How to create a spring flower basket

Many people forget just how beautiful fresh flowers look when displayed in a basket.  While it’s easy to choose the most attractive vase you can find and as lovely as your fresh bouquet will look, vases can only hold vertical arrangements.  Baskets, on the other hand, can be used for a multitude of styles and they are really easy to assemble too.

What you need:

– A selection of flowers

– Foliage to compliment the flowers

– Basket of your choice

– Floral foam

– Plastic tray (to hold the floral foam)

– A sharp pair of scissors

– Floral food

Instructions:

  • The first thing to remember is that you should choose your basket and flowers together. Think of a few different floral options before you buy your basket.  You will need to be sure that the basket will be able to hold all of the flowers as well as a plastic tray and floral foam in the centre.
  • Once you have your basket, you can make final decisions in terms of flowers. Baskets that are darker in colour look best with darker flowers whereas lighter baskets look best with lighter floral shades like pastels.  You will need to choose focal flowers, mass flowers and filler flowers.
  • Now it’s time to choose the right foliage. You won’t need too much but you will need to use it to fill up the gaps in between and drape over the basket’s edges to hide the floral foam.
  • When you have everything you need, place your flowers and greenery in a bucket of fresh clean water to keep them from wilting while you work.
  • Dissolve the floral food in some water and submerge the floral foam in the water. Once it is soaked, place it on the plastic tray and then place the tray in the basket.
  • Start by placing foliage around the base of the arrangement. The stems to be close to one another around the bottom and you can let the leaves overlap the basket if they are quite long.  Trim each stem as you go and trip them according to the length needed.
  • Now it’s time to add your focal flowers. They can be placed in the middle of the bouquet or you can create a line down the centre of the arrangement if you are creating a more linear style bouquet.  The design you choose should suit the basket.  Your focal flowers should be slightly taller than the rest of the flowers so don’t trim the stems too much.  You want them to stand out – literally.
  • Now you can add your mass flowers and fillers. Don’t make your bouquet too overcrowded and make sure that your flowers are each placed with sufficient room around each one.  If they press up against each other, they will look cramped and the flowers could end up getting damaged too.

Place foliage in between your flowers to conceal the floral foam but take care not to cover any of your flowers!  If you like, you can use more than one type of foliage for extra texture and colour.