Tropical Hand-Tied Bouquet

Video Transcription

A linear hand-tie arrangement created with tropicals? Fabulous. Let me show you how it's done.

The materials? All my favorite tropicals, anthurium, parakeet heliconia, and beehive ginger. The beehive blooms out with little bumblebees, but they don't hold well. You're actually better to go ahead and remove those, so then you have just the beautiful hive. For foliage, I have some hala, variegated, and then also aspidistra. For the aspidistra, I'm going to manipulate, just splitting it, pulling it down, and then cutting the remainder part way, not all the way, so I've divided it. Then using a UGlu dash, rolling it and then adhering it down.

If you've taken class with us, you know the manipulation techniques. There are so many things you can do, but this is just an easy one to roll and hook, and then do one more dash rolling at the opposite direction so that it changes the look, securing it, and then you can take and tear it a little more if you want. That gives it a soft, flowing movement that's a little softer than the whole leaf.

I want to begin by securing my anthurium. I've got a little bit of curvature and I want to work with that and keep it, but when I go to do a hand tie, they could shift around, so I line them up looking at how their faces work and the stem, getting it just the way I want it. Then using bind wire, lash those two stems together, twist to secure, and then repeat that. You need to do it twice to keep it stable, just moving down the stem, lash it around, and twist. Then you're ready to start the bouquet.

With that in my hands, I can go back, add in the heliconia. Decide how tall I want it to be. Bring in the beehive. It's so big and heavy, keeping it down low. It'll be establishing the focal emphasis, repeating, and thinking about how the stems all fit together, keeping my angles, deciding if I want another heliconia or if I want to do just the one. I think I'll do two, tucking them in together, creating a nice vertical placement, which goes then with the angle of the anthurium. Then as I tie this together, I can go back and tuck in some foliage.

With things secured in my hand, I want to think back to adding a little more interest, more detail. The hala, tucking it in on the side, just lashing it into my fingers, maybe bringing in a little bit of fatsia to have a nice strong base. Tuck in one, tuck in another. Then using bind wire, lashing that all together tightly so it stays securely in place. Then once that is lashed, cutting it to fit the vessel.

Taking your hala and bending it, pulling it in, and then knotting it so that it stays secured. Just pulling it around on itself, so pliable and nice. Pulling it together, adjusting. Taking the second one and repeating. Same thing, bringing it up, tying it, knotting it into the arrangement. Then adjust your lines to get it to be perfect, and you can go back and add lily grass for a little more softness.

The recipe I worked in twos. Two parakeet heliconia, two anthurium, two beehive ginger and two hala. Two fatsia leaves, two aspidistra leaves, and then the lily grass for an airy, light, hand-tied bouquet. Tropical blooms can be so incredibly long lasting, and they bring a pop of sunshine to your day. You'll find more creative inspiration on the website, Flower School .com. If you have questions, you can reach us through there.

Now it's your turn. Find some fabulous tropical blooms. Create a linear hand-tie. Be sure to take a picture and post it on social media, hashtag Floral Design Institute. That way I can see, and we all can see what you do as you do something you love.