Woven Garden Rose Hand-tie

Video Transcription 

Welcome to the Flower School .com video library. I'm Leanne Kesler, Director of the Floral Design Institute. And today I'm here to share with you an easy to make hand bouquet featuring garden roses and using the woven technique. 

The roses, two of my favorite varieties from GardenRosesDirect.com, Quicksand and Amnesia. Depending on the time of year, their color can vary. Quicksand can be pinker or beigier. Amnesia can be a little more lavender or even moving more to the muted complex hues. They have the gorgeous guard pedals on the back with that green tinge and they open so fabulously and hold for days. 

To prepare ahead of time, go through and remove your leaves, remove the thorns. Get everything ready so that all you have to do is start grabbing and put it in your hand. Foliage cut them down, prepare them as well, have them cleaned out. You're to be using salal and olive. Olive is so grand. It dries and looks about the same so you don't have to worry about it fading. It just stays this silvery, gray color. And then some Acacia foliage, also silvery gray to give some nice contrast. Move these vases out of the way, you don't need that. That'll give me more room to work. Then lastly, going to add in as a filler, these little, tiny baby carnations. It's a miniature carnation, but different, almost butterflyish, very delicate, not very many petals. It'll be a great filler contrast with my roses. So those have been prepped ahead. 

As I start the weave, I gather foliage in my hand, placing it so that it's fanning outward, just like it would grow in nature. And then start in with the foliage, weaving it from one side to the other so that I create a nest, which will then support all my flowers. Can bring some down through the center, some in through the side and everything's crossing through a central binding point, which is my hand. I just hold it with one finger, one thumb, loosely, fingers stand out, so that it's nice and loose and delicate. If you try to grip it too tight, your hand will hurt and it starts getting stiff like that. Just want it loose and relaxed. Just take your blooms and your greens, weaving from one side to the other, doing the foliage first so that you get a nice nest to support your flowers. 

With the nest finished, it's rounded, no leaves below my hand, just bare stems, everything radiating through the binding point. Now I can start adding in flowers and by weaving them in, they'll stay right where I want them to be. The nest supports them. Can place some up higher, some a little lower, grouping, bringing over to the opposite side. For balance, this can be good to do standing in front of a mirror because then you can see where you might have a hole, where you might need to add another bloom. 

As you work, you can continue to weave, tucking them through. Then at times you might want to even just bring it on the outside. So you can get a little bit lower. Doesn't have to go through the entire center as long as you can capture it in your hand. When it's time to add in the fillers, just break down any side shoots that are going to be in the way, save those for a small arrangement and then weave these through just as you did the roses. 

To finish, I add some larger leaves around the base creating a collar. Fatsia is wonderful. Tucking them in and turning it in my hand, adding a few more. Then once I have a full collar, using bind wire. Tie it off and then I can cut the stems to fit the base. 

If you weave your bouquet tightly and tie it off well, it can be free standing, all by itself. Just wanted to show you that. I'm going to go ahead and set it into a vase of water, so it will stay alive. The recipe started with roses from GardenRosesDirect.com. I used seven of the Quicksand and five of the Amnesia. Then I added in 10 of those tiny, delicate, miniature carnations. The base, the foliage, I started with; five stems of salal, three stems of olive, five stems of the acacia and then I tied it off with six fatsia leaves.

Garden roses are a wonderful choice for a hand tied bouquet. They're strong stems, easy to work with and so long lasting. You'll find more creative inspiration and care and handling instructions on our website at Flower School .com. If you have questions, you can reach us through there or call us at (503) 223-8089.

Now it's your turn. Find your favorite garden roses. Create a bouquet. Then be sure to take a photo. Post it on social media and hashtag floral design institute. So, we all can see what you do as you do something you love.