Florists Aren’t Always The Most Affordable, So Here Are Our Top Tips For Creating A Gorgeous Floral Arrangement Using Only Grocery Store Flowers
Has anyone ever teased you or made you feel less than because you got the flowers for your home from a grocery store or tiny deli instead of a florist shop?
While supporting your local florist is great and buying the freshest, high-quality flowers in town feels amazing, it can add up. Not everyone has the privilege of doing it routinely.
Grocery store flowers should not be cast aside or underestimated. You can get gorgeous flowers for cheaper prices and still manage to create a memorable floral arrangement.
So, if you’re a fan of grocery store flowers and their prices, here’s how to elevate how you arrange them and make them look like you bought them from a professional.
Get yourself a flower frog
Don’t you hate when you buy a cute bouquet, follow the instructions for storing the flowers in a vase, do some stem trimming, then finally put them in a vase, and they all spread out instead of staying together in a cute bundle?
If you’re tired of that happening, get yourself a popular florist tool, a flower frog. They’re small tools with vertical needles or spikes you place at the bottom of a vase and help keep your flowers in place and upright. They’re a quick way to ensure your flowers stay put and look fabulous without frustration.
Reflex your roses
Many people turn their noses up at roses bought from more casual, cost-friendly establishments, as they sometimes don’t look as full or grand. However, they can, through a simple technique called reflexing, a method used to make roses look fuller and more dramatic.
Syda Productions – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
To reflex a rose, you start by very gently peeling back some of the outermost petals all around the rose until they’re turned inside out.
Once you have a sort of teacup and saucer shape with the center of your rose still intact, start taking some of the center’s outermost petals and gently fold them in half to resemble taco shapes.
While this may sound strange, if you research videos on reflexing a rose, you’ll see that the rose looks stunning, full, and bold after all this delicate folding of the petals. This method will help your cheaper roses look breathtaking.
Create a tape grid for arranging
Like the flower frog hack, this hack is also great for arranging flowers and keeping them upright in your vase. To keep everything where it should be, use clear tape and tape pieces across the mouth of your favorite vase to create a grid pattern before sticking your flowers inside.
The tape will not only give you a guide for where to place each flower but also make sure everyone stays put. Plus, since you’ll use clear tape, no one can see it.
Cut your stems under water
Most people know flowers do better in vases when you cut their stems at a 45-degree angle before arranging them. However, did you know you should cut the stems under running water?
When you cut flower stems out in the open, air bubbles can get trapped inside them, causing them to dry out faster. But when you cut them under warm (not hot) running water, they’re hydrated immediately.
For best results, after purchasing grocery flowers, cut one to two inches off the stems at a 45-degree angle under running water before placing them in a vase. This will help your flowers last longer and get maximum hydration.
There you have it: some simple and easy tips for making the most out of your grocery store, bodega, or roadside flowers. Don’t let anyone else make you feel less than for trying to enjoy the beauty of at-home floral arrangements while on a budget!
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