Tutorial: How to Arrange Flowers for a Birthday Party

Arranging flowers has never been one of my natural talents. But I got to thinking that just means it’s time for me to learn a new skill. So this weekend, I tried my hand at a simple flower arrangement, practicing for my girls’ birthday party. Here’s my non-florist tutorial for how to arrange flowers for a birthday party.

This actually went pretty quickly and while the result wasn’t perfect, I was pleased enough.

flower arranging Supplies

• Low vase
• Floral foam
• 3 types of flowers
• Scissors

flower arranging Instructions

1 – Choose three different types of flowers. They can be any color combination you find pleasing. I choose two yellows and one white. The important thing is to pick flowers with sturdy stems. Also, you’ll want different sizes and shapes. My large yellow flower was alstroemeria, the white flower is aster, and the other yellow flower is solidago. All of these came from the grocery store for a total of $12.

2 – Start by cutting your floral foam to roughly to size. It doesn’t have to fill the entire vase opening or come all the way to the top of the vase. (I’d always heard that the foam should extend above the top of your vase, but mine didn’t and it didn’t seem to be a problem.) I positioned my foam over the vase to make a guideline, then put the foam on a solid surface to make my cut.

3 – Soak your floral foam in water for 15 to 20 minutes. (Put the side with holes down.) As the foam absorbs the water, it should sink to the bottom of your container.

4 – Transfer your floral foam to your vase. If you have waterproof floral tape, criss-cross the tape over the floral foam and onto the edge of your vase. I didn’t have tape, and everything turned out fine, but if you want to do things the right way, use the tape.

5 -You need to remove extra leaves from each stem. Here’s a before and after.

6 – Now you’re going to trim your flowers. Do this gradually because of course you can always cut more off but you can’t add length back on. I held my flowers up to the vase and trimmed them so the flower just cleared the top of the vase. Trim the stem at an angle.

7 – I started by adding an alstroemeria to the corner of the floral foam.

8 – Next, I defined my center with a bunch of solidago.

9 – From there, it was all about symmetry. I added asters on either side of the center flower. Alstroemeria went on each corner. Then I filled in alternately with the asters and solidagos. Just keep turning the vase as you go so you can fill in all around and create a rounded shape.

And here’s the finished arrangement.