35yoSeeking... to glam up grocery-store flowers
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Years ago, I shocked a then-colleague when I used the lunchroom to make up a sweet little bouquet for a work party. Utterly fascinated, she claimed she had NEVER seen ANYONE do more than unwrap grocery-store flowers and plunk them in a vase. Um…what?!
Turns out, not everyone has my mom. Everything I know about making a house a home and being a successful hostess I learned from my mother, a talented interior designer and the OG hostess with the mostest.
So without further ado, here are my top tips for fancifying supermarket flowers:
Do yourself a favor and start at Trader Joe’s. They have the best and most interesting selection of grocery-store flowers that I have found. Avoid the mixed bouquets if you can in favor of the more seasonal bunches. Three different types (a large bloom, greenery, and an accent flower) are plenty to start with.
Back at home, make sure you have a large workspace that is clean and clear with your vase (or vases—more on that later), sharp scissors, and a trash can handy. An opaque vase is more forgiving if you happen to cut anything a little too short.
Open and prep everything one type at a time. Carefully remove any rubber bands, tape, and wrappings and discard them immediately. I recommend fully deconstructing a mixed bouquet (or two!) and grouping each stem type together.
Strip any leaves that could fall below the waterline. If you don’t, your bouquet won’t last as long and will probably start to smell bad pretty soon. I actually remove basically all the leaves on any flowers, especially if I’ve bought greenery separately (seeded eucalyptus is a go-to favorite).
After everything is prepped, cut the stems and start sticking them in the vase, also one type at a time. I find it best to start with large blooms (roses, hydrangeas, peonies) before adding greenery and accents (seeded eucalyptus, hypericum berries, spray roses). You’ll likely need to cut the stems shorter than you think. The best bouquets look like they are literally spilling out just over the top of the vase.
Turn your vase a little every so often as you arrange things to make sure the end product looks good from all sides. This is especially important if the bouquet is meant for a coffee, kitchen, or dining room table with a 360-degree view.
Sometimes I strip away SO much that it looks like more ends up on the counter than in the vase! So then I go through everything I stripped away and save anything for a smaller, nosegay-size arrangement for a bedside table, bathroom vanity, or kitchen sink. Seeded eucalyptus is perfect for this, also because it lasts forever.
And there you have it, folks! You know all my secrets—on this topic, anyway. My only other advice about easy floral arranging is to have FUN—enjoy the process AND the result!
