How to Make a Bouquet

No seriously how do you do it

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Up until this summer, I’d never really grown enough flowers to make a good bouquet. Last year I had dahlias that I could mush together in a big vase, and don’t get me wrong, that’s beautiful — but it’s not what I would think of us a “bouquet.” Bouquets have things like “focal flowers” and “fillers” which are words I started learning when I joined a FB group on Cut Flowers 101. And while I don’t think there’s any one way of making a bouquet (flowers are beautiful, no matter how you arrange them) I’ve spent the last month trying to figure out what *I* like in a bouquet. The contents, sure, but also the size, proportions, wildness, etc.

I am still an incredible novice, but like all things gardening I like learning and flailing and learning even more. I’ve resisted tutorials because they seem too oppressive — but I do love fiddling around and getting little tips from others and trying to implement those tips into my next bouquet.

To make a bunch of big, luscious bouquets, I knew I’d need to grow a TON of fillers. I knew I’d have dahlias galore by the end of July, but I also needed some additional “focal flowers” to complement them. I put together a motley list gleaned from various Instagram accounts and crowdsource posts in the FB post, and ended up starting all of the below from seed:

• Feverfew (four different varieties, all from Floret — note that Floret no longer sells seeds outside of their own breeding creation, but I had these from previous years)

• Bells of Ireland (Floret)

• Statice (Johnny’s)

• Various tall snapdragons (Johnny’s)

• Green Ammi (Johnny’s)

• Beaded Cress (Johnny’s)

• Bunny Tails (Floret)

• Golden Hour and Precious Metals Zinnias (Floret)

• A bunch of different colors of celosia (Floret and Johnny’s)

• Corncockles (Floret)

• Approximately one billion cosmos

• Pro-Cut Sunflowers (Johnny’s)

• Eucalyptus (Johnny’s)

• Honeywort (Floret)

• Dusty Miller (Johnny’s)

• Pink coneflower (Johnny’s)

• Bachelor’s Buttons (Uprising Seeds)

All of these were easy to start through soil blocking, which I talk about in detail here:

And then I bought some plugs. Plugs are basically tiny tiny baby plants sold in trays of 75-150+. Because I have a business EIN number, I was also able to order plugs from Bailey’s — again, you have to buy a HUGE tray, but there are also groups where people in the same area split a tray (I’m definitely doing this for next year). This year I tried:

• Bupleurum

• Daucus (basically a white and purple Queen Anne’s lace)

• White (tall) snapdragons (that would bloom alongside the dahlia bloom)

So I have….an abundance of filler and flowers. We might sell some bouquets later in the year, but right now we’re really just playing around. There’s the bunch that I made up top, and then this one below….

….and this one I made for my mom when I went over to her house for dinner last night (you can see some of the very earliest dahlias in these last two).

What do I do? I cut them all, put them in water, come home and immediately strip the leaves, and put them in piles. I start with filler, then add more filler, then gradually work outwards and eventually place the focal flowers. I keep it all in my hand at the heights I want, then I cut the bottoms and put them in one of the many vases I bought for a dollar a piece at the island thrift sale. Then I change the water every day by overflowing the existing vase, and they’ve been lasting right around a week.

So that’s my very basic strategy — but I’d love to hear yours! What fillers do you love? (Bonus if they’re perennials or native plants!) Do you do the “boiling water trick”? (Couldn’t be me, I’m far too lazy). How do you deal with MANY focal flowers, like a bunch of dahlias AND snaps AND zinnias? I want to hear it all.