Arrange Flowers Like a Pro!

This year during the summer I have a huge trip planned with my family. We will be going to India for two weeks all together, all 15 of us, which includes my parents, sisters family, brother and his wife and me and my kids. Because this is going to be a very expensive trip and a lot of family time, we have made the decision to save money at birthdays and holidays for this year. So, when I was thinking of mothers day, I had to figure out something that would be a sweet gesture for my mom, but at the same time be cost effective and relatively easy to pull off. I decided to gift her a really pretty flower arrangement, although buying pre-done arrangements are pretty pricey. Enter, a mothers day flower arrangement using grocery store flowers (Trader Joe’s to be exact).

Before I went to the store to get flowers, I found a vase I wanted to use. I bought this vase at Home Goods for about $5, but you could use something like this, or any vase with a wide mouth top. I also went around the yard and clipped some greenery that could be used for filler. The more I was able to clip, the less I needed to buy. Unfortunately, I don’t have any flowers in my yard, but if you did, you could probably even save money on flowers. When I was shopping for the flowers, I wanted to make sure I had one star flower that was going to be the show stopper. I love roses when they are open, so I thought that by getting a bright rose and surrounding it with creams and whites,  that they would really pop. But, you can choose whatever flower you want depending on what is in stock at your local store and what your mom likes.

When I was at the Trader Joe’s, I bought some really pretty orange roses ($7.99), a pack of mixed greenery($1.99) and some white snowball viburnum flowers (5.99). I was able to supplement some white jasmine vines and some other leafy greens. The flowers from Traders ran me about $15, so all in all, this is a very inexpensive arrangement.

The key to arranging flowers in a wide mouth vase to make it look professional and well balanced is to create a grid at the vase mouth for the flowers. The grid will help to create structure and support so your flowers are well spaced and balanced. If you have clear florist tape or chicken wire, you could create a grid using that. I didn’t, so I went with a super inexpensive, easy option, scotch tape. Make sure the rim of your vase is bone dry, otherwise your tape won’t stick. Also, make sure you tuck the tap over the edge of your rim. If you can, add an additional piece of tape around the whole rim after you put the grid on, but because of the shape of mine, I couldn’t do that and it did fine. Once your tape is on, you can fill your vase about 1/2 way up with water.

Start by stripping the leaves at the base of your flowers and greenery. It will create more space in your vase and your flowers will also stay fresher. I waiting to clip the ends until I was placing each one to make sure I didn’t cut them too short.

You will want to place a layer of greenery down first. This will create a nice base that will frame your flowers. While I ended up using a lot of greenery, I didn’t use all of it so I could fill some empty areas once my flowers were in.

Make sure you evenly distribute your greenery within the grid. Using this grid of tape will give your arrangement structure and shape.

After I finished with the greenery, I evenly filled in with the white snowball viburnum. When I was cutting the stems to put in the vase, I cut them on the long side, and then trimmed if needed. I also cut the stem on an angle to make sure that the flower has more surface area to drink the water so it would stay fresher longer.

Once I finished with the snowball flowers, I evenly distributed the orange roses. Once those are in, you can step back and take a look and check the balance of all the flowers. If needed, move flowers around, but if you are checking while you are arranging, you shouldn’t have to make many changes. Fill in any empty spots with greenery or smaller flowers if you have them. This is where I added my jasmine leaves. Having the bright white of the little flowers helped brighten the whole arrangement.

There you have it, a beautiful professional looking arrangement that you should be proud to give your mom. I guarantee you, knowing that you arranged these yourself will make your mom even that much happier with it.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the link we may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. This helps us keep our freebies, content, and tutorials FREE for you!