i wanted to do a little color study on blue, mostly inspired by the japanese delphinium that i found in the market. i'm somewhat sad the peony season is over, but relieved as well. peonies can distract me from using other flowers and it's nice to move on... particularly to some blushing bride proteas! there are winners every season.
i tried to do a step-by-step for you, but i failed. it's hard to do solo and i tend to get carried away (excuses, i know). i did capture the backbones to the arrangement -- chicken wire (bent to an 's' shape) and some clear floral tape to hold it down. bending the chicken wire into an 's' form provides two layers to hold the stems. i find that top heavy stems tend to fall out if held in place only at the top, which, for example would happen with a simple tape grid. floral frogs can do the trick, but are costly and i hate dealing with floral putty. another cheaper option is to get some chicken wire and bend it.
can you see the two layers of chicken wire?
- 6 hydrangeas
- 5 gardenia leaves
- 5 ageratums
- 4 white garden spray roses
- 5 blushing bride proteas
- 4 black pearl lisianthus (i'm not a huge lisianthus fan, but these are so pretty!)
- 7 white lysimachia
- 1 japanese delphinium
- 5 proteus clematis
my first layers were the hydrangeas and gardenia leaves for the overall structure and then added the ageratums for pops of blue. spray roses went next; i opted for spray roses rather than full on garden roses because the heads are smaller. then filled with lisianthus and blushing bride protea. for both fill and whimsy, i added the japanese delphinium and lysimachia. finally, for movement, i added the clematis vines. and then went back to fill in with some more gardenia leaves. i think i could have done with less but this arrangement was for me.
maybe next time, i'll get a photographer to take pictures as i make.
