Farmer’s market season in New England is my absolute favorite. The peak of summer you can find baskets overflowing with fresh vegetables and homemade products. You’ll also always find a flower farm offering freshly cut blooms. It’s so much more vibrant than fall and winter where you’ll only get root vegetables.
Farmer’s markets are a great way to engage with and support local businesses. You’ll also often find cute dogs and deliciously prepared food for lunch or breakfast.
A few weeks ago I was driving when I saw a sign for the Shelburne Farmer’s Market. Without a single thought, I immediately changed my plans and turned into the parking lot. It is as cute and wholesome as you could imagine. At this particular farmer’s market I found a “make your own arrangement” flower farm stall. A lady was offering flowers $1 a stem! This is unheard of in terms of flower pricing.
It was so fun to pick from the array of flowers. What I love about local flowers, is that they last much longer. The same goes for produce.
As I started searching for the right vase to hold my new blooms, I realized how perfect this was to share. Something that many people don’t realize when putting together an arrangement for their home, is the value of the vase.
Establishing a foundation for any floral arrangement starts with the vase you choose.
The shape, height, and diameter of the vase has a huge impact on how the piece looks and comes together.
A good rule of thumb, the wider the vase opening, the more flowers or filler greenery you will need to create a full arrangement. The more narrow the opening, the more vertical the flower stems will have to stand. There’s less room for placing stems at varying heights and angles.
This works amazing if you only have a few flowers stems to showcase. However, if you have a variety and want to play with the shape and design, keep reading!
Below are some images of different vessels (another floral design term for vase) and how each impact the same flower arrangement.
As you can see these four vessels have varying height, diameter, and shape. The two center vases have close diameter but slightly different shape. The vase on left and right have the widest opening. Something to note is that the stems I was working with were very short and I preferred a small vase. The flowers seemed to fall into the vases that were too tall for the stem height.
In the end, I chose to play with the wine glass. I felt like the stems could reach the bottom of the vase to properly arrange them. I also had a wide enough opening that the arrangement could have both vertical and horizontal shape. I also preferred for the flowers to have more space and not be squished in the vase. When the stems are squished there’s more bruising and shorter life for the flower.
Add your own unique touch of whimsy
In this post I also wanted to highlight how you can always add a few touches of greenery or wild flowers from a nearby park, or your very own yard! Take a walk around and clip any flowers you feel inspired by. Take a check there are no bugs in the flower before snipping.
These extra flowers I like to use to add more whimsy within the vase. When arranging another thing to keep in mind is the flower stems inside the vase act as a grid. Without a foundation of solid stems, when you place a flower into a position of your choice, it will likely move.
Looking back, the additional flowers helped fill out the vase, but weren’t necessary for the arrangement. Any of these vases would have been beautiful. However, this is still a fantastic illustration of why selecting your vase is an important step to consider. It may be the missing piece why your arrangement just doesn’t seem to come together.
Stay tuned for more flower arranging posts. I’ll be sharing more artistic arrangements to play with, and the tools to have on hand.
