Do you know about flower arranging?

[LemonDifficult]

How did you learn?

DH and I want to use the stuff in our Scottish garden. There's not a great deal of glamorous blooms because the deer eat them all (although we're thinking of saving up for proper fencing) but we do have some nice shrubs.

We haven't got time/cash to go to a class. Can any one recommend a beginners book? A blog?

And we'd be really grateful for any of your flower arranging tips!

I haven't had any training but like to bring together a bunch of mixed wild and cultivated flowers from our garden and the fields and hedgerows beyond.

There are some websites on the internet that give you the basics like this one.

The only tricks I use are to use interesting foliage to 'frame' the flowers and pick long stems for the back of the vase and shorter ones for the front if the vase is against a wall. If it is a table centrepiece I put the tall ones in the middle and shorter and drooping flowers round the outside. I sometimes use a low flat dish for roses in a centrepiece.

Rather than spend money on a course I suggest buying a range of different styles of vases. Often good ones can be had in the sales.

The arrangements I make are deliberately free form and I try to make them as natural as possible and a microcosm of what I can see from our windows. Your garden and surrounding country sound ideal for this type of arranging.

I especially like to go out ino the hedgerows beyond the garden to try and bring some of that in to our home. I sometimes take blossom from hedgerows or perhaps stems with fruit or long strings of hops in the autumn.

Obviously be careful not pick any rare wild flowers.

Are you near to a library? I taught myself to arrange flowers from books, recently did a short evening class but it didn't add that much.

There are masses of books on Amazon, you could easily get one for under £10. Try to find one that is "encylopaedia" or step by step rather than just fancy pictures without instructions. e.g. this one?

My tips FWIW - tape your oasis into the container, make the shape first with foliage and then add the flowers, and give your flowers a good drink before using them. Have fun!

My mil had been a florist forever, her main tip is always use odd numbers of your focal flowers. Apart from that, it's pretty uch whatever takes your fancy.

Thank you all.

BeenBeta, have had a good read through your link. exactly what I was hoping for, and I've just put the Jane Packer book in my Amazon basket to buy when pay clears. Am so excited about it

Maybe I'll start my own blog.