It’s time for Friday flowers again and this week I have a question for you…Have you ever considered mixing fresh and faux flowers in an arrangement?  If your answer is “no” we have something in common. I hadn’t either, until about a year ago, when I started to notice that some of the faux flowers that were available were actually quite beautiful and realistic.  I bought a few and they sat in my garage for awhile until one day, when I was working on an arrangement and needed to include another variety of flower. I reached for my faux flowers and tried adding them in and was so excited about how well they worked!  

So today, I’m sharing the step by step details of how to make this spring arrangement using FRESH and FAUX flowers…can you tell the difference?

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

• A silver champagne bucket – Or any other container you love!
• Oasis Floral  Foam
• Floral Trimmers and Wire Cutters
• Flowers – Fresh & Faux

{THE FRESH FLOWERS}

I used fresh hydrangea, eucalyptus, stock and ranunculus for this arrangement and added in my favorite faux pink peonies.

{THE FAUX FLOWERS}

I used faux, light pink peonies in the same tone as the hydrangea for this arrangement. The beauty of these is you buy them once and use them again and again!  Below are a few options you could use.

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{THE CONTAINER}

I love vintage silver and have collected several pieces through the years.  This champagne bucket has become one of my all time favorite flower containers.  It has a seriously romantic feel and is perfect  for a nice sized arrangement without being too big.

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{STEP 1}

ADD THE FLORAL FOAM TO YOUR CONTAINER

To begin, soak your floral foam in water until it is fully saturated.  You will know it is ready when it is heavy and sinks to the bottom.  Cut with a knife and place inside the container until it is about 1/2 inch from the top.  You will probably have to stack up more than one piece to fill the container.  Make sure to keep the foam as tight as possible against the sides. 

Once the foam is in place, fill the bucket about 2/3  with water.

{STEP 2}

ADD YOUR GREENS

I used seeded eucalyptus for this arrangement and removed the “seeds” to keep the look a bit cleaner.   I started by inserting the stems into the floral foam, along the edge.  I was careful to insert them at an angle so they extend out beyond the edge of the container and created a full base for the flowers.  You may have to remove some of the lower leaves from your eucalyptus in order to make the stems long enough to be stable in the floral foam.

Once I inserted the greens around the entire edge, I filled in the center with a few stems to make a nice full base.

{STEP 3}

ADD YOUR FLOWERS

I began with the largest hydrangea stem and inserted it into the foam at an angle. It is important to add your first flowers along the edge to establish the shape.  Once you have those in place, you can fill in the center.

NOTE: I rarely keep the leaves on my flowers when I use them in an arrangement like this.  I simply take them all off and use only the blooms.

I used single faux  peony stems in this arrangement, but you could use any realistic looking faux flower you have.  I used wire cutters to trim the stem to a length that allowed me to insert it firmly into the foam.  It is important not to move your stems around once you put it in the foam, otherwise they will become loose and will not be secure.

I took all of the leaves off of the faux stems and cut them with wire cutters.  It was easy to bend the flowers to add the “droopy” effect that looks so pretty in a container like this.

I continued to add the hydrangea and peonies at different angles to create the shape I wanted.  In all I used five hydrangea and four peonies.

Once I had all the pretty pink blooms in place, I began to add some of the delicate white ranunculus and stock into the gaps. I trimmed all of the lower leaves off  so I had nice clean stem to insert. I put them into the foam at different angles, turning my arrangement as I went along to get the right shape.  I also made sure to let the pretty stock stick up past the hydrangea and peonies so the arrangement didn’t get too round.

My floral “workshop” is in an area next to the house that has a trellis of night blooming jasmine.  As I was working on this arrangement, I kept looking at the delicate white flowers and decided to grab a few stems to add into this arrangement.  You could easily use faux jasmine here or skip these altogether, but I couldn’t help adding in a sprinkle of these beauties.

I ended up using about eight ranunculus and three stems of stock in this arrangement plus four little stems of the jasmine. The subtle contrast of blush pink and white against the soft eucalyptus leaves is a perfect spring combination.

To finish off the look, I used some of the smaller buds of ranunculus and cut the stems a bit longer to let them flow out beyond the body of the arrangement to  give it a more natural and rustic feel.

This was a fairly simple arrangement to put together in about 30 minutes.

 I was super happy with how the faux peonies mixed in with the fresh flowers and unless you touched them, you would not have known they were not real.  The best part is, when the fresh flowers began to droop, I was able to throw them away and save my perfect peonies for another day!

So the moral of this story is…don’t be afraid to experiment with fresh and faux flowers in the same arrangement.  Be sure to buy high quality stems that are as realistic looking as possible and you will get dozens of uses out of them.  We all have our favorite flowers that do not bloom the entire year, so this is a great way use the blooms you love in any season.

I would love to hear from you if you try this arrangement or any of the others in the Friday Flowers series! Please leave a comment below with any questions or suggestions!

Just so you know: For your convenience, this post contains some affiliate shopping links.  I have linked identical products where I could and similar products if the original was no longer available. As always, if you have questions about any of the details shown, feel free to contact me!