Valentine Floral Design - From EventWorks with LOVE ❤

We have seven days left to turn Valentine's Day into a personal success!
We asked our Floral Artist, Rebecca Fernandez Motus, to  share easy-to-do, romantic and very personal design ideas that will amaze every Valentine!
Instructions included!

Question: What materials and flowers can our readers use that are
1) easy to find and
2) not outrageously expensive and
3) on trend and fresh ideas?

Rebecca:
"Roses are extremely expensive as early as a few weeks before Valentine's Day.  The wholesale vendors at the flower market in downtown L.A. usually triple the pricing for the roses to all the flower shops/ florists, so, as you can imagine, the consumers buy them for four times the normal price if they get them from the flower market (which is usually a very inconvenient trip because of traffic, parking and just walking around the flower market itself) and more if they buy roses at a flower shop.

A very good substitute for roses are ranunculus. These are becoming a very popular choice of flowers, not only because of pricing, but because they look very similar to the roses when they are open. Because of the many varieties that have evolved with ranunculus, they are becoming the florists' favorite and the customers as well.  They come in all colors and sizes too… yes, the local ones are the small variety, the medium-to-large ones are from Holland and the giant, big-as-palm-of-your-hand ones are from Japan or Italy. They are a fraction of the price of a rose and they are easy to work with since they don't have thorns. An insider wholesaler trick: during the summer when the ranunculus is out of season,  cut a rose head in half and you get a ranunculus!!! That’s exactly how it looks.

Combine the ranunculus with lisianthus which is also commonly called paper roses, and you will have the perfect Valentine bouquet.

Other flowers that are a good rose substitutes would be hyacinths and sweet peas (my absolute favorite ). They have the sweet fragrance at the fraction of the price of a garden rose.

For vases and containers, be creative. There are mason jars that are cheap and available on Amazon or at your local store. But if you want to use what’s readily available at home, my first recommendation is your ceramic coffee mugs. They come in different sizes, colors and some have those witty quotes and prints. If she loves those big 3-wick scented candles in a glass container, then she must have a lot of the used ones, this can also be used as a vase.

                      

Question: can you share any tips on how to put them together into an easy, beautiful bouquet? Rebecca: 1) Get organized first. Line up about 3 to 5 different coffee mugs. 2) Clean up the stems of your ranunculus and lisianthus, stripping it off greenery by hand. 3) Put together the flowers like a bridal bouquet by alternating the ranunculus and the lisianthus stems and arrange the flower heads all at the same level. 4) When you have a handful that will fit the coffee mug, measure the length of the stems to the height of the coffee mug, and with sharp scissors cut the flower stems, drop in the coffee mug and repeat. This will make an impressive grouping of arrangements that looks like so much effort has been put into it, but it’s really a very easy and economical process for all the guys out there. This may also be done with mason jars, pitchers, or those decorative glass candle containers. A few bunches of hyacinth or sweet peas in a variety of colors can be cut and dropped in one of those used decorative glass candle holders and placed on her bedside table. What is your personal favorite in Valentine floral?

Rebecca: This is my favorite bouquet because it contains all my favorite flowers: white sweet peas (top on my list of favorites), double pink tulips and Sarah Bernhardt peonies. These are usually very expensive flowers and a bouquet like this easily costs about $500 retail.