Arranging a Rose Bouquet from a Discount Store

With Valentine’s Day…right around the corner, I thought this would be a good project to share with y’all, just in case, you receive, or decide to give a bouquet this year.

We’ve all seen them right?  Those cheap bouquets of flowers that you get from the discount stores?  The ones that have a few flowers…and maybe one stem of filler foliage?  Who can do anything with that?  Well…you can…I did…and I’m going to explain how I do it…and make them look a little more professional and expensive.  Arranging a rose bouquet from a discount store, doesn’t have to be difficult, or expensive.

I’m all about simple…but sometimes…you just need a little more right?  By grabbing a few re-usable items…you can have unlimited bouquets look better…from now on.  I probably spent about as much on the fillers…as I did the bouquet itself…but, I’ll never have to do that again. 

I headed straight back to the fake flower section of the discount store…and gathered several stems of what looked like it was supposed to be “lady’s mantel”.  We don’t have them growing wild here…I sure wish we did.  I adore them.  These might not have been what I would have grabbed if I had had much of a choice…but now that I have them home…I sort of like them.  You can’t tell in real life, but they actually look like they’re made from burlap.  You can…because you’re seeing close-ups of my photographs.  I also purchased three stocks of some dried foliage….I have no idea what it is…but it was interesting, and I thought even if I didn’t use it for this…I might for something else.  I also purchase a couple of spools of ribbon…only because I wasn’t at home…and I knew I wouldn’t have access to my own stash.

I was at my daughters when I did this…so the pictures lack a little…meaning I didn’t get everything I did..in photos…but I think you’ll get it.

The first thing I did…was ready my water.  To me, the water can be one of the most important aspects of a flower arrangement.  I have horribly hard water…and it can be really harsh on plants, so I almost always use the good, drinking water for flowers…It just makes sense…if we don’t like it…they probably won’t.  Now…my bouquet came with a little preservative packet.  I have gotten bouquets before…that didn’t, and really, to keep a bouquet as long as possible, it needs to be changed out every day or so.  For that reason, you need a recipe for floral preservative.  Okay, these bouquets aren’t terribly expensive, but why not get your money’s worth…right?

Floral Preservative:

1 1/2 Tbs lemon juice

1 Tbs white sugar

1/2 tsp bleach

This can be used to top off your vase every other day…or used each day with a fresh water change…This mix with 1 Quart of warm water.

I always start…by cutting the stems of the flowers to the height I want them to stand in the vase.  Cut them at an angle.  This opens up the stem wider that a straight across cut does…and allows the most water to be absorbed by the flower.  Don’t start cutting…till your water is read.  The air gets in a freshly cut stem…and keeps water from rising up well…so cut RIGHT before sticking them in the vase.  There are even some folks that will cut their stems under water, to prevent this air gap.

I try to leave the stems that are going in the center…a tad longer than the outside roses.  That’s seriously the only rule I have when it comes to cutting them.

Once my stems are cut…and in the vase, I begin to fill with the fake flowers.  Now, I do try not to add more fake stems than half.  I feel like you can really make or break a bouquet right here.  I do think, with the tinier stems like mine, you can get away with a bit more…only because they are small…and quiet. (if that makes sense).  I generally only use tiny blossoms with my bouquets.  A larger stem is allowable when arranging foliage only  bouquets…but you can’t get away with as many.  When placing them, they aren’t suppose to be the focal point…set them a tad lower than the main flowers…so they fill out and fluff up the roses…HINT: filler

My bouquet only came with ONE foliage stem…the one on the right in the picture above.  So, luckily…it was fairly long.  I snipped it into three smaller stems…and placed them in equal distances around the edge of the vase…so they kind of flopped out around the edges…like a border. 😀

The leaves you see lying around the picture above…are the leaves I removed right before placing the foliage into the vase.  PLEASE, this is so important.  DO NOT put any leaves below the water.  This will kill an arrangement faster than if no water was added.  (Okay, maybe not…but it will get gross and stinking in just a few days if you do this, and the bacteria will shorten the life of your flowers BIG TIME!)

That seriously is all there is to making discount store bouquet look like a florist delivered it you. 

Now…tie a pretty little bow around your vase…maybe two…and Bob’s Your Uncle!

This is my method of arranging a rose bouquet from a discount store.  I’m sure that there are other methods out there…maybe even better…but I didn’t claim to be an expert…just sharing my way! 😀 

I’m pretty sure….I could give this to any of my female friends…and they might…think it was bought just like this.  My daughter loved it so much…I left it with her!