Summer and flowers are meant to go together. If you are hosting a party or just want to add a little color to your dining room table, you don’t have to pay big bucks to have a florist arrange flowers for you. You can do this!!!! With some great foliage and flowers and the right tools, you can create a gorgeous arrangement.

I teamed up with my favorite local florist, Amanda of House of Flowers, to teach me some tips and tricks for creating a beautiful summer arrangement.  We used Fiskars Micro Tip Floral Snip and Floral Pruner to make easy work of cutting through thick woody stems and flowers.  Amanda said these cut like butter!

I could watch this little GIF all day. There is something so satisfying to watch this all come together in just seconds. 

We started with a big, wide mouthed vase.  The graphic black and white (from West Elm), was a nice contrast to the wild, unruly arrangement.  Amanda started with a base of leafy stems from a mulberry bush that she foraged from her yard.  These thicker, woodier branches act as an anchor to hold all the other stems in place. Then there is no need to use a floral frog or oasis. These first branches also create the basic shape of the arrangement.

Next she added in lots of greens and whites in varying textures and sizes, many of which grow in folks yards here in California. Green viburnum, pieris japonica, white astilbe (my favorite thing about this arrangement), star of Bethlehem, and hellebores where all used. This filled in the arrangement.

Then she added in the more expensive flowers like the anemones.

And finally, to give the arrangement that wow factor, pops of hot pink ranunculus and spots of black scabiosa were added as a finishing touch.

I can’t wait to play with flowers again soon.

This post is sponsored by Fiskars, thank you for supporting the companies that help make this blog possible.