Put Together a Romantic and Whimsical Valentine’s Day Bouquet
Use American-grown branches and blooms for a truly individual way to show your love
Becky Harris
February 8, 2018
Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected."
I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia.
Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe... More
If you’re looking for something more creative than a dozen red roses or pink carnations this Valentine’s Day, consider foraging around your yard or visiting your local flower market. Then use this flower expert’s step-by-step guide as inspiration for making your own romantic fresh flower arrangement.
Photos by Debra Prinzing
“This is a fragrant, vivid spring arrangement that evokes curiosity and interest, not to mention romance,” says its creator, Debra Prinzing. Prinzing is an author, speaker, podcaster, outdoor living expert and Slow Flowers movement founder who creates beautiful arrangements following her Slow Flowers principles, including using local, seasonal plants in a sustainable way.
Her color palette was inspired by saucer magnolia blooms she had been forcing inside her home, which were deep raspberry on the outside and had paler pinks on the inside, and Pieris japonica ‘Katsura’ from her garden, which was just beginning to bloom. “Their raspberry color was a nice echo to the magnolia,” she says. The rest of the color palette included more shades of pink, wine, deep bluish purple, greens and white.
“This is a fragrant, vivid spring arrangement that evokes curiosity and interest, not to mention romance,” says its creator, Debra Prinzing. Prinzing is an author, speaker, podcaster, outdoor living expert and Slow Flowers movement founder who creates beautiful arrangements following her Slow Flowers principles, including using local, seasonal plants in a sustainable way.
Her color palette was inspired by saucer magnolia blooms she had been forcing inside her home, which were deep raspberry on the outside and had paler pinks on the inside, and Pieris japonica ‘Katsura’ from her garden, which was just beginning to bloom. “Their raspberry color was a nice echo to the magnolia,” she says. The rest of the color palette included more shades of pink, wine, deep bluish purple, greens and white.
1. Choose Flowers and Branches
The flowers used here, listed below as they’re pictured from left to right, were grown on the West Coast. Prinzing gathered them from her garden, her neighborhood (with neighbors’ permission) and a favorite source, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, a farmer-to-florist cooperative. Look at the qualities described below to choose similar substitutes available in your USDA plant hardiness zone.
Plants
First Prinzing stripped off any foliage that fell below the water’s surface to reduce bacteria in the water. Next she organized the stems and branches by variety.
Find gardening supplies
The flowers used here, listed below as they’re pictured from left to right, were grown on the West Coast. Prinzing gathered them from her garden, her neighborhood (with neighbors’ permission) and a favorite source, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, a farmer-to-florist cooperative. Look at the qualities described below to choose similar substitutes available in your USDA plant hardiness zone.
Plants
- Pieris japonica ‘Katsura’ (broadleaf evergreen with bell-shaped, raspberry-colored blooms)
- Poppies (white flowers with yellow centers; buds are fat and rounded)
- Hellebores (delicate terra-cotta-pink blooms)
- Anemones (showy purple blooms, black button centers and curvy stems)
- Ranunculuses (soft rounded blooms in light pink and apricot)
- Hyacinths (clustered white blooms with a sweet fragrance)
- Saucer magnolias (woody branches with deep raspberry and pale pink petals)
- Cymbidium orchid spray (this didn’t make it into the final arrangement; more on that later)
- Viburnum tinus (broadleaf evergreen shrub with wine-colored stems and buds)
- Fancy parrot tulips (white blooms with fresh green accents and ruffled edges)
First Prinzing stripped off any foliage that fell below the water’s surface to reduce bacteria in the water. Next she organized the stems and branches by variety.
Find gardening supplies
3. Choose a Vessel and Gather Supplies
Prinzing chose a vintage creamware vase made by Haeger USA. Using a low footed vase allowed for a wide arrangement that let the blooms hang down in a dramatic way. And the light color provided contrast to the dark foliage and blossoms.
