How we build a bouquet

A bouquet looks accidental when it is good. That is the whole point – and it is also the part that takes the most work. Here is what we are actually thinking about while we tie.

We start with one flower, not with an idea

When we open in the morning, the first thing we do is look at what arrived. That sets the day. We find a focal flower – the one the eye should land on first – and build everything else around it. Doing it the other way round, deciding the composition first and then hunting for flowers to fit, almost always produces something stiffer.

Colour: a narrow palette reads as expensive

This is probably the simplest rule we follow. Three shades of the same colour family look more considered than seven colours each pulling in its own direction. When we want contrast, we use it in one place rather than throughout – a single dark flower in a pale bouquet draws the eye, where ten dark ones just become noise.

We also watch temperature. Warm pink and cool pink are not the same colour, and they fight when placed side by side.

Form: three kinds of flower in every bouquet

• Focal flowers. Large, clear heads. Dahlias, roses, peonies. They carry the bouquet.

• Filler flowers. Smaller, more scattered. They tie the focal flowers together so no gaps appear.

• Structure and line. Grasses, branches, seed heads, foliage. They give direction and movement, and they are the reason a bouquet does not look like a ball.

If one of the three is missing, most people can see it without knowing why.

Texture is what people feel without noticing

Glossy petals beside matte foliage. Something firm beside something soft. If everything in a bouquet shares the same surface, it falls flat in photographs no matter how beautiful the colours are. When a bouquet feels bought rather than tied, it is usually texture that is missing, not colour.

Air and asymmetry

We do not tie tightly unless the style calls for it. The air between the flowers matters as much as the flowers – it lets each one be seen. And we avoid symmetry deliberately: stems should sit at different heights, and one side should be a little taller than the other. Perfect balance looks factory-made.

Proportion: a bouquet has to suit something

A bouquet never exists on its own. It will stand on a table, be held in a hand, or be seen from a sofa. One for a dining table has to be low enough to see over, and a gift has to survive the bus home.

Why no two bouquets are quite alike

Because the first step is looking at what is freshest that day. It is not a lack of consistency. It is the method.

Read next

• See the result: all bouquets

• Before the tying: what we look for when we buy flowers

• Why they vary: why seasonal flowers never look the same