Summer Flower Hand-tied 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 one of my favorite bouquets, the hand tie done with summer flowers. 

I started, focused on very seasonal materials, and went shopping and gathering, beautiful dahlias, zinnias, local grown hypericum. You can see the color palette. Then I decided to enhance it with garden roses. I had Sahara Sensation, Loves Me Just a Little Bit, and Princess Aiko. So three different peachy hues. For fun, I found the peachy rusty hanging amaranthus. And then I thought, what would be a fun seasonal foliage? What about smilax? Normally it's used for event work. Wedding florists love it. But it's also good for everyday design. Then for a last touch, I did a little color enhancing. I had white scabiosa. I used the Just for Flowers and tinted it peach, so it all matched giving me nice gradation of tints, tones, and shades of that peach family. 

To begin, I gather a few things in my hand. I've already removed excess foliage and thorns. I have everything ready to really design with. The hypericum is so bold and bulky. It makes a great base. So just clustering it in my hand, and then maybe a stem of the smilax, letting it come a little taller, and starting with everything just straight up and down. Then, I start adding in the flowers. This is where I'm going to start creating more of an angle, maybe bringing in a dahlia, thinking about angling to the side, nestling it in. Then turning. Maybe a second one. Turning. Bringing in one of the roses. Turning. And another. Everything I do, I just keep turning and nestling. You can feed it in, getting a little bit of depth. Nestle it in the perfect hole, always the stem angling in the same direction. Notice how the hypericum even helps to support the rose heads. I can go back and add additional blooms before I turn, but still always head to one side, stems the opposite, turning, angling, and continuing.

 As I work, I like to have everything laid out right in front of me. That way I remember that, oh, I want more of this rose, or gee, I need a little more hypericum and I don't have to reach very far. Maybe a little bit more of the smilax, giving it movement to the side. Then turning. If I decide I want to put one of the more delicate blooms in, as long as I angle the same direction, I can feed it straight through the center. Let it be a little taller, but the stems still spiral in the same direction. You never, ever, ever change that talking. Tucking it. I'll be doing three of them, and turning. Turning, looking at the balance, deciding what other blooms you might want to add, letting them come out a bit to the side, and turning. As your hands start to get too full, just relax. Don't squish too hard. If you hold it too tightly, your hand will cramp, not be comfortable. Just got to trust that the flowers will fall into place exactly where you want them. 

For the finish, I like to stand and look at it in the mirror, so that you can check your balance and determine what other blooms you might need to add. Adding a little more hypericum, turning, maybe another dahlia, maybe a couple more dahlias. And turning, looking at the placement of everything. Maybe tucking a rose a little lower, again to create more depth. Balancing out with foliage on the opposite side. Keeping that looseness, angling back and determining where you might want additional of the delicate scabiosa. Pulling them out here, where I can get to them. Looking and turning one more time, checking the mirror, checking your balance, and get ready to tie it off. 

The last accent. Little bit of the hanging amaranthus. She'll just draw the eye all the way down, bringing that color on. And then, using a bit of bind wire. I'm going to cut and wrap it around three times, securing everything in place. 

The recipe for this luxurious summer hand-tied bouquet, it's 15 dahlias, 20 of the color enhanced scabiosa, 10 stems with the local hypericum, 10 zinnia, two stems of the hanging amaranthus. Then the garden roses, I used five each, the Sahara Sensation, Loves Me a Little Bit, and Princess Aiko. So yes, it's a lot of stems. But summertime, summertime is full of exuberance and color. How fabulous. You can see it stands on its own, or I can take it and set it in a vessel. 

As we enter the very last days of summer, I challenge you to gather a cluster of your most favorite flowers, pick a color palette, and then bind everything you can that coordinates. Color enhance if you need to. But work in that monochromatic style to show that summer explosion of color. You'll find more creative inspiration on our website at Flower School .com. If you have questions, you can reach us there or pick up the telephone and call us at (503) 223-8089. Now it's your turn. What are you going to create as you do something you love?