Supplies
Next she chose to use a vintage dome-style flower frog that was the right size for the footed vase. She recommends securing a frog to the bottom of the vase with a reusable putty floral adhesive. If you do not have a frog or if you are giving this as a gift and want to hang on to your frog, you can crisscross floral tape across the surface of the vessel to hold the stems in place, or make your own frog by balling up chicken wire and affixing it to the bottom of the vase with floral putty.
Prinzing chose a vintage creamware vase made by Haeger USA. Using a low footed vase allowed for a wide arrangement that let the blooms hang down in a dramatic way. And the light color provided contrast to the dark foliage and blossoms.
Supplies
- Vessel
- Floral frog (note alternatives below)
- Floral putty
- Clippers
- Lazy Susan (optional; if you don’t have one, work at a table or an island that you can walk all the way around to check on your arrangement from all sides)
Next she chose to use a vintage dome-style flower frog that was the right size for the footed vase. She recommends securing a frog to the bottom of the vase with a reusable putty floral adhesive. If you do not have a frog or if you are giving this as a gift and want to hang on to your frog, you can crisscross floral tape across the surface of the vessel to hold the stems in place, or make your own frog by balling up chicken wire and affixing it to the bottom of the vase with floral putty.
5. Give the Arrangement a Base
Prinzing likes to provide structure by creating a base with branches from woody plants, and then layering in the more delicate flower stems. The branches are the more architectural elements of the arrangement. For this arrangement, she used two broadleaf evergreen shrubs. The first one she used, seen here, is Viburnum tinus, which has wine-colored stems and buds.
Pro tip: “I love to choose one longer stem to ‘reach out’ to the right as an asymmetrical gesture,” she says. She places her arrangement on a tabletop Lazy Susan so that she can spin it around to see how it looks from all angles.
Browse light-colored vases
Prinzing likes to provide structure by creating a base with branches from woody plants, and then layering in the more delicate flower stems. The branches are the more architectural elements of the arrangement. For this arrangement, she used two broadleaf evergreen shrubs. The first one she used, seen here, is Viburnum tinus, which has wine-colored stems and buds.
Pro tip: “I love to choose one longer stem to ‘reach out’ to the right as an asymmetrical gesture,” she says. She places her arrangement on a tabletop Lazy Susan so that she can spin it around to see how it looks from all angles.
Browse light-colored vases
The second broadleaf evergreen she chose for the base was the Pieris japonica ‘Katsura’ shrub, which has pendulous bell-shaped blooms in a raspberry hue. “This is one of the best early-blooming shrubs for my Zone 8b garden,” she says. “I love to let the tasseled flower clusters spill over the rim of the vessel.”
6. Build Up
A lucky day at a favorite nursery brought the inspiration blooms, saucer magnolias, to the arrangement. Prinzing had noticed that a tree at Zenith Holland Gardens had been radically pruned and asked the management if she could save the branches that were lying on the ground from the wood chipper. She filled her car with all the branches she could fit, recut the stems with her loppers and placed them in her house in room-temperature water. Before starting this arrangement, she had been waiting about 10 days for them to bloom; fortuitously, they did right before she made the arrangement.
“The color palette inspiration really began with the magnolia blooms,” she says. “I had been admiring them in bud but had been waiting for those buds to pop. The deep raspberry petals are actually paler on the inside, which makes them so interesting and adds contrast and dimension.”
With a strong base in place, Prinzing added verticality to the arrangement with the magnolia branches. She made sure to include not just blossoming flowers but also buds. The purpose of this is twofold. For one, these blooms may not last as long as the others, so the buds will bloom later and replace them. Also, Prinzing likes for an arrangement to evolve, showing off the different stages of flowering.
A lucky day at a favorite nursery brought the inspiration blooms, saucer magnolias, to the arrangement. Prinzing had noticed that a tree at Zenith Holland Gardens had been radically pruned and asked the management if she could save the branches that were lying on the ground from the wood chipper. She filled her car with all the branches she could fit, recut the stems with her loppers and placed them in her house in room-temperature water. Before starting this arrangement, she had been waiting about 10 days for them to bloom; fortuitously, they did right before she made the arrangement.
