back with another of the Tess, sliding it in where you want the head to be. Maybe a little more of the berried myrtle. Turning, lisianthus. That one has got quite a different length on it so I'm going to set that aside. Come back with this one. It fits in that hole just better. You adjust based on where the stem should be. That has a nice bud that comes out, letting it extend, turning. Another chrysanthemum, turning, carnations. As I work, thinking about my balance, thinking about symmetry, adding in interesting textures, nice movement and balanced color. Sometimes it's nice to stand in front of a mirror while you do this so you can see what it looks like from the other side. 

When you're working on a bouquet this big and luxurious, it really is all in that tie off. That way you can let go, you can set it down if you need to and you can rest assured everything's going to stay right where you put it. Then when it's secure, you can go ahead and continue adding flowers, bringing in another rose, turning. Maybe yet another rose, some nigelia and turning. A little more of the Aussie pine, agonis and you can see, just balance it off, adding things into your hand, securing. Make sure you've got the textures, the colors, everything that you want. Then as you finish, tucking in your last stem and then using some beautiful fatsia leaves, collaring the back to finish it off. And once that's done, one last tie and you're ready to go. 

The design now is stable. It's secure. Everything's locked together. You can cut off the extra bind wire. You don't need that. Then go through and cut the stems down so that they're all the same length. Double checking, making sure you've got them all, that they do have the same length. To ensure that you've done that, you could take and just pound it a bit on the table, making sure that they all are the same. Then using a flat tray, fill it with water and set the bouquet in and let it stand in all its glory. A free-standing hand-tied bouquet is an elegant way to showcase fabulous flowers. All of these from Florabundance.com and then the few roses from Gardenrosesdirect.com makes an impressive piece. 

For more creative inspiration, check out our website at Flower School .com. If you have questions or you want to know more about the materials, you can reach me through there or pick up the telephone and give me a call at 503-223-8089. Now I challenge you. Create a luxurious hand-tied bouquet. Make it stand up, take a photo. Post it on social media and tag floral design institute so we all can see. I would love to see your creation for the winter season. Have fun and do something you love.