Top 5 Flower Arranging with Emma from The Earthenry

Last month we visited Emma's stunning Earthenry flower farm (@earthenry_farm) at Snug, 20mins south of Hobart. Emma is a wealth of knowledge on all thing flower growing and has already shared some great flower harvesting tips here. In this post she shares her top 5 flower arranging tips.

Tips for arranging:

1. Use quality ingredients at their best. This will always ensure your designs and arrangements look amazing. One hint of a brown or slightly old flower or bruised petal can put off the impression of the whole design. Be ruthless about this kind of quality control.

 

2. Avoid floral foam at all costs and use foam free mechanics instead. Floral foam, although sadly still used widely throughout commercial floral design, is actually toxic to produce and unsafe for users to handle or inhale. Mechanics like moulded chicken wire and kenzens or ‘flower frogs’ do a great job, along with individual water vials and the rockwool style foam brick replacements for ‘out of water’ designs.

 

 
3. When placing flowers in an arrangement think about things like colour, line, composition and negative space. These formal elements of art also apply to floral design work and there are many, ways to combine and play with colour (for example using complimentary or analogous colour palettes) in ways that excite and delight the eye. When thinking about stem placement I try to observe the natural curves and bends in each stem and work with them, rather than against them. I also try to give every flower its own space and prevent it from deforming, colliding or bruising up against the neighbouring flowers.

 

4. Use seasonal and locally grown flowers where possible – flying in tulips from the other side of the world for an Autumn arrangement is not taking a sustainable approach and frankly looks and feels wrong! It’s far better to enjoy and celebrate the brief season that each flower is naturally found in and not try to force them into different times of the year. They’ll always be back next season!

 

5. And finally – there are no rules with design work! Learn the rules, be bold, be restrained, be loud, be quiet, be inspired by others but then experiment with new things and new materials. An airy, architectural roadside weed could look stunning next to an expensive peony! Why not! Try to develop your own style and tune into flowers and combinations and placements that you particularly love and bring you joy. After all that’s what flowers are all about. Beauty and joy!

 

EMMA'S FAVOURITE FLOWERS

Anemones as they are just so beautiful and some of the first flowers in Spring, Peonies because they are so big and gorgeous but also very tough and pretty easy to grow.

Marigolds as they smell so good- almost fresh and citrusy and remind me of being in my grandmothers garden.

And lastly Dahlias because of all the huge range of different colours and forms! And you get so many tubers from a plant in one season! Perfect for sharing with friends and getting them addicted to Dahlias too! 

Follow Emma's Earthenry Flower Farm here.