Tropical Flower Arrangement

Video Transcription 

Welcome to the Flower School .com video library. I'm Leanne Kesler, director of the Floral Design Institute. And today I'm here to share with you a fun tropical flower arrangement. 

A special thanks to our friends at Greenpoint Nurseries. It was so much fun. FedEx drives up to the door and drops off a box, and it's filled with tropical beauty. You can see I'm surrounded by amazing flowers, anthurium, orchids, beehive ginger, foliages. So many different things, so many different varieties. Let's have fun with this. 

The container, a heavy orange ceramic filled with midnight foam, that way it disappears, I don't have to worry about trying to hide it as much. I did add a layer of floral netting to make sure that it would be sturdy and taped it in place. Then before I add my flowers, starting with some of the foliage, there are so many amazing things. Monstera, isn't that grand? Placing it in, bring it down low, breaking the line of the container. Then bringing in a second, terraced over the top, creating dimension. Fishtail palm, don't you love it? So grand. Just cutting it down a bit and then letting it come out to the side, angling a bit. Bamboo, giving it a cut and letting that soar towards the top. Maybe a second piece. And you can see even just with foliage, the design starts looking so interesting. So much variety. Some tea leaves, you can use them extended, letting it come out or roll it, nodding it back on itself, tucking it down in. 

Once you have the form established with your foliages, you can go back and enhance with the lines of flowers, bringing in the heliconia, giving it a cut and then a second cut so that it won't spin and then placing it in. Drawing your eye upward, making sure it's nice and sturdy. Repeat that, bringing in another. Let everything radiate from a central binding point. Then as you're working, you can come back with some of the oncidium. Let them explode outward, giving you a nice movement, just giving it a cut and then placing it with the foliage. 

Form and line in place. Now it's time to add the focal emphasis, some beautiful obake anthurium. Give them a cut, placing them down front and center. You can see the color picks up the heliconia, draws your eye towards the focal area. Repeating that, another one, maybe tucking it a little bit lower, drawing the eye inward. Then coming back, some amazing spectabilis, aren't those fun? Giving it a cut and repeating that cut so that it angles nicely and placing it in deeply. And then add more blooms until you are happy. 

As you finish, look at the design for balance, make sure you pull the eye from the front to the back, creating depth in the design, fill in as needed. Popping in a flower here and there. Some fern curls, aren't those beautiful? Using them to enhance the vertical line, coming up through the center, repeating that, and then turn, look at the design from front to back and both sides to make sure there's no holes and that everything is beautiful. 

Now that the bouquet is virtually done, I like to go back and think about the foliage again and do something a little bit unexpected. This is rafus palm, beautiful fingers, a little bit larger than I want, but if I take and just pull these back, tucking them in almost like I'm tying a bow, a bow of foliage. Continuing. Once I have them all secured in my fingers, going back with just a little bit of bind wire and lashing that nice and snug, twisting, then placing that down low. Drawing the eye inward to that focal area, creating a bit of interest and repeating it with a second terraced over the top. 

The recipe for this arrangement is based on three's mostly. Everything came from Greenpoint Nursery, shipped direct for our door from Hawaii. I started with three heliconia and three oncidium, three anthurium, three fern curls and three spectabilis. Then I started doing different numbers. There's one fishtail, two monstera, two of the bamboo orchid, two of the rafus palm, then I went back to three of the tealeaves. You can see working with threes makes a spectacular arrangement. 

Tropical blooms are such fun to work with. They're relatively easy once you get used to it. Just think about working in threes, establish your lines, make sure you have a strong focal emphasis, and then start filling in with contrast. For more creative inspiration, check out the website, Flower School .com. If you have questions, you can reach us there or pick up the telephone and give me a call at (503) 223-8089. Now it's your turn. Gather some fun tropical blooms, create away and then be sure and take a picture. Post it on social media and tag Floral Design Institute. That way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.