'Fly to Paradise' Florals

To all my wanderlust prone, feeling a little restless, friends… I wanted to create this floral arrangement to bring you a little escape from home. Interestingly enough, I used to have a strong aversion to birds-of-paradise, but given the right botanical blend and occasion, it’s kind of the perfect thing. I love that as the bird’s crest continues to open, it really comes to life. The extended lines of the statice rat tail, scabiosa pods, and pon pon magic ranunculus adds a ton of movement to the arrangement as well. The pops of blue in the irises and shades of peach and orange are paired beautifully with the tonality of the birds-of-paradise. A lush grouping of cymbidium orchids like we’ve just landed in Hawaii and stepped off a plane to finish it off. Sometimes tropical arrangements can feel a little tried, but when it’s executed well, I think it can really fly us to another place, a paradise if you will. Wishing you all well.

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‘FLY TO PARADISE’ FLORALS

FLORALS + SUPPLIES

• 1 compote vessel or footed urn

• Floral snips

• Clear floral tape

• 1” mesh chicken wire

• 12 Twilight orange-peach roses

• 1 bunch of Queen Anne’s lace

• 3 stems of statice rat tail

• 1 bunch of blush astilbe

• 2 stems of birds-of-paradise

• 1 bunch of scabiosa pods

• 1 stem of light pink cymbidium orchids

• 3 stems of burgundy oriental lilies

• 6 stems of blue irises

• 6 stems of pink garden roses

• 6 stems of peach ranunculus

• 6 stems of pon pon magic ranunculus

STEPS

1. Using the chicken wire, create a cage-like structure for the base of the arrangement and secure to the vessel using floral tape.

2. Fill the vessel with water so all stems have access to water.

3. Begin with the Queen Anne’s lace to build the greenery base of the arrangement. I like to save a few stems for the end to add a bit more interest.

4. Using the twilight roses, arrange the roses with a few closer into the vessel and few further out to create the outline of the arrangement. I will flip out the petals on half or more of the roses to create a larger head and a more orange-peach tonal rose. The beauty of the twilight rose is that before they fully open, it reads more of a plush peach tone. So using some more open and a few not so open, will give the illusion of two different rose varietals.

5. Arrange the peach and pon pon magic ranunculus. These tuberous stems are a bit more fragile, so it’s better to incorporate them earlier on. I like to use the pon pon magic ranunculus draped away from the arrangement because they hold their structure and often have a curvy line to them.

6. Fill in the arrangement using the blush astilbe, remaining Queen Anne’s lace, statice rat tail, oriental lilies, and blue irises.

7. At the end you should have the cymbidium orchids, birds-of-paradise, and garden roses left. I like to hold these until the end to ensure optimal placement and greater presence. Using the pink garden roses and cymbidium orchids, place them prominently in the arrangement to blend with the orange-peach tones of the twilight roses. I like to place the birds-of-paradise and scabiosa pods like sprouted up and are about to fly off from the arrangement.

8. After the arrangement is complete, top off the vessel with water and give the petals a fresh spritz of water to hydrate.