“The color palette inspiration really began with the magnolia blooms,” she says. “I had been admiring them in bud but had been waiting for those buds to pop. The deep raspberry petals are actually paler on the inside, which makes them so interesting and adds contrast and dimension.”
With a strong base in place, Prinzing added verticality to the arrangement with the magnolia branches. She made sure to include not just blossoming flowers but also buds. The purpose of this is twofold. For one, these blooms may not last as long as the others, so the buds will bloom later and replace them. Also, Prinzing likes for an arrangement to evolve, showing off the different stages of flowering.
6. Add Cut Stems With Color Composition in Mind
February is a tricky time of year for many of us to find much plant life while foraging outside in the snow, but sticking with local or at least American-grown flowers is the Slow Flowers way. “In the Pacific Northwest, greenhouse growers aren’t quite ready to harvest early-spring flowers like anemones and ranunculus. Fortunately for me, there is an abundance of fresh product from California growers,” Prinzing says.
Earlier this month, she had interviewed the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, Leatrice Eiseman, for her Slow Flowers podcast. This left her eager to use Pantone’s Color of the Year, Ultra Violet. In addition to bringing in the buzzworthy bold hue, this anemone has interesting curvy stems and black button centers that added more texture to the arrangement. “The intensity of color matched the deep-valued raspberry hues of the other woody elements,” she says.
February is a tricky time of year for many of us to find much plant life while foraging outside in the snow, but sticking with local or at least American-grown flowers is the Slow Flowers way. “In the Pacific Northwest, greenhouse growers aren’t quite ready to harvest early-spring flowers like anemones and ranunculus. Fortunately for me, there is an abundance of fresh product from California growers,” Prinzing says.
Earlier this month, she had interviewed the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, Leatrice Eiseman, for her Slow Flowers podcast. This left her eager to use Pantone’s Color of the Year, Ultra Violet. In addition to bringing in the buzzworthy bold hue, this anemone has interesting curvy stems and black button centers that added more texture to the arrangement. “The intensity of color matched the deep-valued raspberry hues of the other woody elements,” she says.
7. Fill In With Volume, Fragrance and the ‘Rule of White’
With many of the more colorful blooms in place, Prinzing began to balance them out with white flowers. “The ‘rule of white’ calls for adding white flowering elements to any design. Especially when viewed from a distance, white flowers are impactful, making any arrangement young and fresh-looking. Grouping or color-blocking definitely gives the arrangement a distinct point of view.” She likes to distribute them unequally and asymmetrically for a more sophisticated look. “I like the contrast of super dark and super light, which is why the white tulips and hyacinth came in,” she says.
In addition to the light color and volume, the white hyacinths add fragrance to the arrangement. While these were grown by an Oregon flower farm, she notes that they’re from bulbs that any of us could force indoors during the winter.
White hyacinths: Oregon Flowers
With many of the more colorful blooms in place, Prinzing began to balance them out with white flowers. “The ‘rule of white’ calls for adding white flowering elements to any design. Especially when viewed from a distance, white flowers are impactful, making any arrangement young and fresh-looking. Grouping or color-blocking definitely gives the arrangement a distinct point of view.” She likes to distribute them unequally and asymmetrically for a more sophisticated look. “I like the contrast of super dark and super light, which is why the white tulips and hyacinth came in,” she says.
In addition to the light color and volume, the white hyacinths add fragrance to the arrangement. While these were grown by an Oregon flower farm, she notes that they’re from bulbs that any of us could force indoors during the winter.
White hyacinths: Oregon Flowers
She brought in more white via parrot tulips, which add a fanciful touch. “These interesting white-and-green variegated parrot tulips are almost fully opened, which gives them a Dutch Masters quality,” Prinzing says. “These beauties add volume and polish to the bouquet.”
Tulips: The Sun Valley Group
Tulips: The Sun Valley Group
Here’s a closer look at the tulips’ green accents and ruffled edges.
