DIY MOTHER'S DAY HAND-TIED BOUQUET

BY ELLI JESPERSON

Want to mix it up for mom this year? Get crafty for Mother’s Day. Rather than order her flowers, make her a beautiful hand-tied bouquet! Nothing says “I appreciate you” like something hand-made.

Supplies

• Flowers (3-5 stems of 5 different types)

• Greenery (2-3 different types)

• Ribbon

• Binding wire, twine or raffia

• Knife or clippers

1. GETTING STARTED

• Clean all the stems of excess greenery, shoots, or thorns.

• Separate each type of bloom or green into individual piles so that you can see the different colours, sizes, and textures of each.

2. ADD FLOWERS

• Select a focal blossom for the center of the bouquet, something that is fairly significant in size.

• Add a few stems of foliage around this flower.

• Choose another type of flower and insert it into the bunch at an angle. The stem should point toward your body while the flower head will be angled away from you.

• Continue adding in flowers turning the bunch a quarter turn after each new flower is added.

• Checking the view of the bouquet from the top, continue to add flowers a little lower around the sides to create the desired dome shape. Since the stems were all inserted at an angle, it is easy to take the stems out and move them around for the ideal shape and design.

• Add additional greens around the base of the bouquet.

3.FINISHING TOUCHES

• When your bouquet is complete, secure the bouquet with bind, wrapping it a few times around the top of the binding point (just above your hand). Trim stems straight across to an equal length.

• Feel free to wrap stems with an additional ribbon or adornment.

• A perfectly done bouquet, that is securely tied, should be able to stand upright alone, without any support.

• Next, add the three mediumsize flowers to fill in open spaces in the greenery.

• Fill in any holes with smaller garden flowers in similar or complimentary colours.

• Add in any interesting accent flowers you might have in your yard.

WHAT IS SPIRALING?

Spiraling is the process of continually placing stems adjacent to one another, angled around a central axis. The spiral hand-tied bouquet technique is a fundamental, classical technique in floral design.

Elli Jesperson is an acclaimed florist based out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She has been in the floral industry for over 30 years and owns Small Flower {floral studio}. Get your botanical wreath kit or check out her upcoming floral workshops by visiting smallflower.ca