How to Start Flower Arranging: A Beginner’s Guide from Passion to Practice
Being a Korean florist in the Netherlands, I get asked this question all the time - How did you become a florist? Like some questions, this one to me is loaded with meaning and can be answered in many ways. But really, how does one become interested in flower arranging? How might you become enthralled by it? Let’s explore.
1. The Intention Behind Floral Interest
If someone asked me, “How should one start flower arrangement?” I’d answer that you must start with love and awe towards flowers.
During my painting phase (I have multiple hobby phases), the most wanted and difficult objects that I wanted to paint were flowers. It was obvious that they were the most perfect and beautiful creations of God. I fervently wanted to transfer their beauty on canvas. But it was a struggle.
As I started to arrange with my garden blooms, it hit me - flowers are the medium. I can create something new with this medium. No need to despair because I can’t paint perfect flowers. I already have perfect flowers as my mighty paint and brush. I just need to create something even more beautiful with them. Can you imagine my joy at this realization? Oh, how I thought I must be a genius to think this way!
The worshipping of flowers has been there for a while, although I didn’t realize it until I discovered floristry. All along, there was a fever.
2.My Flower Arranging Journey - How It Was Triggered
If someone asked, “So how did you get started on flower arranging?” then I’d probably say “With the onset of COVID19”.
I had moved to this house in 2015 that came with a bit too big a garden. Despite the initial ambition, I quickly found the garden work to be overwhelming in both the quantity of work as well as the quality of knowledge it required. I maintained it with the very minimum amount of effort - just enough to avoid getting sued by my neighbors.
Yet, I did not want to outsource the garden tending. It was a matter of my ego. I had insisted on the house with a large garden. I was going to get to it one day. I just needed to understand how, in terms of planning, soil science, weed control, tree sorting, fertilizers and about two dozen other things. The years went by and the garden was a mess.
When COVID came and it was declared that no one could get out of the Netherlands, let alone your own house, I thought ‘it’s time’. The stars were aligning and someone up there really wanted me to get to the long-overdue garden work, even though putting the whole world on a pause seemed a bit of an overkill.
Anyway, I took the sign wholeheartedly and began. I planned towards growing a lot more flowers, because that was all I could define in terms of my garden objectives. The improved garden led to a decent production of flowers. And from that moment on, flowers and I have been inseparable.
3. Practical Steps to Start Arranging
If someone asks me how one can start flower arranging today, I will say, “you start to arrange in jam jars”. Really, that’s one of the best vessels to arrange in.
In my early days when I wanted to explore this art without having to buy expensive vases (on top of expensive flowers), I discovered jam jars, or rather honey jars with glee. Choosing the right vessel makes a big difference in the arrangement outcome. Since starting floristry, I stopped buying any vases that had a narrowing opening at the vase rim. It’s better to have the rim of the vase wider than the bottom of the vase.
But before getting there, shopping for the perfect vase, I’d recommend starting with a jam or honey jar, that’s about 10-12 cm in height and has roughly 1:1 proportion between height and width. Fill it with clean water to the rim and start to place stem by stem. You will notice that the stems cannot be too tall especially in the beginning, or they will all fall outside of the jar. The height of the stems should be from similar height as the jar to about x2 taller than the jar.
Do note that not all jars are created equal. Pasta jars tend to be a bit too tall and too narrow at the top. What I like is the peanut butter jar. Some honeys also come in those stocky cylinder-shaped jars. Look through your kitchen cupboard and make a note to keep those jars that you’d like to try and use for your arrangements.
4. Choosing the Right Flowers
If you ask me how to choose the right flowers for flower arrangements, I’d say follow the season and look for blooms that represent the time and place you are in.
To my keen eyes, seasonal garden flowers bear a certain authenticity compared to imported roses that are available all year round. I suggest you try to look for locally grown seasonal blooms when you can. There is a naturalness that is undeniable. The ones you are growing yourself, whether indoors or outdoors, will fully bring the sense of time and place to your vase arrangement. Flowers you can gather from a local flower farm or pick-your-own field will do the same.
The flowers that are ‘growing’ near you are usually not chemically treated. But such a treatment would be inevitable for imported flowers that have to endure long transport in harsh environment for plants. This is why you sometime find some flowers lasting mysteriously long. I once saw stems of flowers lasting for 3 weeks even without water source. I even started to question whether these flowers were real or not.
What I found to be really helpful, is to source locally grown flowers as much as possible and then carefully conditioning them with clean scissors, clean water and clean buckets. Add a sachet of flower preservative to the bucket full of the conditioned flowers and leave them for half a day before arranging them into your vase. This will add 2-3 extra days of life to your freshly cut flowers.
For paying customers, it’s vital for an arrangement to last a certain amount of time. But behind those surprisingly long-lasting bouquets, there might be that much more chemical additives and artificial treatment that’s not always so healthy or natural.
5. Would You Like to Start Flower Arranging?
I am curious to hear from you. If this topic intrigues you, why do you think that is? What do you think you are looking for in a hobby, in flowers or in creating something that’s beautiful to you?
If you don’t have all the answers, you might just start with something. Like flower arranging.
For enquiry about our flower deliveries and workshops within Haarlem or Heemstede area in the Netherlands, please contact us at info.flowerandflour@gmail.com