8. Add Whimsy
More plants from California help round out the bouquet and bring in more white. “A few quirky stems of Icelandic poppies add movement and personality to contrast with the denser focal flowers,” Prinzing says. Note that she chose flowers that were in bud as well as open.
More plants from California help round out the bouquet and bring in more white. “A few quirky stems of Icelandic poppies add movement and personality to contrast with the denser focal flowers,” Prinzing says. Note that she chose flowers that were in bud as well as open.
More whimsy comes in via hellebores from Prinzing’s garden. When your garden isn’t offering many blooms, it can be a tough decision whether to cut them or enjoy the view of them outside. “Garden hellebores are sometimes the only thing blooming in my beds and borders at this time of year, so I judiciously snipped just three stems for inclusion in this seasonal arrangement,” Prinzing says. “The terra-cotta-pink petals echo the blooms of the Viburnum tinus and Pieris japonica quite beautifully.”
Tip for using garden hellebores in an arrangement: “Clip flowers after the stamens have dropped and the seedpods are beginning to form. This will ensure a longer-lasting bloom,” Prinzing says.
Tip for using garden hellebores in an arrangement: “Clip flowers after the stamens have dropped and the seedpods are beginning to form. This will ensure a longer-lasting bloom,” Prinzing says.
9. Give It a Final Touch
California-grown ranunculuses offered a lovely surprise after she got them home and their tight blossoms opened up a bit. “As they did, a few revealed that they were actually apricot in hue, which seemed a perfect complement to the purple-blue anemones,” she says. This was the final romantic touch for the arrangement.
California-grown ranunculuses offered a lovely surprise after she got them home and their tight blossoms opened up a bit. “As they did, a few revealed that they were actually apricot in hue, which seemed a perfect complement to the purple-blue anemones,” she says. This was the final romantic touch for the arrangement.
10. Maintain It
Once the arrangement is complete, it will be tricky to take it apart to recut the stems or change the water. Instead, Prinzing recommends putting the entire arrangement in the sink and using the sprayer for a few minutes to add water to the vessel. Eventually the fresh water will displace the not-so-fresh water and keep the flowers happy.
Enjoy the evolution of your arrangement — for instance, poppy petals falling off to leave just those textured yellow centers on the stem. But as time goes by, also feel free to pull out any flowers that wilt ahead of the others and, if necessary, replace them.
Once the arrangement is complete, it will be tricky to take it apart to recut the stems or change the water. Instead, Prinzing recommends putting the entire arrangement in the sink and using the sprayer for a few minutes to add water to the vessel. Eventually the fresh water will displace the not-so-fresh water and keep the flowers happy.
Enjoy the evolution of your arrangement — for instance, poppy petals falling off to leave just those textured yellow centers on the stem. But as time goes by, also feel free to pull out any flowers that wilt ahead of the others and, if necessary, replace them.
What Happened to the Orchid?
Don’t feel as though you have to use every stem you’ve bought in the arrangement; sometimes they don’t all work together the way you thought they would. Prinzing’s decision not to use the orchid stem is a lesson in editing.
“When I was flower shopping, I was uncertain of which vase I was going to use or how big my arrangement would be,” she says. “In the arrangement, the orchid was too top-heavy, and it looked out of scale.” The bloom is so lovely on its own that it’s currently in a long-necked bottle sitting on Prinzing’s kitchen counter.
More: Learn more about Prinzing and the Slow Flowers movement
Don’t feel as though you have to use every stem you’ve bought in the arrangement; sometimes they don’t all work together the way you thought they would. Prinzing’s decision not to use the orchid stem is a lesson in editing.
“When I was flower shopping, I was uncertain of which vase I was going to use or how big my arrangement would be,” she says. “In the arrangement, the orchid was too top-heavy, and it looked out of scale.” The bloom is so lovely on its own that it’s currently in a long-necked bottle sitting on Prinzing’s kitchen counter.
More: Learn more about Prinzing and the Slow Flowers movement
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What a work of art!
Gorgeous!
Beautiful i love it. <3<3<3<3