Don’t think you can arrange flowers?
I’m here to tell you that yes, you can.
Trust me. Seriously. I will give you the formula.
Easy peasy.
And I’m going to give you my secret to doing it CHEAP. I’m including this secret for free. Just for reading this blog, you get Dani’s secret formula.
I threw together these 4 arrangements recently for a function at my kid’s school that I was helping to organize. I didn’t feel right blowing the slim budget on a florist, so I made the 4 arrangements myself. Now, I happen to like playing with flowers, and I have the patience to go through the trial and error that it takes to get it looking right. But I’m going to tell you all you need to know so you can do it, too.
I’m going to start by giving you my most important secret – how to make your bouquets cheap. Not cheap looking, mind you! Just cheap.
Secret #1: How To Make Cheap Flower Arrangements
Mix store bought flowers with free garden flowers. The store bought flowers add style and pizazz, and the garden flowers are free filler. Think of the 80/20 rule. 80% free from the garden, 20% funky store bought flowers to jazz things up. Here, I only used 2 or 3 florist flowers per bunch. Trust me, it works.
To make these 4 flower arrangements, I bought one bunch of sunflowers, one bunch of kale, and 2 bunches of seeded eucalyptus to fill out the bottom. That’s it. Total cost – $20.
Don’t be afraid of being creative when picking flowers from your garden. Use branches from shrubs or plants with interesting foliage. If you don’t have flowers in your garden, hit up a friend or become really chummy with the neighbourhood cat lady with the overgrown garden. Usually people who have flowers have lots and are happy to share. Sometimes you can sneak a few from empty lots and fields. But I didn’t tell you to do that.
Secret #2: The Easiest Bouquet For A Beginner
Your secret weapons for making great flower arrangements this time of year are hydrangeas and autumn joy. Easy. These grow abundantly, look great together, and dry beautifully in case you happen to forget to water your creation. Hydrangeas are large enough so that you can easily make a full-looking bouquet. Add a few little branches from a shrub, and some ivy if you can get your hands on it. Bunch these together and they look great without any florist flowers added, and best of all – they are FREE. I had all these plants at my first house and it was my standard fall combo. You can fancy it up like I did here with the sunflowers and kale, but I think it looks just fine as it is.
Secret #3: Get Some Rocks And Foam
Have you ever used floral foam? Trust me, it makes making a beautiful bouquet easy. For these 4 bouquets I bought 2 bricks of floral foam from the florist for $2.50. All you do is cut it with a knife to fit the shape of your vase. It holds your flowers in the right place, so you can get a nicely shaped bouquet. Saturate the foam with water, and then just push the stems in. Don’t like where you put your flower? No worries, just pull it out and try again. The floral foam can get a little bashed up and still work fine.
If you’re using a clear glass vase, you need to hide the foam. I do this by leaving a little space between the foam and the vase, and filling the space with rocks. I use smooth polished ones from the dollar store, and I keep them to reuse again. In the old days I used to have a gravel driveway and I would just gather a few handfuls of stone from there. When I was done with the flowers, I would just toss the gravel back on the driveway like a good recycler.
Secret #4: How To Copy These Bouquets
If you’ve never tried to make your own flower arrangements before, and you’re a little unsure, you could just make one like mine. Here’s all you need to know.
I started with a few armfuls of hydrangeas and autumn joy, with some odds and ends thrown in, like a bit of pink chrysanthemum and some garlic chive flowers that were past blooming. Strip all the leaves below the blooms.
These flowers were mainly green, pink, and burgundy colours. I chose purple kale from the florist as an accent flower and some bright sunflowers just for fun. For a green filler plant, I chose seeded eucalyptus. I find the soft silvery colour looks great with just about any flower, and the seeds add some interest. And I love that it’s droopy – these kinds of flower arrangements always look great with something droopy hanging down.
I cut the floral foam to fit the vase, leaving enough room around the foam to add a layer of rocks. I drenched the foam and started adding my flowers. I used the hydrangeas first because they were the largest, placing the first one in the middle and then four surrounding that one, leaving lots of space in between for the other flowers. The first flower in the center determined the height, with the other flowers arranged around to make a bit of a dome shape.
After the 5 hydrangeas, I added the feature flowers – 1 kale and 1 or 2 sunflowers each. Then I filled in some of the space with autumn joy, and then added more hydrangea until the bouquet was filled out. The final touch was adding a few stems of seeded eucalyptus around the bottom. I only had enough for 2 or 3 stems per vase, but it did the trick. Don’t be afraid to pull the flowers out and adjust them if you have to – the foam is very forgiving. Just be careful when you are pushing the flowers into the foam so that you don’t bend the stems.
So here’s the final formula for a pretty and cheap fall flower arrangement:
Garden hydrangeas + autumn joy + 2 store bought flowers + something droopy = gorgeous fancy looking arrangement.
To make these four arrangements, I already had the glass vases and the polished rocks. This brought the total price to $22.50, or $5.63 each. Cheap.
