Floral arrangements are nature's way of welcoming a new season with open arms. After a long and dreary winter, they refresh our spaces and uplift our spirits with their vibrant colors and sweet fragrances.

We love a fresh floral bouquet as much as everyone else and use them often in our stores and homes. In fact, some of our favorite small business owners are florists, but we also value a permanent bouquet we can rely on for several seasons and years.

We are not talking about the floral stems you find in clearance bins of discount stores. We are referring to the real-touch florals that look like real flowers and have a realistic feel to them, hence the name. We are extremely selective about the stems we showcase in our stores.

Kathy Eaton, our Jamesport manager and resident floral specialist, helps handpick the best quality florals for our stores. Her keen eyes for colors, textures, and trends are integral in displaying the softer side of a retail layout. Kathy's ability to arrange flowers and create stunning displays never ceases to amaze all of us, and we are beyond blessed to have her as part of our Farm House family. She allowed us the privilege of sharing her techniques with all of you in hopes that you grow to enjoy the art of floral arranging in your homes.

Kathy recommends selecting the floral stems you want to include in your arrangement first, as this will determine the main color. These flowers are called focal flowers. In all of the arrangements shown below, at least three stems of the focal flower were used to highlight it in the arrangement. This not only ensures that the flower you love is most prominent in your arrangement but also creates a visual triangle. Visual triangles are more calming and pleasing to the eye than squares, circles, or chaotic spirals.

While refreshing the front windows, Kathy needed to create a large floral display to act as a focal point for a wall. She began by placing cascading florals at the front of her arrangement in a neutral shade to visually enhance the size of her vase. Next, she added her focal flowers, the bright and cheerful sunflower blooms. To complement the warm tones of the sunflowers, she added some deep red blossoms behind them, which lifts the eye from the cascading florals. Finally, she added a blue-purple floral to the foreground of the arrangement to create a beautiful contrast with the yellow sunflowers.

If you refer back to the floral color wheel, you can see how Kathy used the top half of the wheel to create a dramatic, but soothing arrangement. Next time you visit our Jamesport location, you can admire Kathy's finished arrangement in the front window of our Jamesport location.

Option 1: Add floral foam to your vessel. Do not wet the foam. For faux arrangements, the foam is meant to stay dry and act as a holder for your stems. This is a great method for all skill levels, but especially for beginners since the foam is forgiving and stems can be moved easily without affecting the placement of neighboring stems.

This method also requires an opaque vessel that prevents the foam from being visible. 

Option 2: Arrange your florals in your hand and then place them in a vessel. This method is typically more challenging and suggested for those with some experience.

Option 3: Forego floral foam and arrange your flowers in a transparent vessel, one stem at a time. This method is for all skill levels but requires a little more patience for beginners. Show yourself some grace! All experts started as beginners!

For the purposes of this tutorial, we will use floral foam to arrange our flowers.

Step 1: Cut your floral foam to fit inside your vessel. Depending on the size and shape of your vessel, you may have to cut many pieces and fit them together like a puzzle. However, foam is forgiving—a bit messy, but forgiving nonetheless.

Step 2: Most faux floral stems require a little fluffing before being used in an arrangement. This is especially true if your stem has multiple blooms or leaves. Using gentle pressure, fluff the leaves and/or blossoms without creating harsh angles or sharp curves to prevent your flowers from looking unnatural.

Step 3: Using your focal flowers, the stems you chose first, create the center of your arrangement. Try using three stems in the center with varying heights. You may need to cut the stems to create a visual triangle. Trim little sections first. You can always cut more, but it's pretty challenging to make a flower taller when cut too short. You know the old adage: measure twice, cut once.

Step 4: After setting the center of your arrangement, you can start building outwards. It's important to consider where you plan on placing your completed arrangement. If it will be a centerpiece, ensure that all sides are appropriately designed. However, if you're putting it in a corner, you only need to focus on the front side.

Step 5: Continue fluffing and rearranging your stems until you feel good about their placement. Place medium-height flowers close to the taller stems and position shorter blooms around the edges. Cascading florals should be positioned to lay nicely along the perimeter.