Does anyone else struggle with arranging flowers in a vase?

[Claire]

I got some for Valentine's Day. :) Is there a secret to cutting the stems and arranging them nicely in a vase without making a huge mess? It's so hard to cut the stems!

[Ellie]

I cut the stems so that they are just a few inches longer than the container, and stick all the flowers in willy nilly and sort of fluff them until they look more or less right. :-)

[Daisy]

Flowers? In a vase? I guess you'd have to get them first. :mad:

[Kris]

Unstructured -- that's the ticket. ;-)

Cut an inch of the stem (diagonally) -- stick 'em in the vase and let 'em fall where they may.

[Stirsmommy]

When I buy astermerias for myself I put them in a vase all willy nilly and poor in clear marbles and water. I am hopeless beyond that.
Melissa

[Claire]

Flowers? In a vase? I guess you'd have to get them first. :mad:

Ummm, well, ever since my dh gave me a bouquet of white lilies for a special occasion (maybe my birthday? it would have been right around Easter) long *after* I had told him that the only flower I really dislike is white lilies, I have insisted on purchasing my own flowers for Valentine's Day. They have to be pretty and they have to be "good value for money". Thank goodness for Trader Joe's! :D

[mktkcb]

Scissors work well, if you have a pair that will handle it. Past that, I'm not great at all that stuff. I'm lucky to have a 14yo dd who was born to arrange flowers. I promptly handed my beautiful valentine flowers to her to put in a vase and arrange (http://todd5.blogspot.com/). So I guess I'm not much help. Good luck tho.
Kayleen

[nancypants]

Unstructured -- that's the ticket. ;-)

Cut an inch of the stem (diagonally) -- stick 'em in the vase and let 'em fall where they may.

That's how I do it. And they look beautiful. :D I cut them at various lengths (nothing organized to it though) at an angle under water (I use my kitchen shears) and drop them in... And VOILA!

I get flowers very rarely so I posted pictures on my blog (http://www.shawnanigans.net/?p=773) to commemorate the occasion! LOL

[angela in ohio]

Dh worked at a florist in college. Here is what he taught me for a very simple arrangement...

Divide them in half. Cut one half about one or two inches shorter than the other half. You can hold them up beside the vase to see how long to cut them - I alays think they look fuller when cut just taller than the vase, so that a lot of stem doesn't show above the vase. Then put the longer ones in the center and arrange the shorter ones either: all around the longer ones (for the middle of the table) or in front of the longer ones (if they are put on a mantle or somewhere else where only the front will be seen.

If there aren't enough flowers to fill out a wide vase and they are sort of flopping to one side, you can put clear tape criss-crossed across the top of the vase and put flowers into the squares that the tape creates. They will stay up nice then.