Family Rural Lifestyle Creative ways to make beautiful flower arrangements Arranging flowers can be fun, and you don't always need a vase to make it work. By Lisa Foust Prater Lisa Foust Prater Lisa Foust Prater is the Family & Farmstead Editor for Successful Farming, sharing interesting family features, heartfelt editorial columns, and important health and safety information. Her favorite thing about her job is meeting interesting people, learning their stories, and sharing them with our readers.Lisa started her career with Successful Farming magazine in 1999, working primarily for the web team and writing product reviews for the magazine. She later wrote for the Living the Country Life magazine and website and has written and edited several cookbooks and other books for Successful Farming and Living the Country Life. Successful Farming's Editorial Guidelines Published on July 31, 2024 Close Photo: Dotdash Meredith Once you’ve grown and cut your flowers, it’s time to have fun creating an arrangement! Follow these general design tips, but let your imagination run wild! Start with your focal point flowers, like big peonies or sunflowers. Then add foliage like leaves or herbs. Finally, fill in the gaps with accent flowers and other elements. Include twigs, ornamental grasses, or berry-laden vines. Pretty perennials for cutting When it comes to color, go with a cohesive theme, like shades of pink, or mix it up for a vivid wildflower look. Colors that are across from each other on the color wheel, like purple and yellow, also make pleasing combinations. This stunning citrus arrangement looks complicated, but it’s easy! Set a narrow vase or glass filled with water inside the clear pitcher. Add lemon slices and water outside the glass, then insert flowers into the glass. Use other citrus fruit, cranberries, apple slic-es, or whatever’s in season!. Dotdash Meredith Before you begin, have a general shape for your arrangement in mind. Include elements of varying height, and balance the width so it’s not top-heavy. Add weight to your vase if needed. Slip a flower-filled vase into a garden boot for this cute arrangement. What a great way to use boots the kids have outgrown!. Floral arranging tools of the trade Remember, not all flower arrangements have to be big and ornate. Sometimes, a row of bottles each holding a single stem fits the bill. This collander is lined with foil and filled with florist’s foam. Artichokes, broccoli, and asparagus are tucked in with the flowers. You can really get creative with your containers. If it can hold water (or water-soaked foam), it can be a vase! Buckets, teapots, fishbowls, foil-lined Chinese takeout boxes, wine bottles, seashells, and even fruit will do! Wouldn’t a watermelon vase be perfect for a summer picnic? Find cans with interesting labels in the ethnic section of your grocery store. Add marbles or pebbles, then water and flowers. How to be your own florist Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit