Turn a Plain Store-Bought Orchid into a Spectacular Arrangement

Select a container for your arrangement. If it is not water tight, line it with some plastic. Just cut off a corner of a plastic kitchen trash bag and position it in the container. Do not worry if it extends past the top of the container.

Place one or two orchid plants in the container. In the pictured example, there was room for two orchids. Also, select a complementary plant that will add visual interest to the bottom of the arrangement, like ivy or succulents. Keep all the plants in their plastic pots so it will make it easier to change them out or repot them in the future.

Crumple pieces of newspaper and stuff them into the container between the pots to steady them. Orchids are top-heavy, so the newspaper keeps them from tipping over. As you are stuffing newspaper into the container, cover any excess plastic liner.

Store bought orchids come with plain metal or wood stakes and plastic clips that hold the plants upright. For a designer look, these need to be replaced. Insert some bamboo sticks into the orchid pots, and then remove the existing stakes. You can actually use any type of branch here to hold up the orchids.

Tie the stems of the orchids to the bamboo sticks with raffia. Using raffia, you can also tie bamboo sticks horizontally to the vertical ones to create a scaffolding element. The scaffolding is helpful when you have long orchid stems, so the orchids can be tied to the horizontal bamboo sticks for extra support.

Cover the points where you used raffia with some moss. Secure the moss with more raffia, and then fluff up the moss so the raffia is hidden. Spanish or reindeer moss, which you can find at the crafts store, works best for this purpose.

The plastic pots and newspaper are still visible in the container, so cover them with sheet moss or mood moss, also available in the crafts store. These types of moss are dry and stiff; to work with them, immerse them in water and scrunch them into ball shapes. Then stuff the balls of moss tightly in the container. Besides being decorative, the moss helps to steady the bamboo sticks.

While the orchid arrangement is complete and already looks beautiful, hot gluing an artificial feather butterfly to one of the bamboo sticks adds a whimsical touch.

As a final step, florists mist the orchid leaves with plant polish spray. While this step is optional, the spray removes hard water stains and gives the leaves a glossy shine. These sprays are available in floral supply stores and nurseries.