Miss America Style Arm Bouquet

Video Transcription

You asked and we finally got it ready for you. The Miss America style arm bouquet is on trend, people are liking that draping movement and, once you know how to do it, it's oh so easy. Let me show you how.

Starting with the classics, vibrant red roses, fluffy baby's breath and then multiple foliages. I've got some Italian Ruscus, variegated pittosporum, aspidistra, Israeli Ruscus and lily grass. The more foliages, the more interesting the finished look. As I prepare, I lay things out across my table so that I'm getting ready and then, the roses themselves, you want to make sure that there's not a single thorn. That would be horrible, you don't want the recipient to end up with a poke. Sometimes I take off all the foliage, sometimes I just take off anything that's damaged, give it a cut, look at the petals, make sure they're beautiful and then set them into a vessel of water so that they keep drinking, you don't want them to dry out. Now, these leaves are all pretty so I think I'm going to go ahead and leave those on there, looking for thorns, giving it a cut and placing it in. Now, I'm starting with 25 roses. Reality, I'm only going to use 24 but, that way, if I break one, I have a spare just to be safe. But I prep everything ahead of time and then I lay it all out on my table with the roses right beside me ready to be used and then I'll start designing.

The oddity is, as I work, I actually work on the tabletop. Now, roses come in different lengths within a bunch so you can see taller ones, shorter ones, you want to start with the tallest ones because you're going to be as long as possible at the beginning and lay them in and I start with three in a bit of a triangle and then, at that point, I go back and I add in a leaf. So, what I started with was one stem of variegated pittosporum, one stem of Italian Ruscus, three roses, an aspidistra leaf and then I look at it, lay it back down, it seems weird but, if you lay it actually works better, then I might bring in a few more roses, starting to pull down a little bit, three of them. So, I'm creating another extension of the triangle and then I can come back and add a little more foliage and tucking in some of the baby's breath, just laying it in. You can divide your roses, slide it in and then nestle it around so that you get everything tucked beautifully. Then looking, double checking, do all the roses show, does it give my space a wonderful triangle start then picking it up, clustering it in my hand, getting rid of those lowest leaves, I don't want that in there, holding it taut thinking about an arm bouquet and then taking bind wire and lashing this together because it holds the top in place. So, you just take and twist above the hand. So, just like you're doing a hand tied bouquet but, now, instead of being all the way around, it has a definite flat back and that linear extension and then this lashes it together to be nice and secure and then you can keep building.

With the backbone established, now it gets to be more fun. Adding in a little more foliage, I'm going to wait a little bit, I just added some, maybe adding a little bit of baby's breath, that's going to be too low, taking it off and then adding in more roses, thinking longest ones first and they help lock everything else into place. And I always count my roses before I begin because, once you start working, you lose track of how many roses have you used. Now, we know we started with 25 so, whatever's left, we can do. I can go and count but that's just too hard, I don't want to do that. Thinking about a little bit more foliage and always keeping the extension on the same side so it doesn't come up into the person's face, it will just drape downward, tucking, maybe a couple more. And you can see it's getting a little bit broader but it'll still be tight because you don't want it to be so overwhelming. Then this is where I might add a little more foliage, tucking it, one more bit of baby's breath. And periodically I'll pick it up and hold it to see how it feels and how it's draping and make a decision, is it time to add a little bit more. Maybe some of the Italian Ruscus coming out, maybe a little bit of the Israeli Ruscus. And then, at any point, I can stop, pull off that lower foliage, go back and tie it one more time with the bind wire.

Almost done. Thinking again about holding it, wider on this side, flatter here, just a few more roses to go and remembering I have one extra so I don't want to put it in unless I break something. At this point, I start removing the leaves because I don't want anything that's going to be down below. The upper ones, the leaves sometimes enhance but, down here, you want to have total bare stems. And I was going to add a little more foliage, at this point, I might even break this down so I have a nice long stem and then just pulling off some of this so then I can use both of those. Thinking about this one, maybe breaking it right there so I've got two different stems that I can work with, making sure I remove that lower foliage and then tad bit more baby's breath that I can tuck in. A little more foliage, couple more leaves, time to get going. Let's put some of the pittosporum, maybe a bit of the Italian Ruscus and a little bit of baby's breath then coming back with the roses and tucking and come out to the side, little bit longer, around. And I am so lucky I haven't broken any so far so I'm just going to leave one in the base, coming back, a little more foliage. And at this point I want to add the foliage to help protect all of the roses so determining where to place it, there we go, and a little more. I want to protect all the stems. A little more aspidistra and one more and then, one last time, going through and tying it off with bind wire so it's fully secure.

When it's finished, it's ready to go into a bucket of water to hold until the time you need it. I would go through and cut the stems a bit but not all the way because I want them just to be down in the water and drinking. So, I would take off this lower section maybe right about here, I'm not going to do that on camera though because you don't want to sit and listen to me chop, chop, chop. Then, when it is time to deliver, that's when you're going to cut it short, maybe six inches and then tie on the bow. And what I do when I tie on the bow, I make a big bow with lots of streamers and there are two that are longer than all the others, that's an extra set that I just added on. And I take that and I wrap all the way around covering that bind wire so that it looks totally polished and finished, bring it back to the front, lift all the other loops and tails upward and then, underneath the bow, tie it into a knot because that helps hold it up, making it be full, secure and then hiding all your mechanics. Get that completely cut and going back, giving them a dovetail, finishing it off. And then off camera I will finish cutting the stems down so that it's ready to go.

The recipe, the classic of 24 red roses then I used about one-third of a bunch of baby's breath, three stems of Italian Ruscus, six stems of Israeli Ruscus then five aspidistra leaves and four but little cluster stems of the variegated pittosporum. Now, my last touch, I clustered the lily grass altogether and then, just using a bit of cold glue right on the end, let it start to dry and then I can place it exactly where I want it to hang to finish off. I just pull down the leaves, force it in and then hold it until it sets and that will give it that nice drape right down the front.

Twenty-four roses, so glamorous, so large but surprisingly lightweight if designed correctly and now you know how to do that. You'll find more creative inspiration on the website flowerschool.com. If you have questions, you can reach us through there but now it's your turn. Gather your flowers, create a beautiful bouquet, find a model, get a picture and post it on social media. Be sure to #FloralDesignInstitute, that way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.