Local Color: Arranging Your Valentines Day Flowers

Happy Valentine's Day! As someone who is a flowers person I love getting little posies, especially when nothing is growing out side. If you got or will get flowers this week here are a few tips on care and arranging them in ways you may not have thought of..

Roses, the most popular choice for Valentine's Day. Arranged in a standard vase most of the time they look something like this.

I took the bouquet and made it into a more modern centerpiece that looks like this.

To do this you will need a low glass vase, here I have used a square vase. I also snipped some evergreens from a shrub I have in my yard to create a collar around the roses. You can use any evergreen you have or just have the roses with out it.

First take care of the babies breath and fern


Then remove all the foliage for the centerpiece

Remove any damaged outer petals


Place flowers at an angle in the water

If you want to add some evergreens do so after your flowers are arranged by tucking it around the edges.You can also put clusters of roses in small bud vases to have in different places in your home rather then just one large arrangement.

Tulips are also a popular choice for Valentine's day and one of my favorites. Usually they will look something like this.

One thing to note about tulips is they actually keep growing after they are cut and they are geotropic which means they will point towards the sky even after they have been arranged at an angle. Just a little little fun fact to impress your friends with. To make a more interesting arrangement with these guys I just added some fine twigs and removed most of the foliage.

This would also look great with pussy willows if you can get your hands on them. To get the look just take off all but the top most foliage, wash the stems if they are dirty. Arrange the twigs first then add the flowers in between.

Another popular choice is the mix bouquet. That may look something like this.

What is did with this bouquet is break it up by color range and put them in some antique milk vases.

You can keep them together or have them in different area's in your home.

This last one can be done with any spring bulb type flower such as hyacinths, daffodils or tulips. It is a little more involved but fun! You will need some container that has a liner or is water proof. If it doesn't have a linera gallon size zip-lock bag will work. I used a old chalk box I found at a garage sale. You will also need a block of green floral foam which you can get from a local craft store or online. I also gathered some dried leaves still on branches and some moss.