in the past, my floral arranging style has tended to be pretty tight and neat and fairly monochromatic. i'm sure that this probably says something about my personality (anal retentive?,) but that's probably a conversation best left to me and my therapist. anyhoo, lately i've found myself wanting to "branch out", so to speak, and have been trying some looser and more wild types of designs, like the one above. it's actually really liberating.
for this arrangement i used a couple of orange proteas and some reddish-orange plumed celosias, to celebrate the colors of fall. i also used some solidago, as well a few japanese maple branches clipped from my garden, for the foliage.
i used a small simple pitcher to give the arrangement an informal feel and i started with the japanese maple branches first.
then i added the solidago. this created some structure and a base to add the flowers to.
next i added the proteas and the celosia, trimmed to different heights to add interest.
and this was the finished product.
a couple of things to consider with these looser arrangements:
1) if you pack in enough plant material it will help to keep your arrangement in place
2) trying to keep your flowers and foliage to no taller than 2x the height of your vase will keep it from getting too leggy
so, let loose with your arrangements :-)
xo, c
