How to Choose Flowers for Your Floral Arangement

Just about everyone loves the appearance of fresh flowers, or the smell of sweetly fragrant ones. Most people love to bring flowers into their homes to brighten them up, particularly if they don't have a garden to enjoy. If you're one of them, you're probably buying flowers from the supermarket or road side stall and putting them all together in an nice arrangement. But if it's your first time to pick fresh flowers, what are exactly are you going to do?  Here are some tips you might find helpful.

Pick a color sequence of no more than three colors. It's easy to get carried away while browsing a flower shop—but making something beautiful is easier when your flowers match each other. In the winter, we're fans of purple and orange; white, green and blue; or, in honor of a holiday like Valentine's Day, red, white, and pink.

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Get inspired. If you fall in love with one color or type of flower, carry it around the shop with you. Then, match up the potential accompaniments, seeing if their colors and shapes work well together.

If you're making multiple bouquets, pick a base flower. Look out for an inexpensive, filler flower in a neutral color—and then stretch it throughout all of your arrangements. This allows you to buy in bulk—and to have fun picking special items for each separate bouquet. You can use white limonium as a base flower; they're small, elegant, and allow the bigger, more colorful flowers to pop.

Be wary of the flowers on sale. They're on sale for a reason; the store is trying to move them quickly. If you're looking for your flowers to last up to a week, it's best to buy them full-price.

Big flowers stretch the farthest. If you're on a budget—or if you're nervous about making your own arrangement—go for a larger type of flower. They take up more space in a bouquet, so you can buy less of them—and they're easier to work with while building a bouquet.

Think about timing. Some flowers, like roses and tulips, benefit from a night in water. If you're building a bouquet for the same day, it's important to keep this in mind.

Prune. Just because you buy the flowers a certain way doesn't mean they're finished. Trim away all extra leaves, thorns, branches, and other distractions; you want the flowers themselves to shine.

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