How to create Garden Flower Arrangements with your backyard blooms

Is your backyard bursting with perennial blooms? Just need someone to show you how to put them together in a vase? Today, we're sharing our secrets for transforming your backyard flowers into centerpieces that'll make you feel like a professional florist.

The Perfect Timing: When to Cut

Here's a pro tip that'll make your arrangements last days longer: Cut your flowers at their prime, which is for most flowers, before they fully open.

  • Buds should be showing color but not completely unfurled

  • Cut in the early morning or evening when stems are most hydrated

  • This ensures maximum vase life – sometimes up to two weeks!

Choose Your Vase

You can never go wrong with a classic white vase or a good ole mason jar.

  • Let’s the flowers be the star

  • Works with any color palette

  • Timeless and elegant

But honestly? Use whatever makes your heart happy – that vintage pitcher, a wine bottle, or your grandmother's crystal vase.

Mason jar and a snips

The Foundation: Building Your Base

Step 1: Start with Greenery

Before any flowers touch that vase, we're creating structure:

  • Use foliage like:

    • Lemon basil (bonus: it smells incredible!)

    • Peony leaves (yes, even after blooms are done)

    • Any leafy stems from your garden

  • The technique: Crisscross the stems in the vase to create a natural grid

  • This gives your flowers something to lean on and helps them stay exactly where you want them

Pro Hack: The Tape Grid

Want even more control? Create a grid across the mouth of your vase with clear floral tape (or scotch):

  • Make a tic-tac-toe pattern

  • Each square becomes a "pocket" for your stems

  • Perfect when working with short stems

Building Height: The Line Flowers

Next up: Drama and dimension!

Add your tall, linear flowers like snapdragons, larkspur or delphinium:

  • These create vertical interest

  • Place them slightly off-center for a more natural look

  • Vary the heights – nothing should be exactly the same level

Yarrow, Bachelor Buttons, Delphinium

The Star of the Show: Focal Flowers

Now for the flowers you've been daydreaming about all spring!

The Rule of Odds

  • Use 3, 5, or 7 focal flowers (odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye)

  • Place them slightly lower than your line flowers

  • Tuck them into your greenery base at different depths

Placement Tips:

  • Turn your vase as you work

  • Step back frequently to check all angles

  • Create a gentle dome shape or asymmetrical triangle

  • Let some blooms face different directions

Enjoy on your kitchen table!

Reading tips is great. But you know what's better? Actually doing it with expert guidance, a glass of wine in hand, and your best friends laughing beside you.

Join Us for a Hands-On Workshop!

Floral Arranging Workshop

Flower Arranging Workshop - Tuesday June 23rd at The 507 Outskirt
$50.00

June 23rd | 6:30-8:00 PM | $50

Join us for a fun evening of flowers, friends, and creativity!

Gather your girlfriends for a hands-on floral design experience where you'll create a fresh flower centerpiece to take home and enjoy.

What's Included:

  • All fresh flowers and greenery

  • Mason jar/vase (yours to keep!)

  • Tools and tips to help your blooms last longer.

  • Complimentary glass of wine

  • A beautiful centerpiece to brighten your kitchen table

Perfect for: Date night with your girlfriends, or girls' night out with your fun co-workers. Treat yourself to a creative escape!

Space is limited, save your seat now! Please note that all workshop registrations are non-refundable, but transferable to a friend if you're unable to attend.

Date: June 23rd
Location: The 507 Outskirt
What's Included:

  • Step-by-step guidance

  • All flowers and materials provided

  • A beautiful centerpiece to take home

  • Wine sipping throughout (the best part!)

  • Techniques you'll use for years to come

What You'll Actually Learn:

Beyond just making one pretty arrangement, you'll walk away knowing:

  • Which flowers to pair together – Understanding color theory and texture combinations that work every time

  • Conditioning secrets – How to prep different stem types so your arrangements last twice as long

  • Our secret flower food recipe – Made from everyday kitchen ingredients (this alone will save you money!)

  • Design principles – The formula for creating balanced, professional-looking arrangements

  • Proportion tricks – How to scale arrangements for different table sizes and occasions

  • Seasonal adaptations – How to use these same techniques from spring through fall with whatever's growing

  • Problem-solving skills – What to do when stems are too short, too tall, or won't stay put

  • Flower personalities – Which blooms are drama queens, which are easy-going, and how to work with both

This is the girlfriend outing you've been needing.

Imagine:

  • Creative time away from screens and stress

  • Learning skills that'll elevate every dinner party

  • Laughter, wine, and flowers

  • Taking home something beautiful you made yourself

  • Confidence to create arrangements all season long

Space is limited – sign up here!

Flower Arranging Workshop - Tuesday June 23rd at The 507 Outskirt
$50.00

June 23rd | 6:30-8:00 PM | $50

Join us for a fun evening of flowers, friends, and creativity!

Gather your girlfriends for a hands-on floral design experience where you'll create a fresh flower centerpiece to take home and enjoy.

What's Included:

  • All fresh flowers and greenery

  • Mason jar/vase (yours to keep!)

  • Tools and tips to help your blooms last longer.

  • Complimentary glass of wine

  • A beautiful centerpiece to brighten your kitchen table

Perfect for: Date night with your girlfriends, or girls' night out with your fun co-workers. Treat yourself to a creative escape!

Space is limited, save your seat now! Please note that all workshop registrations are non-refundable, but transferable to a friend if you're unable to attend.

Next
Next

Top 5 Flowers to Direct Seed in May in Minnesota