Arrange Flowers Like a Pro: 10 Secrets That Might Put Your Florist Out of Business

The magic of perfect floral arranging happens before flowers even go into the vase. Start by selecting the right amount of flowers. The trick is to look at the opening of your vase, and then purchase enough blooms to make up four times the surface area of that opening. Many people also are uncertain about how to mix and match colors. The simplest solution is to go monochromatic. Just select three to five flower types in the same color family.

The ideal water environment for cut flowers has some acid to help move water up the stems, sugar to feed the flowers, and an antibacterial agent. Lemon-lime soda contains both the acid and sugar, while household bleach is a good bacteria killer. Fill a clean vase about three quarters of the way with one part lemon-lime soda and three parts water, and add one teaspoon of bleach per quart of water.

You will notice that most florist-created arrangements do not show the flower stems. Opaque ceramic vases hide the stems, but glass vases do not. Therefore, lining a glass vase with leaves gives the arrangement a professional touch. Use large flat leaves like aspidistra, the common house plant seen in the example. The water in the vase amplifies the leaves like a magnifying glass for a beautiful effect.

To help all the flowers stay in position, create a grid of tape on top of the vase. Pictured in the photo is green floral tape, but regular household tape will also work. The tape that is visible at the rim will be covered later with flowers.

Now, let's prepare the flowers. Remove any foliage from the stems that will be in the water. Any leaves left on the stems will get soggy and form bacteria.

Using sharp floral shears, cut the stems at a diagonal so there is more surface area for water to travel up the stems. Do not use household scissors, which will crush the stems. (Floral shears are available in most crafts stores.) It's best to cut the stems under running water or a basin of water to prevent air from going into the stems, as the air will block water absorption.

The actual positioning of the flowers in the vase is what intimidates most beginners, but there is a simple trick that removes a lot of the guesswork. The secret to a professional-looking arrangement is to group the same type of flower together, rather than mixing them up. Assign certain sections on the tape grid for each flower type, and place the flowers within those sections.

Work from one side of the vase to the other, filling in sections of the tape grid as you go. The flowers that are around the perimeter of the vase should be cut shorter to cover the rim, while the middle flowers should be taller. This creates a dome shape in which the stems are not visible.

If you have more aspidistra leaves, fold them in half and staple them to create loops. Then place these curled leaves in the last section of the vase. These leaves grouped together resemble a bow.

The final touch to a professional arrangement is a unifying element that ties it all together – while filling in any empty spaces. In this example, hypericum berries in the same color family punctuate the arrangement in various spots. Even though the flowers have been separated by type, the berries blur the boundaries for a gorgeous, cohesive arrangement. Now you've got a beautiful arrangement that looks like it came straight from the florist!