The Art of Arranging Flowers (Colours)

With not so much time left to Mother’s Day (in England) I started looking at flower arrangements. It’s always a pleasure to choose something spectacular, yet I get annoyed when I decide what I’d like to get, but the shop assistants want to prove me wrong and start “persuading” (that’s a really mild word) me to get something else or even completely different. I don’t believe that I have no taste. Well, I don’t! Yet if someone starts implying this, it’s very easy to start doubting yourself…

This year I’ll take a scientific approach. I have done some research and have put together some tips. My defense is ready! Just say something, ladies, and you’ll get a firm response based on a certain flower arrangement rule.

1. Decide if there is to be a main colour for your floral arrangement, then build upon it.

2. Choose colours using the colour wheel (like a professional designer). There are four possible combinations:

So actually there are many variations you can experiment with in a flower arrangement.

Here are some colour suggestions that can be used – just some or all colors of a group:

– Blue / peach / orange / yellow / white
– Red / blue / purple / pink / white
– Orange / red / yellow / brown / white

Flowers in a Glass Compote found on Martha Stewart website

3. You can also use several colour combinations arranging flowers. For e.g. triadic and analogous – take 3 triadic colours and extend the range with shades of all three colors.

I hope these simple tips will help you not to get lost even in a huge flower shop. They certainly opened my eyes a bit – if earlier I was choosing colours intuitively, now I will be able “to check” my choice remembering the colour wheel theory.

Information found on: http://www.silk-flower-smart.com and http://www.marthastewart.com