Brighten up your home with winter flowers

Chase away the winter blues with a selection of fresh flower arrangements to adorn your home. To ensure your winter flower arrangements last as long as possible, change the water every couple of days, and trim off spent flowers right away.

Flowers can reduce stress, spread a pleasant smell, radiate healthy energy

Display winter flowers like roses, marigolds, chrysanthemum, dahlias, cosmos, cock rods, etc in a cool area away from vents and out of direct sunlight. Make sure your vase or container of choice is clean, then fill it with warm water. Mix  a spoonful of sugar combined with a teaspoon of white vinegar or bleach to help control bacteria.  

Decide on a flower arrangement design

Create a mix of complementary colors and varieties
One way to guide your arrangement is to decide on a color scheme before shopping for flowers. Then, when you go to buy flowers, you know you're picking up colors that work well together. Monochromatic schemes, which show off the variety of different hues of the same color, can be striking. For another high-impact floral design, try complementary colors that will pop against each other.

While you can be methodical about your color scheme, there really isn't a way to go wrong when pairing flowers. Being too specific in a search can prevent you from looking at other beautiful candidates. Pick your favorites with different growth patterns, shapes, and sizes, and see how you can make them come together.

Cut and prepare flowers

Beautify your home without having to make any major design changes
After arriving home with your flowers, you might be tempted to begin arranging right away. Remove extra leaves and damaged petals from stems. If there are unwanted buds on the same stem as a full flower, cut those off as well. Once the stems are cleaned up, make a fresh diagonal cut to the bottom of the stems. Put the trimmed stems into a vase or bucket of water with cut flower food.

Choose a vessel

Create a wintertime flower arrangement
When selecting a vase or other container for your arrangement, consider the type of flowers you're using. Recycling bottles and jars is not only good for the planet, but also ideal for a floral arrangement. Old jam jars or porcelain boxes for vintage look.  You can also use woven baskets for added natural texture. To hold water and keep the flowers in place, line the basket with a plastic container.

Prepare your flower vase

Choose places that have ample space for your flower arrangement
The most important flower arrangement technique doesn't actually involve the flowers—it's all about the vessel you put them in. If the flowers don't have a sturdy foundation, they won't stay in place and your arrangement will end up falling apart. To make sure flowers stay in place, create a grid of floral tape over the mouth of the vase. Stick the stems through the holes of the grid to keep them in place. 

Create a base with greenery

You can’t go wrong with a home filled with beautiful flowers. jpg
The best way to arrange flowers is to start with greenery as a base. Use the stems of the greenery to create an inverted triangular shape. This guarantees your arrangement will have both a horizontal and a vertical presence. 

Add focal flowers

The more color the better
Focal flowers are usually the largest blooms or those with an unusual color or texture. Make sure to add in odd numbers for a more natural look. Don't place the focal flowers so they are sticking straight out on the sides: they will look droopy and heavy, rather than strong and perky.