1. Local Florist — "How to Make a Simple Bouquet at Home"
You don't need to be a professional florist to put together a beautiful bouquet — you just need a few tricks that make ordinary flowers look intentional.
Start with odd numbers. Bouquets built on three, five, or seven stems of a single flower look fuller and more natural than even numbers, which the eye tends to read as too neat.
Pick one hero, one filler, one green. A simple formula: one flower that draws the eye (a peony, a dahlia, a big rose), one smaller flower to fill gaps (waxflower, baby's breath, thistle), and one leafy stem for texture (eucalyptus, fern, pittosporum). Three types is plenty — more than that starts to look busy rather than abundant.
Build it in your hand, not on the table. Hold your first stem upright, then add each new stem at a slight angle, turning the bunch a quarter-turn each time. This spiral technique is what gives shop-bought bouquets their rounded shape, and it works just as well with supermarket flowers as it does with the ones you buy from us.
Cut the stems last, all at once. Once your shape feels right, trim all the stems to the same length at an angle — this keeps water uptake even and stops the bouquet leaning to one side in the vase.
Finish with something unexpected. A single stem of something textural — a twist of willow, a sprig of rosemary, a feather — placed slightly higher than the rest gives the whole thing a "gathered from the garden" feel rather than a "bought from a shop" one.
Pop in and pick up a bundle of seasonal stems if you'd like to try this yourself — we're always happy to talk you through what's freshest this week.