What Is Floral Arranging?
Welcome!
If you’re reading this book, you clearly have an interest in floral arrangements. Maybe you’re already growing your own backyard blooms and want to learn better ways to display them, or perhaps the world of flowers is entirely new to you. Regardless of your prior experience, arranging flowers is a rewarding hobby that will benefit your life in many ways.
But before we can dive into the specifics, let’s look closer at what floral arranging really means.
Guiding Principles of Flower Arranging
Flower arranging is an art form where flowers, foliage, and other plant material is presented in visually pleasing ways. It’s not as simple as sticking some stems in a vase — proper flower arrangements must pay attention to certain design principles in order to be aesthetically pleasing.
As with all art forms, there’s no right or wrong way to arrange flowers. However, there are guiding principles that the greatest arrangers keep in mind when working on their floral designs. These include the following:
Proportion: The relationship between the sizes of every element within your design, from the plant material to the container. Generally, an arrangement’s height should be one and a half to two times the size of its container.
Focal Point: Many of the best floral arrangements have one point that draws the eye, either based on differences in height, contrasting colors, or other elements.
Unity: Floral arrangements achieve unity when all the design elements combine to create something more valuable than the individual components.
Scale: This is the relationship between the size of the overall design and the space where it’s displayed. You don’t want a tiny bouquet on a large table.
Balance (Physical): This is the distribution of materials or the overall “weight” of the arrangement. Heavy blooms need to be well supported to ensure they stay upright within the composition.
Balance (Visual): Another form of weight, visual balance determines whether a bouquet looks poised at a glance. You don’t need symmetry to achieve this — carefully arranged asymmetrical designs can have visual balance.
Harmony: To achieve harmony, floral designs must have all their separate elements (materials, colors, textures, height) blend, so the overall design appears cohesive.
Rhythm: The best floral arrangements have a visual flow or a direction that your eye travels with distinct focal points.
Achieving Your Own Style for Floral Design
Beyond these guiding principles, floral arrangements can fall under various design categories. You might be influenced by the precision of French gardens or the understated simplicity of Japanese Ikebana.
But while it’s helpful to learn the elements of what makes arrangements work, there’s also plenty of room to be creative. Once you know the rules, you have full permission to break them and go in your own direction. Flowers become your canvas — it’s up to you to transform them into art.
The rest of this book will work to educate you about the art of flower arranging so you can build beautiful bouquets that reflect your unique design preferences.