The Foundation of the Thing
Containers for Floral Arrangements
When making a floral arrangement, you must decide upon the container that you are going to use. Before choosing a container, however, you must take these things into consideration:
Where will the arrangement be displayed?
You might be making an arrangement for the center of the dining room table, the coffee table, or to be set on the hearth by the fireplace. Obviously, these different placements affect the over-all shape, size, and height of the finished product, and these things determine the shape, size and height of the container.
What is the décor of the room?
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Taking the décor of the room into consideration, you will be choosing the floral stems for the arrangement. It is also important that you choose a container that coordinates with the décor of the room. A formal crystal bowl might be a good choice for the dining room table, while a Terra cotta pot might be appropriate for a sun room.
| S P A C E R | Container Size and ShapeTall? Short? Flat? Round?.... These are the things you will be deciding when you choose your container. First of all, take a look around the house because “just the right thing” might be behind a cabinet door or sitting out with nothing in it! I have used everything from crystal pedestal pieces to antique bowls to silver vases for formal arrangements, and baskets, decorative boxes, and wooden trays for more casual ones. I generally choose understated containers as I want the stems to be the feature, and many times, the container is practically hidden from view once the arrangement is finished and displayed. Do you want your floral arrangement to look like a bunch of just-picked “fresh flowers” in a vase, or are you looking for a centerpiece that is “arranged” with a specific shape or dimension? Once determining the look you are after, you can think about container size and shape, the material-type of the container, and the availability of what you want. The balance of the arrangement is very important, and whether you want a tall, slender arrangement or one that is more concise and bunched together, the flowers should be in proportion to the container. As a rule of thumb, in traditional formal arrangements, the tallest stem should be 1 ½ times the height of the container for vertical arrangements, and 1 ½ times the diameter of the container for a horizontal arrangement. So, if your container is 6 inches high, your tallest stem should extend 9 inches above the top of the container; resulting in a total arrangement height of 15 inches. For a horizontal arrangement, an example would be: If using an 8 inch shallow bowl, the end result would be an arrangement with a width of approximately 20 inches, and this is based on the width of the stems being 1 ½ times the width of the container. Once you figure the dimensions that you want for either height or width, you can then determine the size of your container. In you decide you prefer the popular style arrangement where the flowers are more “packed” into the container with little or no filler stems, the dimensions will differ from the traditional arrangements described above. In the instance of this type arrangement, the measurement of the stems above the top of the vase might be less than or even to the height of the vase. |
Horizontal Arrangements
Vertical Arrangements
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Container Ideas
Containers can include vases of all shapes and sizes, decorative boxes, plastic-lined baskets, decorative tins, bowls, water pitchers, tea pots, clay pots, bowls, buckets or watering cans, mugs, cake plates, or shallow dishes. Once you have your container, you are ready to shop for stems….and that’s the fun part!
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