Question
I am doing a small wedding bouquet for my girlsfriend wedding. Could you please advise me on how to wire a gardenia and sweatpea. Thank you

Answer
I absolutely love helping people with bouquets!  Congratulations to your friend and kudos to you for helping!  With gardenias, I can't stress enough... IF YOU ROUGHLY HANDLE THEM THEY BRUISE AND LOOK AWFUL!  Gently, gently take the gardenia from it's box (they will come nestled in cardboard without a stem to speak of) Use a thin gauge wire and pierce the base high enough to provide support, but so high as to pierce a petal.  Use a good 12" of wire to make sure you have enough length to work with - 18" if you are making a "cascade style" bouquet.  Do this twice to crisscross an X of wire at the base (that's why I use thin wire, so I can use two length which provides more stability than one thicker strand). Twist the wires and then twirl paper floral tape tightly around it.  Make these all up, spritz the gardenias with cool water and put in the warmest spot in the fridge for an hour or so to let them recover before you start assembly the bouquet.  You're only going to get about 48 hours that these flowers look good, so plan accordingly!  As to the sweet peas, that's a lovely choice, and the bouquet is going to smell amazing!  I just reinforce their stems with thing wire, don't pierce them, just wrap with wire.  I have to say, too, that spingeri (asparagus) fern is a great choice to use with those flowers.  The airiness helps hide any mechanics and frames the blooms beautifully.  I would use, too, some lemon leaf or ginko to help segue between the lightness of the sweetpea and the waxiness of the gardenia.  Enjoy and send me a photo of the bouquet, I would LOVE to see it!