How to Arrange Flowers in a Vase - A Step by Step Guide

Step 1 - Prepare your flower vase

Begin by adding water and an even base of foliage to your vase. Cut stems at a 45 degree angle to ensure your display takes up more water and will last longer. Remove any leaves that sit below the water line.

Step 2 - How to put flowers in a vase

Add your focal flowers; these are the centrepiece of your arrangement. All additional flowers should be selected to accent the colour and form of these principal dancers. Resist the temptation to restrict the way your blooms sit, choose instead to embrace the shape of the vase!

Step 3 - Add your filler flowers

Start adding your filler flowers, playing with a variety of complementary textures and colours. As the number of stems in your vase increases, you will find it easier to make your blooms stand upright, naturally building the height of your display.

Step 4 - Keep turning your flower vase

If your arrangement is to be displayed on a central table or on a windowsill, keep turning the vase as you progress to ensure that all sides contain an assortment of pigments and shapes, filling any empty spaces as you go.

Step 5 - Add texture to your flower arrangement

Complete the display by adding additional feathery textured foliage and flowers such as the Wild Carrot, Lepidium and Nigella used here.

The life of your flowers will be considerably shortened if you keep them in direct sunlight, near a heat source, or near ripening fruit.

1. Garden Cress - Lepidium
2. Love-in-the-Mist - Nigella damascene
3. Sweet William - Dianthus barbatus
4. Canterbury Bells - Campanula medium
5. Teenweeks Stock - Matthiola incana
6. Sweet Pea - Lathyrus odoratus
7. Wild Carrot - Daucus carota

8. Japanese Meadowsweet - Spiraea japonica
9. Garden Snapdragon - Antirrhinum majus
10. Cornflower - Centaurea Cyanus
11. Persian Buttercup - Ranunculus asiaticus