Foam Free Rustic Compote

Video Transcription

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The rustic compote, on trend with color, perfect for a wedding centerpiece, foam free and fabulous. Let's get started.

Most important, let's start with the roses. They're garden roses from gardenrosesdirect.com. Two of my favorites. The hot pink is called Darcy. Very long-lasting, opens a little bit slower. And then Symbol is mustardy, but look at the back, got a little touch of hot pink there as well, so they go together fabulously. The container, a compote done with floral netting taped into place.

Then I wanted to add some barked wrap. Isn't that lovely? The easiest way to do it is to use a single glue strip cut in half. Put that onto the bark, pull off the tab, then a four inch or six inch wood pick, down against. Then to make sure it stays and to hide your mechanics, a single salal leaf, just press down against and then it's ready to insert right into the arrangement. Flower food in the water, pre-mixed, and we're ready to go.

Base foliage, I'm going to start with red huckleberry. The color coordinates so well with the roses and it's just super long-lasting and fabulous. It's so woody. You're better off to just snap it. Remove any of the lower leaves and then place it in. You can use taller pieces, shorter pieces, just feeding it in, letting it relax, getting nice coverage, and it starts to build a nest to add in with your flowers. Also, going to use a little bit of seeded eucalyptus. The leaves have all been removed, so I just get the berries and this will give me some nice draping to help break the line of the container. Just tucking it in and letting it flow.

Once you have the foliage nest, taking the bark wrap and I did a long piece, feeding it in. Bringing it around, letting it drape and wind it back in, securing it. Then add additional pieces to get the color to wind through.

Now the gorgeous roses. Symbol, making sure that it goes deeply in so that it hits the water reservoir well, and the Darcy, getting the hot pink. Then repeating that throughout the arrangement, following a central binding point, making sure everything weaves in nicely so it's nice and stable for delivery.

The coloration of these garden roses, Symbol and Darcy is fabulous, along with the cafe au lait dahlias, so I thought, wouldn't that be fun to go ahead and just add a few dahlias tucked in, and you can see how it picks up the color. It adds a little bit more contrast. Then I can add more roses, more dahlias. And lastly, a bit of fountain grass for some soft texture.

The recipe, I started with the roses from gardenrosesdirect.com, Symbol, six of them, and Darcy, six of them. Then I filled in with foliage’s and dahlias from Florabundance. I used red huckleberry, about a third of a bunch. Seeded eucalyptus, about a fourth of a bunch, and then the fountain grass, six stems, and the dahlias, three stems.

It's so nice to see color returning to weddings. We did blush for so long and now a lot of color is being embraced. Color and texture, two key-words in design today. You'll find more creative inspiration at the website, flowerschool.com. Once you're inspired, gather your garden roses, create an arrangement, maybe a compote, maybe something else. Take a picture, post it on social media, and be sure to hashtag Floral Design Institute. That way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.