Take 3 Flowers! - # 1 - Chrysanthemums x 2 and Soft Ruscus Foliage

I'm starting a new series of blog posts called 'Take 3 Flowers' - I will show you how to make easy but beautiful and stylish flower arrangements - just using three different flowers. Sometimes one of the three will be some kind of foliage.

Using just three flowers will sometimes be a challenge - but it will also keep the cost down. Cut flowers can be expensive and foliage on the other hand tends to be cheep. You can use lots of it to help fill out the arrangement and to provide support for the other flowers. If you have a garden or access to one you can probably find some foliage to use from there.

In this first one - I'm using two different Chrysanthemums - they are both what's called 'spray' - that means that towards the top are several smaller stems with one flower on each stem. 

The light orange one has single daisy type flowers with a lighter centre. 

The other one has a light maroon colour and picks up the lighter colour on the back of its petals.

The green foliage that I've used is called soft Ruscus. Used a lot by florists and quite easy to find. But really any small- leaved green foliage would do. 

If you are in luck the Ruscus might have some of its bright orange berries - as an extra little bonus. 

You'll need: 

- 10 stems of Chrysanthemums in two different colours

- 5 stems of soft Ruscus or similar green foliage

- a fairly large vase or container - in this case I have used a large vintage terracotta jar

- a small vase or container - in this case an old small brown glass milk bottle

For conditioning the flowers - you'll also need:

- florists snippers or scissors

- a florist bucket

As always - condition the flowers by removing any leaves that would end up below the water line in the vase. Cut the stems at an angle - to increase water absorption. Put in a clean container with tepid water and leave in a cool place over night or at least a few hours before making the final arrangement.

Sorry, about always repeating this last bit - but it's probably the most important thing you can do to make your flowers last longer! So I'm afraid you have to put up with me always going on about it.

Start with the foliage and place it all around the edge of the vase. Then add the two different flowers - shorter around the edges and a bit longer in the middle - to make a soft domed shape. You don't want it too even - it looks more natural when the flowers are different heights. But this will probably happen naturally as the flowers are at different heights on the spray stems.

Make up a small arrangement with all the little off-cuts in the second little vase. 

I love all these orange, maroon and terracotta colours especially at this time of year. I have also played around with placing the arrangement next to a 1930's Lloyd Loom chair in similar colour - that has an ethnic weaving hanging over the back of it. I also found a small bowl and some beads in the same orange and maroon colours. 

I hope you will enjoy my new 'Take 3 Flowers' series - I'm looking forward to the challenge and it will be lots of fun! 

Have a Lovely Floral Monday!

See you later in the week!

~ xoxo ~

Ingrid

[Styling and photography © Ingrid Henningsson for Of Spring and Summer.]