How To Make a Dutch-Inspired Floral Arrangement

Wednesday, November 14, 2012



Rachel Ruysch, Floral Still Life, 1700



A lot of floral designers are going Dutch lately, finding inspiration in Flemish floral still lifes. I love the wild and romantic mood, the flowers spilling out of their containers, the inclusion of fruit and branches and leaves. My usual M.O. with floral arrangements is to buy a bunch of tulips at Trader Joes or scavenge whatever I can find in the yard and stick everything in a vase. Making a Dutch still life-inspired floral arrangement does require more thought and work, but I was surprised by how easy it really was.

Below is my step by step guide. Since flower arranging was an entirely new process to me I watched this YouTube video first which helped get me started with some of the fundamentals...


A goblet or urn shaped vessel works well for cascading designs.

Here are the flowers I bought from the market along with some honeybush greens, camelias, and rosehips I collected from my yard. Total cost $23.

Floral foam I bought from The Dollar Tree. Soak until it floats.

I organized my flowers by type. The YouTube video advises odd numbers of everything which is probably a good idea but I ignored that without any disastrous results.

Start to build your arrangements in layers. I began with a base of eucalyptus branches.

I added all the flowers by type, sticking them into the foam randomly before moving on to the next flower. Here we have grapes, kale, and protea.
 
Camelias and honeybush folliage have been added. It's beginning to look like something!


Keep layering and keep turning the vase to avoid gaps until, voila! 



Things I learned:

  1. You will likely need more materials (flowers, fruit, foliage, cacti) than you ever imagined.  
  2. You will still save a lot of money by making your own bouquet and it only took me one side of Van Morisson's Astral Weeks to complete the whole project AND clean up.
  3. The produce isle is a great place to gather materials. You can add things like artichokes, clementines, and lady apples by piercing them with a wooden skewer. 
  4. Your yard (or neighbor's yard!) is also a great place to gather materials. I loved the cool glaucous mint leaves of the honeybush growing outside my entryway in this arrangement--something I would be unlikely to find at my local florist.
  5. Embrace birth and death. The Dutch often incorporated memento mori into their arrangements and the flowers are often fully open, past their prime by modern standards, but looking all the more natural and luscious for it. 

18 comments:

  1. Where to start! First of all I love the silver container you used, perfection. Secondly the bit of cactus in 'The Still Life with Devil's Trumpet' has my mind going with all sorts of possibilities! And last, you managed to make kale look attractive. Beautiful!

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    1. That cactus in the still life made my head explode too!

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  2. Thanks for this reminder about being more creative with flowers, fruit, etc. I tend to do what you usually do - bunch of something pretty from the store shoved into a vase with whatever greens I can find in the yard. Your arrangement is beautiful.

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    1. You still can't beat a simple bunch of lilacs in my opinion but it was fun to get all fancy for a change.

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  3. Love it...I adore that sort of embracing of things that are a bit "gone-over".

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    1. Totally! Don't tulips and roses always look their best when they are on their way out?

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  4. so lovely! i am definitely going to give this a go next week for thanksgiving!

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  5. Such a talent.....i love it!
    I tried this one year for a Thanksgiving arrangement
    and after i created it, took it with me to a Thanksgiving dinner
    and presented it as a hostess gift for the friend hosting the
    dinner. It was a hit!

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    1. I'll BET it was a hit! And I'll bet you were invited back soon and often.

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  6. I love these Flemish still lifes and am known to stand and stare at them in museums, identifying all of the flowers in them. Such a nerd. This is a great tutorial. I have all of these supplies, but am often too lazy to take the time to put them all together. You've inspired me!

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    1. Ooh, maybe you should do a post deconstructing some paintings with plant ID on all the flowers and plants. I'd LOVE to read that!

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  7. Congratulations on judges pick for Gardening at Country Living Magazine! I am a big silver fan too. I see lots of edibles in glorious bouquets now. So hot!!

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  8. Thanks so much--it's such an honor I still can't quite believe it. LOVE Country Living. Thanks for stopping by!

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  9. This was fun...and inspirational too.

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  10. The Dutch inspired flower arrangement is classy and beautiful. I love how rich the vase is with different flowers yet it doesn't look odd at all. The colors of the flowers seem to blend, forming a lovely bouquet.

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  11. I love this arrangement! Looks like old spanish ''bodegones''! You've used a great selection of flowers!

    http://www.floraqueen.com

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