3 Secrets Florists Use to Make Spring Bouquets Look Amazing

Hello flower friends. Today I'm sharing three secrets to make an amazing spring bouquet. These are the same techniques that I use here in my shop every day and by the end of this video you too are going to be able to make a pro style beautiful spring bouquet. My name is Ellen Frost, florist and host of the online community Flower More. Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter Flower Nerd. There's a link in the description. So let's get started. My first secret to a beautiful spring bouquet is to start with the most fresh amazing local flowers. So today I have a variety of local flowers that were sourced from within 100 miles of my Baltimore shop. Now where you are you might have to search out local flowers and if you're not sure how to do that there's a couple of tips I have for you. First is to check out localflowers.org. That's a directory to show you flower farmers across the country that offer local flowers. Second, head to your closest farmer's market. Most farmer's markets today have a flower farmer. So my second secret is to choose a beautiful spring color palette. Now I know in the spring there is a temptation to use all the colors because we're so starved for color but I'm going to have you reign it in a little bit because this is really going to make your bouquet feel more elevated. So what I like to do is choose just three colors that we're going to use in our bouquet. One that's a main color then a little bit less of an accent color and something that's just a little pop of a color. So today I'm going to show you the three colors that I'm going to be using. I'm going to be using shades of pink. I'm going to be using shades of yellow and then I'm also going to be using peachy coral. My third secret is to use the six elements that I always use in design and I'm going to walk you through what the six elements are. So the first is foliage. So foliage is any leafy green. Could be dark red, dark purple, but usually green. So I'm going to be using scented geranium and I'm also going to be using some quince branches. Now this isn't leafy but it is not a flower that we're typically used to using. This is more of a branch. So I'm going to be using this beautiful coral quince. Besides foliage I'm going to be using line flower. So that's my second element. Now a line flower is any flower that grows up the stem as opposed to a face flower which is a big round flower like this poppy. So you can see the difference in shape, in size, and in addition to bells of ireland I'm going to be using this really beautiful light yellow stalk. So again this is a line flower and this light pink snapdragon. Snaps are gorgeous right now. So I've got my foliage, I've got my line flower, and then I'm going to choose my focal flowers which today is going to be poppies. And these poppies are sort of a peachy color and they have a beautiful yellow center. So that yellow is going to tie in with the yellow for the rest of the bouquet. So this goes back to choosing a really elevated color palette just using three different colors. In addition to my focal flowers I'm going to use some secondary focals. So this is another face flower but not quite as big as my focal. And today I'm going to be using a couple of different colors of ranunculus. So I've got a really pretty, so a little bit of a brighter yellow and a little bit of a brighter corally orange. And then I have like a little bit of a lighter pinky salmon. So just these three colors, these are the colors we're using throughout the bouquet. And you can see that they are going to pull all of these colors together. So I'm going to use those as my secondary focal. And then my filler flower, this time of year in the spring we don't have a lot of like little small filler flowers. So today I'm going to be using butterfly ranunculus which is a high-end beautiful flower but it is very different than a traditional ranunculus. You can see even though they're in the same family they look very different. And these butterfly ranunculus are going to act a little bit more like a filler. They have a little bit more movement. You can see they're very whimsical and they have a lot of side shoots. So I'm going to use this as my filler. And then lastly I like to add a little bits and pieces a little something at the end. And because we're just heading into spring I'm going to use a little bit of this really fresh curly willow. I love using curly willow in my designs and I love when it is this like fresh pliable. You could even you know turn it into shapes if you wanted. I'm going to use this just wild like like like it is. So I'm going to start to put my bouquet together and if you lay out your flowers like this it makes it really easy to get started. I find it's easier to make your bouquet when everything's laid out and you can see everything in front of you and then you can just go down the line choosing your flowers. So I'm going to start with my quince and first I'm going to take off these side shoots because I really want to have one straight stem. The other thing about anytime you're using a woody branch so quince, cherry, apricot, forsythia, anything like that you want to make sure that you not only give it a fresh cut but that you give it an X cut right up the stem. