A little over a year ago a new bar/flower shop (yes, a bar slash flowershop) opened in my neighborhood called Sycamore. Their flower selection is beautiful and definitely a step up from the typical roses, carnations and baby’s breath that most places sell. Sycamore tends to have much more unusual selections with exciting names like “Kangaroo Foot.” Anyway, after buying a few beautiful bouquets there (that I did not put together myself), I realized how little I know about flowers and putting together nice floral arrangements. I don’t know why, but I kind of suck at it. Which is too bad because flowers are a great way to spruce up a room. Luckily Allison Jonas, one of the owners of Sycamore, agreed to give me some much needed advice. Here are her answers to my general flower questions. Read through them and then check out my progress as I put this advice into action!

Sycamore Q&A

How did you come up with the idea to open a flower shop in a bar?
We wanted to create a warm, inviting space to walk into during the day that could turn into a cozy place to hang out in at night. And we realized there was a need for a unique flowershop in the neighborhood. We sell everything by the stem, so you can stop in and just pick up a few blooms – which a lot of the time is all you need to spruce up your place and get a little pick me up on the cheap.

What are some general rules of thumb for creating flower arrangements? Could you walk us through the process?
First, pick out a color palette, then once you’ve decided on the colors you like, try to pick between 3-5 different types of flowers for the arrangement. Any less than that can feel incomplete and sometimes more than that can get a little crazy (but sometimes crazy can be fun). Of the 3-5 different types, its good to pick one of each of the following categories: Full/Big/Round Blooms (Like Peonies, Roses, Anemones, Sunflowers) then add in floppy, leafy stems to fill it out (like eucalyptus, brunia, waxflowers, kangaroo paws) and finally its nice to add smaller blooms for interest (like ranunculus, gloriosa, or delphinium). You can also add in some different textures (blue thistle, dusty miller). And when in doubt, just go for all of the same kind. Its classic and you can’t go wrong that way.

This is a question specific to me, but I always seem to have trouble figuring out how much of the stems to cut off so an arrangement will look best in a vase. It always feels like hit or miss even when I try to be thorough. Do you have any tips for how to do this better (or is it just practice)?
I’d say always cut the stems longer and then try them out in your vase, then you can adjust where to cut next. It is also helpful to split the arrangement into thirds and slowly add in stems.

What are some of your favorite kinds of flowers? Are there any flower combinations that you especially love?
My favorites are peonies, ranunculus and anemones

What are some tricks to making flowers last longer?
Flowers are happiest if you trim the stems on an angle every day and change their water. Also you can add a little sugar to the water (Sprite works) and a drop of bleach to keep away bacteria.

If someone is interested in learning more, are there any resources you could suggest?
We have a great reference book called The Floral Artists Guide. It lists every flower, how long it lasts and how to use it in an arrangement. Super helpful.

And now, I try out my flower arranging skills

Ok! After taking Allison’s advice into consideration, I boldly went into Sycamore determined to put together my own bouquet. I started by picking a color palette. On this particular day I was immediately drawn to the purple hydrangeas, so from there I selected some blue  delphinium and some purplely pink button poms. These selections also fulfilled my quota of full blooms, taller stems and small blooms. I was well on my way!

Once I got home I faced the challenge of arranging these flowers in my vase. This was a little scary, but I just remembered to be conservative with my cutting and also to add a third of the arrangement at a time. And viola! Here’s the final product:

Not bad? Maybe its not Martha Stewart quality, but I’m still pretty proud of myself. This arrangement cost $20, but you don’t have to spend that much. As Allison mentioned, just a couple of stems in a small vase can work wonders in a room.

And also, for your increased flower knowledge, here are pictures of all the flower species mentioned in this post:

Peony

Ranunculus

Waxflower

Kangaroo Paw

Gloriosa

Eucalyptus

Dusty Miller

Delphinium

Brunia

Blue Thistle

Anemone

Poms