Each month in my "Collect the Nectar" newsletter, I invite you to ask me anything, from flowers and floral artistry to business, health, wellbeing, entrepreneurship, writing, authenticity, branding — you name it. I select a question each month to answer and feature here, where I can share my experience and approach with you in accessible, cost-free resources that empower you forward on your creative journey.

 

Here is our featured question and answer for this post:

 

FEATURED QUESTION

"How do you actually build a centerpiece? I have an idea in my head, but I get started, and it doesn’t look how I pictured it. It’s either too heavy and tight or it just doesn’t have the right shape. How do I make my designs more airy and natural but still abundant-feeling?" — Mara T.

 

ANSWERS FROM JEN

Thank you for your great question, Mara! Centerpiece design is a journey, and a craft with many, many expressions. It's also the type of design that changes with each vessel you use and each recipe of flowers you select, and that's not even considering the virtually endless techniques and stylistic choices that you can use or make. The good news is that I have some delightfully accessible techniques and tips for you that will help give you more structure and support as you continue honing your design practice and building your confidence in your centerpiece arrangements: 

 

 

TIP 01

Be intentional with your flower recipe.

What we use has such a big impact on how things come out, whether that’s with food or flowers. Be sure to have a mix of shapes and sizes among your flowers, and have at least one type of focal flower, a filler or texture,  a foliage or branchy element that is light and if possible bloomy, and a floaty flower variety to give some reach and grace. 

TIP 02

Measure twice, cut once.

This is an old carpenter's adage, warning you to carefully measure wood before you cut it, because once a board is cut, it's not going to get longer again. The same goes for flower stems. I recommend you hold the flower such that its bloom appears where you want it to rest in the composition of flowers you are creating, and from there look to where the stem is with regards to your vessel. Note where the stem would need to be cut in order to reach the bottom of the vessel with the flower's head where you want it to visually appear. That will help you "eyeball" where and at what length to cut your stem.

 

TIP 03

Start low and layer your flowers and foliages outward.

If you start with too many long pieces and flowers, it will be difficult to get that lush and airy effect because there won’t be any space for dimensionality. Place your first elements low, and layer them longer as you go. Carefully cutting some pieces quite short will allow them to be low enough to help cover your mechanics and build the base layers. From there, your higher, longer pieces will be more impactful. When in doubt, look to nature, where you see how all flowers on a plant are looking for their place in the sun. 

TIP 04

Take cues from nature.

In nature, flowers grow from one plant, where often the older (and thus larger and more mature) blooms are lower, while younger (and thus smaller and not quite as open) flowers grow and bloom above or nearby on secondary or offshoot stems. Plants do vary vastly, but in general, when a plant begins to bloom, its first flowers will be lower and more fully bloomed, while younger or more recent flowers will be smaller, or not as far along in their bloom cycle, and layered up higher. What does this mean for us as designers? It means we can use this as a guideline and also place larger or heavier flowers lower and smaller flowers higher for that magical, more naturally growing look. We can also cluster flowers in our designs with their same or similar varieties and at different stages of their blooming cycles. A fully bloomed butterfly ranunculus is always accompanied by a few partially bloomed and just barely blossoming flower heads as well, for example.

 

TIP 05

Design with odd numbers.

To avoid an overly contrived or what I like to call "polkadot" look in your designs, design in clusters of alike flower varieties as a rule of thumb, and make those clusters or loose collections across your arrangement in odd numbers of three or five or seven, for example. Two of a certain type of flower can look like eyeballs to a viewer, and if your intention is a nature-inspired arrangement, you don't want that (even though it's hilarious, admittedly, and there is a place for all design decisions, depending what effect you want to create). Three makes a trio and is pleasing to the eye. Four can look contrived, but five again is easy and pleasing. Any repetition of a certain flower in an arrangement will start to draw the viewer's eye to that recognizable flower, which makes having an odd-numbered cluster look both natural and intentional as the viewer's eye naturally picks up on it.

 

TIP 06

Turn your arrangement as you design.

I use a simple lazy susan, placed underneath my floral vessel, so I can turn my arrangement as I design. The benefit here is in being able to see your arrangement from all angles, which allows you to design a 3-dimensional piece of art instead of a one-sided arrangement that feels off balance or like it has a "back" side, which is not so useful when floral arrangements most often adorn the center of a table (and are visible from all sides). You could just lift and turn the vessel or vase on the table as you design, but this is clunky and can cause water to spill or flowers to shift before you are finished, so I recommend a simple lazy susan so your flowers can spin smoothly and you can design like a pro. Mine is from IKEA, and there are plenty on Amazon too!

 

TIP 07

Mindset really matters.

The mind often has a vision of what we want to produce that the body just needs time and training to catch up and be able to manifest. You will see an image online of a floral arrangement that really inspires you, but when you try to replicate a version of it, the results are disappointing. This is totally normal. I can't tell you how many times I would design something early on that looked nothing like the vision I had in my head, but I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I was "in training," and that I was learning and getting stronger in this new skill every time I practiced. What I do, and I also recommend you to try, is to keep a monthly creative play date with yourself. Get a bucket of flowers just for you, and give yourself an hour or two to just explore. This is the equivalent of practicing scales or songs if you play an instrument or buying canvases and paints to explore new painting techniques if you paint, and it will nurture both your creative voice and your confidence. Each time you practice without pressure, you strengthen your design skills, hone your authentic voice, and improve all around.

 

TIP 08

Remember to breathe.

I teach all my student designers this phrase: “If you can breathe,  your work can breathe.” When we are tense and super-focused or getting self critical, we are barely breathing, and that's when everything gets hard. Stems break, flowers won't seem to cooperate, and often our arrangements look tight and heavy too. On the other hand, when you breathe, which is as easy as remembering to take in a big breath of air and letting it out slowly, you relax your muscles and nervous system, and you allow your body and creativity to flow with more ease. It makes a huge difference!

 

Keep exploring! Put these tips into practice, and let me know how you go. 

 

You can also learn more in my Poetry of Flowers Centerpieces & Table Arrangements Course Bundle, where you will get access to three different design classes for centerpieces and table arrangements, including my Abundant Foam-Free Centerpiece Design class, my Large Statement Urn Design class, and my Sculptural Pin Frog Design class, all in one.

 

Keep blooming, my friend,

 

XX

 

 

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Floral centerpiece images from a Studio Immersion Mentorship captured by Ariel Min.