Speed Floral Design

I only had an hour before guests were going to start arriving to our little shindig. My roommate took care of the food and all was on schedule. But I had just gotten home from work and needed to decorate the house for our little "goodbye to our house" party! 

Solution: flowers. I unloaded the cupboard with my vases and just picked a variety of shapes and sizes, and then went outside to my garden and started cutting away at all my hydrangea, succulents, gerberas, and stock. Here are all the arrangements I could make to decorate our house in a little less than one hour:

Matilija poppy (I can't resist using these slightly fragrant blooms since my plant is putting out several of these a week--and it just happens to be my favorite flower too!).

Lamb's ear, lisianthus, poppy, daisy

Purples and whites

Gerbera jar: poppy, gerbera, nutsedge, hypericum

Alstroemeria and bouganvillea cup

Gerbera and dusty miller jar

Pinks and whites

Gerberas and succulent with lily grass

Pinks and succulent

Thistle in apothecary jar

Thistle and chive vase with knotted bear grass

Wildflowers and succulents

I just love the colors and textures in the combination of these plant materials: aeonium, lisianthus, aloe and sage

Color and Texture

I tried to capture all the different hues in the lilies: the dark plum of the swedish ivy, pinkish coral of the heuchera foliage, soft silver white of the lamb's ear...

Color and texture

Top view of vase arrangement

Lily, stock, hydrangea, and stock vase arrangement

Cup of begonias

Angel wing Begonia

Peruvian lily (alstroemeria) and lisianthus

Pastels: Pinks and lavenders

I really suggest trying this! Especially if you are tired of designing or feel like you are lacking inspiration. Sometimes the best way to overcome that is to keep powering through and designing. Doing it this way by being in a time crunch, you really don't have to think about a cohesive design; you just let your hands and creativity go. Then put the arrangements around where you work, hang out, relax, and you will get more ideas and really understand the designs that you came up with while timed. It's a fun exercise! 

Have a great weekend!

Pinky Peonies

I ran across these lovelies, and just had to incorporate, I guess more accurately, "feature" them in these arrangements. I just love working with peonies, and other flowers that continue to transform while they are in your hands-it's so quick and lovely. Tulips are another flower like that; one you can manipulate even after its cut with nutrients, dye, dehydration, etc. to contort into whatever your design becomes.

Peony, hebe, lisianthus, stock

Following the architecture of the vessel, the floral arrangement takes on a dome shape but adds detail with delicate hebe, magenta stock, and truffle lisianthus, such as the etchings in the vessel.

 Lovely.

Pink Peony Detail.