Question
Dear Jessica,
  I'm interested in knowing your critieria on evaluating a good floral arrangement, and i'd greatly appreciate some information pertaining to
the basic principles and concepts of a design.

Thanks for your time,
S. Williams  

Answer
The main thing that you should look for in a floral arrangement is that it is visually appealing.  It should be symetrical and balanced.  There is a huge array of styles, so it really depends on what message you want to get across with the arrangement.

Just as importantly, the flowers should all be fresh.  No petals should be wilting or browning.  Look for minimal bruising and creases on the flowers.  Delicate flowers, like roses, nearly always have SOME minor damage from shipping, and this must be expected, but it should not be an obvious eye sore.  Generally, the tighter the buds, the fresher the flowers.  An arrangement with tight buds should last 7-10 days or longer if you water daily with a floral preservative.  You should keep the arrangment away from heat, if possible, as this shortens the flowers' life.

As far as the basic principals of design, again, your goal is to make the arrangement visibly appealing.  It does take some practice, but floral design is just a nack that some people have.  It will either come very easily, or it will not come at all.  A floral arrangement needs to be an expression of your feelings, just like any other work of art.

For instance, if you're seeking an intense or seductive arrangement, you'll use deep colors - blues, purples, reds, oranges, and yellows.  Though this seems an odd combination, they come together to create an amazing and powerful arrangement.

For a lighter touch, such as for weddings, an expression of appreciation, a new baby, or an elegant dinner, you would use lighter, more delicate flowers.  Pinks, lavendars, muted yellows, pale blues, and interesting greenery work nicely.

The shape and style of your arrangement will make a big difference, too.  There are high style arrangements and oriental-inspired arrangements.  These use very few flowers strategically placed to make a huge statement.

My personal favorite, pave, is made of clusters of certain colors and certain textures.  You would use, say, 5 red roses grouped together, all at the same height.  Then next to it, you would use another cluster of flowers, maybe a cluster of pink heather, all the same height.  This gives off a very rich and romantic feeling.

Here are the most basic mechanics of floral design.  You should fill your sink with water, place a brick of floral foam on top, and allow it to absorb the water in its own time.  Forcing the foam under water will result in dry pockets inside the brick, and that can kill the flowers.

To make sure the arrangement stays stable, use only solid blocks of floral foam.  Basing an arrangement on several pieces of foam only makes it probable that the arrangement will fall apart.  And, you should use one or two pieces of floral tape, anchored from one side of the container, across the foam, and anchored to the other side.

Then you'll need to cover your "mechanics" (floral foam, container liners, floral tape, etc.).  I have found the best way to do this is to use a piece of water-soaked sheet most.  Stretch it a bit so it's not so thick, and then cover the entire area.  The flowers can be inserted right through the moss.

Now on to the actual design.  You'll need a very sharp pair of floral scissors in order to prevent crushing the stems between the blades.  This will alter the flower's ability to drink and will shorten its life.  Some people actually prefer to use a sharp paring knife to cut stems.  All stems should be cut at an angle to ensure proper water absorption.

To determine the proper length of the stems, hold the flower in front of the arrangement and hold it to the height you want to reach.  Then cut the stem about 1" above the bottom of the container, and insert the flower.  It's better to cut too long than too short.  Flowers too short for the arrangement can't be used, but stems too long can be recut.  If you need to adjust the height, pull the flower out and cut again.  It normally will not cause a problem and you can reinsert the flower.  The one exception is flowers with nodes, like carnations.  The nodes on the stem will break apart your floral foam and drag out surrounding flowers if you try to remove them, so you have to be very sure that you have the stem at the right height and insert it at the right angle.

When possible, make sure the stems of the flowers go all the way to the bottom of the container.  This guarantees they are getting all the water they need.  Some flowers will have to be inserted at an angle to cover the bottom of the arrangement.  With these, be sure the stem goes at least 2" into the foam, being careful to make sure it doesn't poke through the other side.

You will start with some greenery to give your arrangement its basic size and shape.  Use them sparingly, though, as packing the arrangement with greens will make insterting flowers very difficult.

Next, you're on to your flowers.  In design, you should generally use an odd number of each type of flower.  With lilies and other "stalk" flowers that have more than one bloom on each stem, you can cat the stem into several individual flowers and use them throughout the arrangement.  Your goal is to find a focal point in the middle of the arrangement.  It's the job of all the other flowers to lead the eye back to that focal point.  There should be a focal point on every side of the arrangement that will be seen.  Usually, a large flower should be the focal point, such as a lily, rose, carnation, anthurium, protea, etc.  Place the focal flowers in the arrangement first.  Then you'll fill in the surrounding areas with smaller flowers and accent fillers, like daisies, baby's breath, caspia, textured greenery, like eucalyptus, asters, alstromeria, bouvardia, etc.  Remember, your goal is to place these fillers in such a way that the person viewing the arrangement will notice the focal flower first.  Fillers should lead the eye away from the focal flower, and then the fillers should draw the viewer's eye back to the focal flower.  Keep all borders of the arrangement symetrical.

It does take practice to get the feel of flowers.  You will break stems at first, have trouble getting flowers in at the desired angle...but don't get frustrated.  If you have the creativity and a picture in your mind of what you want to do, your hand-eye coordination can be trained.  It took me about 3 months to finally get the feel for certain flowers (daisy stems break easily, rose stem sometimes are not straight, so you have to compensate using the angle you insert the flower at, etc.).  It took me another year to conquer the more difficult styles.  But you'll figure out what works for you.  Keep an open mind, and be creative.  You'll need to invent things along the way that will help you achieve exactly what you want.  That's when you'll know you're a good floral designer!  It all comes from you.