At this rate, you can make 10 for $56.30. That’s one for each member of the family including the dog. And you have extra left to impress your in-laws. And don’t forget to drop one off for the cat lady who’s flowers you stole.
agario
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Wow! Those arrangements are gorgeous! My friend is getting married next year, I am going to send her this post!
Thanks so much! Hydrangeas and autumn joy are pretty easy to work with – they always look great.
lol I would definitely need to sneak into my neighbours garden for this! we don’t grow anything like those, but I know she does! these are gorgeous! great work and great tips!
I think sneaking is perfectly acceptable in order to get a great flower arrangement 😉
Those are gorgeous. You did such a fabulous job. The addition of kale is genius.
Thanks for visiting! I had no idea kale was so pretty – it’s actually the first time I’ve used it.
These are gorgeous!! Great post! Pinning it for next summer!
Thanks Karen! My hydrangea bushes have been great for me over the years – always so easy to grab a few and bring them in.
Your flower arrangements look so beautiful and I can’t believe you made four at such a cheap price. I never thought to mix in both real and fake flowers. If I had beautiful flowers in my yard this would be such a great idea. I guess I’ll have to head to the mother in laws and get some of hers. 🙂
Dani I need to make a bridal bouquet this weekend for a photo shoot and am totally using your tips. Your bouquets are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing…
Thanks Andrea!
I thinking mixing flowers is a great cost-saving solution. And “borrowing” from your mother-in-law 😉
I wish I had a green thumb! Your arrangements look fantastic! I always wondered what it would be like to put together floral arrangements. I think it would be really fun and a great way to express your creativity!
These are pretty easy, Brandy. Hard to go wrong with these flowers – they look great even just bunched loosely together. Maybe you can give it a try!
I used to do flower arrangements with my mom and then sell them at the flea market. It was fun and easy to do. It’s cool people are still doing this and you can make them on such a budget and so pretty!
That sounds like so much fun, Jodi! There was a time when I thought it would be very cool to be a florist 🙂
Your arrangements look beautiful! I will have to remember that 80/20 trick – that’s so good! Thanks for sharing your secrets!!
Thanks Heather! I know you have a beautiful garden – I bet you can make some amazing bouquets!
This are simply stunning, they look like they came from the florist! I love thoese ornamental cabbage!
Thanks Virginia. A little bit of trial and error really helps, and this particular combination always seems to work.
these look great!
I worked at a floral shop while I was in University; I had so much fun playing with flowers- this brings me back!
What a fun job that must have been for a university student! How can you not be happy when you’re surrounded by beautiful flowers?
Gorgeous! And I love the price!
Thanks for the tips – this inspires me to try. I usually have lots of hydrangeas hanging around so this is a great example for me to follow 🙂
Hydrangeas are the easiest flower to work with, I think. And FREE is my favourite price!
WOW!! You did a great job! I can’t believe 1) it costs so little 2) you used kale! and 3) that its so simple! Thank you for providing step by step instructions for decoratively challenged like me!
Who knew that kale could look so good, right? I have a new found respect for that vegetable!
Those are GORGEOUS!!! I’ve always been awful at flower arrangements but I’m thinking maybe I just need to have some foam blocks on hand. I’ve never tried using them before.
I’m super jealous by all the beautiful flowers you have in your garden. Lovely. You inspire me. 🙂
-Crystal
Thanks Crystal! The foam bricks really make it easy to get professional looking results. They’re pretty cheap – you can buy them from any florist.
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing this, I love flower arrangements but I usually have to buy them. I am trying this out myself 🙂
Thanks Dawn. This is a great combination for fall. I think hydrangeas are the easiest flowers to arrange – they always look good.
Oh wow…how beautiful!! I can’t believe you make those for such little money!! I never knew! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
The 80-20 rule seems to work well – the small number of feature flowers seem to make the whole thing work. Anything to bring the cost down, right?
Wow! Love this! I find that I really suck at arranging flowers! Even when they are already pretty in the wrap, when I take them out to put in a vase they just never look right!
Can’t believe you made these all for $20, awesome job!
It takes a little trial and error sometimes. I find the floral bricks really help because then everything stays exactly where you want it. This combination is pretty foolproof, though.
Beautiful Dani!! I love arranging flowers and these examples are so lovely… Pinning!!
Thanks so much Cynthia! This is one of the easiest combinations for fall, and they last a long time.
Oh la la is right! They are lovely! I should have checked this out on Friday; I would have hit up the farmers market for some flowers and decked out the house for the weekend.
Thanks Tia. This combination lasts a long time, too – worth the effort!
Aha. The secret is to own a house with a garden.
Or to have a friend with one 😉 Before I had a house, there was a hydro field nearby with lots of blooming shrubs like lilacs that I used to “borrow.”
Great bouquets! I only wish I still had garden flowers… ugh, winter!
Have a great day!!
So true Anne – can’t wait for summer again! Although I did just see someone put dried brown hydrangeas from their garden in their urns and they looked fabulous.