Spring Floral Arranging Tips in Ball® Rose Vintage Jars
This post is sponsored by the makers of Ball® home canning products.*
Spring has arrived at our little homestead, at least in some ways. The weather has made a change, and we have been enjoying warmer days. We have been spending time outside making preparations for our upcoming growing season like cleaning out the greenhouse, starting some of the first seeds and splitting clumps of dahlia tubers, and welcoming a litter of little kittens.
My husband brought home tulips the other day, and I thought they would look lovely in the new Ball® Rose Vintage Jars! These jars are absolutely beautiful, and I love that they look old-fashioned but are still perfectly safe to use. Isn't the coloring just gorgeous?
tips for floral arranging:
Trim Flowers at an Angle. It is always a good idea to trim your flowers before arranging them and even each day. This prolongs their vase life, sometimes even extending it several days! Trimming the stems at an angle gives the flower the most surface area for the water to be absorbed. Once cut, immediately place in the water before the cut begins to scab over.
Remove Any Foliage Below the Water. Leaves that are left on the stem and placed underwater can grow bacteria and eventually kill off the stems. This is why the water turns murky after a day or two, if you leave the leaves on! Simply pinch or gently pull the foliage off, and you can leave any that stands above the surface level of the water for aesthetics.
Refresh the Water Each Day. Like trimming the bottoms of the stems each day, changing the water can make a big difference in how long your flowers live. Each day, they begin to grow harmful bacteria that will shorten their lives, so by changing it out you are giving them a fresh place to hang out until their time is over.
Clean Your Vase. Before arranging, make sure to disinfect your vase. Clean with hot and soapy water and even a bit of vinegar to kill off anything that could potentially harm your flowers. This also helps to do afterwards to get rid of that rotting stem smell. Do not store food in jars after using jars for non-food alternate use.
Feed Your Flowers. Floral food really does go a long way in keeping flowers vivacious! Commercial flower food has a high sugar content, which perks your flowers right up, especially if you have a few droopy stems. We love using this for our flowers sold at the farmer’s market.
Use the Rule of Threes. When starting an arrangement, it’s best to use the “Rule of Threes” which is an age-old design method. Simply put, you place three of the same type of flower in opposing angles, kind of making an inverse triangle. Then take three more of a different type and place them in between those three flowers. Keep building this way until you can start filling in other areas, working in a circle.
Don’t Build Towards the Front. If you are working on an arrangement that will sit on a table where it can be seen from every angle, don’t give your arrangement a “front” side. You want to make sure that you are building it in a 360° circle so that when it is viewed, every single side looks good. For many first time floral arrangers, they start to build the arrangement and forget that the backside is not looking so good! I don’t give mine fronts or backs but think of it as if it was on a lazy Susan while being created.
Don’t place a big stem in the center. For a more professional looking arrangement, try to refrain from placing the biggest and best flower right in the center of the arrangement. It’s like placing a little sign that says “look at me all alone in here!” by accident. Try building around the middle outer sides. I like to use whimsical flowers to fill in empty spots, such as these wax flowers. They add a bit of airiness and really help to hide any bald areas.
For this arrangement, I used a small collection of pink, yellow, and white tulips with lovely little lilac colored wax flowers. I think that these jars would look beautiful with any color blooms, but they really do shine with a sweet, light pink flower in them!
You can watch me make this arrangement in the video above. Enjoy! xoxo Kayla
Click here to shop the Ball® Rose Vintage Jars
*Disclosure: This post is sponsored by the makers of Ball® home canning products that is part of an ongoing partnership with the Fresh Preserving Division of Newell Brands. They have provided jars, equipment and monetary compensation. All thoughts and opinions expressed remain my own.
