Whispers of White hand-tied Bouquet

Video Transcription

The white garden, so many beautiful flowers gathered together in a hand tie. Oh, so fabulous. Let me show you how it's done.

To begin, hand ties can be done so many different ways. For this one, beginning with plumosa, soft drapey fern, but pulling it and tying it around itself, it will actually just kind of knot together, creating a ball of fern, which then will support all the flowers, giving me a nice base of foliage, tucking it, wrapping. You want to be a little bit careful. Plumosa has thorns, so you've got to watch out for those. But as you knot it together, you can see you get a perfect base to support all your flowers.

With the base ready, then start with your larger flowers, spray roses, weaving them in, tucking them low, bringing in more. And you can weave and wind, feeding it through. Sometimes it's easier to pull from the bottom, giving it a turn, bringing in a few more. Then for a little bit of a different look, once you've got your roses in place, come back with lisianthus, leaving them long with the buds, tucking it, letting it come out a little bit fuller and turning, repeating. You can see the lisianthus, commonly known as the love rose, mimics the look of the spray roses, but the buds give you such movement coming outward and softness that makes it a very romantic hand tied bouquet.

The roses give us a strong base. Lisianthus spills in. Then to add a touch of lightness, the cosmos can come right out over the top, dancing above, coming out to the sides, giving yet another layer so that you have three layers in the design. Actually, I should say four because we have the plumosa in there, then the roses, then the lisianthus, and now the cosmos all dancing together. Tangled. Pull that out. There we go. Setting it in. Thinking about how they fit together, turning. I'm going to divide these two. I think that will work better. And then placing it in, giving it a turn, bringing back and adding. Maybe sliding one down through the center and a little bit of lightness right there in the center coming out across the top. Then turning it and looking at it from all sides to see where else I may need to add a bloom.

To finish, soft touches of foliage. Starting with some ribbon grass. Using the variegated, tucking it into my fingers, and then using the backside of the knife, give a little bit of a curve to soften it even more, pulling out extra foliage that doesn't belong. And then a little bit of geranium. The geranium gives it a softness and wonderful fragrance. Give it a turn, adding in, tucking a bit more of the lily grass. That ribbon grass, lily grass, variegated, oh, so wonderful. Soft and draping. You're going to turn a little more. Then tie it off with bind wire when you're ready to cut and set in the vase.

With the bind wire in place, cut it short. Then go back. Think about what vessel you're going to use and cut your stems down. Once it's all cut, you can just drop it in and enjoy a beautiful hand tied bouquet. The recipe, I started with a base of five stems of Plumosa, winding them all together. Then the flowers, 10 stems of Spray Roses, beautiful white. Five stems of Lisianthus broken apart. There were multiple stems on each. Then 10 stems of the Cosmos. To finish it off, 10 stems of the variegated Ribbon Grass and three stems broken apart of the Scented Geranium. The hand tied bouquet technique, a staple in the floral world. You'll find so many more examples on the website, but now it's your turn. Gather your favorite flowers, be them all white or maybe all red, all yellow, your choice. Make your bouquet. Be sure to take a picture and post it on social media. #FloralDesignInstitute. That way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.