Supporting Flower Arrangements

by Louise Larabie
(Gardening and Flower Arranging Expert at Dot Com Women)

Before you start cutting your flowers you'll need a container and a support system for them. If you have flowers with short or fragile stems you may want to add a longer stem before you use it in your arrangement.

Choose a clean tin can or glass jar that's big enough for your arrangement. Make sure it's in proportion to your arrangement.

Decorate it with paint, cloth, stickers or anything else that will enhance your arrangement and it's theme.

Attach twigs, rope, seashells or pasta shapes to your container using a glue gun.

Be careful: glue guns get very hot and they heat metal and glass quickly, too.

There are several ways to do both with supplies available from most garden or craft stores:

A 'frog' is a plastic or metal flower stem holder that fits into the bottom of a narrow container. It will keep the flowers in place and allows them to reach the water.

If your container is very large you can make a large 'frog' from a ball of lightweight chicken wire. Leave longer stems on your flowers to pass through the holes to the water at the bottom.

Oasis is one of the best materials for anchoring plants in any shape of container.

It's also inexpensive and available at most florists' shops, craft stores and gardening centers.

It's lightweight, green porous foam that holds water well.

If you are using dried flowers you can buy brown oasis. It doesn't hold water so don't get them mixed up.

Oasis can be cut into almost any shape using a sharp knife but you may need to cut some extra wedges to slide down the sides of the container to ensure a snug fit.

Soak the oasis in water before you use it to reduce the amount of air that will come in contact with the stem of your flowers.

You can reuse oasis many times if you let it dry out completely between uses.

Don't squeeze or wring it out or it will stay crushed and not recover its shape.

The tape comes in green or white. It is stretchy and sticks to itself.

1. Cut a piece of florists' wire the length you want the stem of the flower to be. Place it beside the flower's real stem.
2. Starting right up tight under the head of the flower and wrap the stem and wire together with a length of florists' tape.
3. Turn the wire and stem slowing as you wrap the tape all the way down to the end of the wire.
4. Cut the tape and wire off in a point at the end. This will make it easier to push the flower into oasis for your arrangements.

Related Articles: Flower Arrangement Themes Plant Materials for Flower Arranging Shaping Your Arrangement Dried Flower Arrangements Preserving Flowers