How to make a Spring Pink cascading bouquet

Using a few ingredients, you could have this as your wedding bouquet , read on..

Learn how to make this beautiful bouquet….

Learn how to make this beautiful bouquet….

Step One

Collect flowers and foliage, either from your garden or the wholesaler. You’ll need to include the following ingredients:

Focal flowers (the ones that draw the eye toward the centre of the bouquet ) in this case I chose the pink ranunculus , tulips and the anemone (i.e. 3 different ones) or you could use any flowers with a medium round head such as a rose, scabious or small hydrangea head. (Note the alternatives are not necessarily in the garden but are available in a market or wholesaler.)

Filler flowers or one with a different structure such as branching, uplight, spiky i.e. the broom (also called genista), freesia, cherry blossom, spray rose. Or as a substitute use cornflower, campanula or maybe alliums

Textural: Akebia , jasmine, freesia, hellebore or alternatively use dried seed heads

Fluffly /trailing habit - Jasmine and the Akebia or use ivy, branching shrubs or trailing ruscus

As you can see it’s not an exact science and the categories over lap. Don’t worry, the thing here is not to be too prescriptive as this will effect your creativity and the bouquet will look stiff and unnatural.

Substitutes: If you can’t get the above flowers, then substitute using the four categories listed above. I’ve given you a few substitutes as ideas and this bouquet could be done in your preferred colours.

Flowers from left to right: Akebia quinata, cherry blossom, spray rose, ranunculus , anemone, hellebore, tulip, freesia, broom, jasmine leaves

Flowers from left to right: Akebia quinata, cherry blossom, spray rose, ranunculus , anemone, hellebore, tulip, freesia, broom, jasmine leaves

Quantities : if you’ve picked flowers from your garden then I’d pick about 4/ 5 stems of each and if you are buying them at a market you’ll need to buy in 5s or 10s. If you have any left over then these will be used for buttonholes or table settings, so there is no waste.

Step 2

Make sure you strip all the leaves of the stems of the flowers , not the trailing ones! And put them in water overnight or a minimum of 2 hours before you use them. They need to drink as they have been away from water . This will keep them for longer and stop them wilting.

Step 3

This is where the fun starts. Pick your focal flowers and gather them in a bunch like a normal bunch of gathered flowers. If you hold the stems horizontally then you will see that the top of the bunch will form the front of the bouquet. There’s no need to get caught up in spiralling here as it’s not a hand tied bouquet, you need to put the flowers where they should go.

Once you got the main focal flowers at the top of the bunch you can now add the ones that bend and start to form the cascade such as here, by adding the freesias and the branching cherry blossom.

Step 4

Keep adding the trailing cherry blossom, Akebia and the Jasmine and any other of your flowers that add to the overall cascading shape. Cut the stems short so that the bouquet can be held in front of the bride without showing the stems. Tie with twine and then tie on the silk ribbon.

Note: I didn’t use the Broom/Genista as it was too jarring and didnt flow well.. This is what happens when you start creating , you find that its better to leave things out and use them elsewhere than sticking them in because you bought them!

And voila, all set to walk down the aisle!

If you want to learn more and actually have a practical lesson, please see my workshop dates on https://balshamhouseflowers.co.uk/natural-wedding-flowers-workshop

See you next time.