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to cut into the stem a little bit of an X so that it's easier for the stem to take up water. So I'm ready to make my bouquet and I'm going to use the spiral technique. That is a technique that I think makes the most sort of interesting beautiful bouquet. So I'm going to start with my quince which is my strongest stem and I'm going to hold my bouquet in my non-dominant hand. So that's my left hand. I'm a right-handed person so I'm going to hold my bouquet with my left hand and I'm going to place my stems with my right hand. I'm going to cross it over in an X shape and I'm going to hold it pretty low you know medium to low along the stem. I'm not going to use a death grip on it. I'm going to use just my pointer finger and my thumb and I'm going to hold them really loosely together so nothing is feeling too upright. I'm really letting the stems splay out in a nice wide fashion. So once I've got my first two stems I'm going to use my right hand to turn the bouquet a quarter turn. Okay now that feels weird trust me but it is more than just using your wrist. You are actually turning the bouquet a quarter turn so that when you put your next stem in, so I'm going to use my stalk next, you're going to put it crisscross it over just like you did the first time in that X form and then you're going to turn your whole bouquet. It's okay if it feels a little wonky. Stick with the process and keep going. So now I'm going to put my next line flower that's my snapdragon and you can see I'm just gently holding this together and then I'm going to turn it give it a nice good turn quarter turn and you can be trimming as you go just to get rid of the extra weight. Now my poppy is my focal flower. I'm going to use that same technique but I want my poppy to not get hidden or squashed so I'm going to keep it a not as high as my line flower. My line flower is really the tallest part of the design right now but my focal flower is going to be just below that. So then I'm going to give it a turn and then I'm going to use my secondary focal and I'm going to use sort of these pinks and peaches together a little bit here just to cluster those colors together and again I'm going to hold it just like that. I'm going to use my butterfly ranunculus and when you get the hang of this you're going to be able to put more than one stem in at a time but for right now if you feel most comfortable just using one stem at a time. I've got my curly willow. Curly willow should be wild. You can let that be a little bit taller. So I'm going to turn it and now I'm starting back at the beginning. I'm starting with my quince putting it in a crisscross shape using my geranium so as you're going don't be too crazed about exactly where each stem is. You can always go back and adjust. So I'm just using my same technique giving it a turn. Now my line flowers I want to just make a note that your line flowers have a job in the design. They are left tall so that your eye travels down the design and looks at the focal flowers. So next I'm going to put my poppy in and again I don't want it to get lost. I'll give it a turn. Now I'm going to start popping in some of this brighter yellow which I think gives it a really nice pop. We already have the soft yellow. Now we have a little bit brighter yellow. So now you can see the stems are getting a little chunkier in my hand. I have to use more of my hand to hold them but I'm still not going to use any sort of death grip. I'm not clutching it with my hand like my whole hand like this. I'm just really putting it between my thumb and my forefinger and letting it be nice and loose and I have a lot of flowers lined up. I'm not necessarily going to use every single one of these. I would say when you are designing a bouquet you want to have at least three of each of the elements. You can have more but I would say at least three. One of the things that really separates a bouquet like this from something you would get at the grocery store is that there is a lot of texture, a lot of interest, a lot of different types of flowers. Now you can go ahead and tweak anything that needs to be tweaked. You have your hand pretty loose. Again no death grip on it, just a loose and if you want to lift anything out or move anything around you can go ahead and just adjust. I want to move this stem, stick this stem in a little bit more in the middle and then I'm just going to pull it through the bottom here because I really want to keep that nice spiral because the spiral is what allows the bouquet to feel very splayed and I'm going to at the end. Again I'm going to find a heavy strong stem or two to rubber band around, wrap it around until it's tight and then up the stem and I'm going to go ahead and give this a nice clean cut so everything's nice and straight. All right so now we've got a really beautiful spring bouquet in an elevated color palette using the best local flowers available this season. So now you know my three secrets to making a really beautiful spring bouquet. If you want more tips about floral design and local flower sourcing, check out my free weekly newsletter Flower Nerd. The link to join is in the description.