How to Make a Floral Arrangement in a Footed Vase

I thought it would be fun to kick off the week with some flower power! If you follow my blog, you may remember that I recently took an intensive, week-long floral design workshop. We spent four days learning about the fundamentals of floral design; one of the many floral classes offered by the New York Botanical Garden. The participants ranged from an artist who wanted to learn how to create floral arrangements to paint still life paintings, hobbyists who wanted to learn new techniques, and people who are pursuing a career in the floral industry.

At the end of each day, we took all our creations home. Most of which I didn’t like at all. That may surprise you, but it’s true. The curriculum of the class was to study and learn how to create eight of the fundamental floral designs. It included shapes, like a Christmas Tree, that I will NEVER make again. However, I am very grateful for everything I learned because it can be applied to other areas. Once I got home, I would carefully disassembled my projects and create something entirely new.

All the flowers I used in this footed vase arrangement were salvaged from a few different arrangements that I made in class. I took some photos while I was making it and I thought I might as well turn it into a blog post in case this is something that you’d like to try at home! Below are the step-by-step photos. Lastly, I know the photos are on the darker side, this was done on purpose to make the colors pop.

How to make a floral arrangement in a footed vase

Supplies:

A footed vase
Floral foam (1 brick)
Dark green florist tape
Scissors and pruners

Flowers and Foliage used in this arrangement:

Sheet Moss to cover the floral foam
3 Bells of Ireland (Foliage)
6-7 stems of Salal or Lemon Leaf (Foliage)
1 White Hydrangea
7 Roses
3 White Spray Roses
5-6 White Freesia
5-6 White Stock

Step 1 – Using the vase as your guide, cut the floral foam to fit the size of the vase. Then soak the floral foam by putting it into a sink/bucket with water. Do not attempt to push the floral foam down into the water. Allow it to absorb the water on its own, and sink to the bottom. Once it has been completely soaked, it is ready to use.

Step 2 – Tape the floral foam down on the vase in a criss-cross pattern, allowing about one inch of tape to come over the sides (it will be hidden by the foliage).

Step 3 – Cover the floral foam with sheet moss and adhere the sheet moss with “U-Shaped” pins. These can be made with regular wire that has been cut to three inches in length and bent into the shape of the letter U.

Step 4 – Add the Bells of Ireland and the Lemon Leaf to make a collar around your flowers.

Step 5 – Insert the hydrangea into the center of the arrangement. Hydrangea is a mass flower and does an excellent job of filling in a lot of space.

Step 6 – Add the roses and the spray roses. You notice that I added some roses in the middle of the hydrangea flower to break up the mass of white.

Step 8 – Add the Stock and Freesia.

The objective of this arrangement was to create a Dutch-inspired design. Many common Dutch floral designs are characterized by a central focal point, with the foliage and flowers taking on a slightly reminiscent shape of the Hogarth curve. The Hogarth curve is an “S” shaped curved line.

One of the things that we were taught in class is that it is okay to add or take away from your design. The instructor advised us to frequently “step back” and look at the arrangement. We were encouraged to tweak the design until we were happy with it. In the photo above, you will see that I removed one of the Bells of Ireland because I felt that it was not creating the right balance.

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