Start with bud or stem vases, they are so easy to put together and always look sweet. We love the little apothecary style vases as you only need a few stems for each, and you can play around with the lengths. We like a natural ‘scooped up from the back yard’ look – a few different stem lengths in one vase. For dinners, we often group these vases en-masse to run the length of the table. Adding tapered candles in amongst them gives a gorgeous warm glow and another point of height difference which really brings everything together.

We also often use ‘kenzans’ (or ‘flower frogs’) that you can place into any bowl or dish, turning it into the perfect vessel for your designs. The stems of the flowers simply sit on the little spikes which hold them in place. This method creates beautiful, naturalistic shapes without looking over styled and it means you can play around with lots of different pieces of crockery that you already have at home.

Gorgeous leafy summer foliage always plays a really big role in our designs, especially in our bigger and more structural arrangements where we use the branches to create movement and shape. We often forage for branches with interesting shapes for the base of our arrangements. We love using big jars, vases, urns and jugs, filling them with foliage to create the shape and then adding the flowers in on top. It’s helpful to step back from the arrangement every now and again to gain perspective and look for any areas that are calling for a flower. It’s also important that your stem length matches the size of your vessel. Always start with the longest stem length possible when you’re cutting or buying your flowers as these will be cut to size as you arrange.

As florists, it’s quite usual for the flowers in our homes to be left over from our weddings and events. These are always displayed in our most special ‘pride and joy’ vases – ones that are too special to take into our studio.

As a business, one of our founding principles was to lessen the waste created by the floristry industry and one of the ways we came up with was to press all the flowers that came back from our weddings and events. We use these pressed flowers to create greetings cards and framed artwork, many of which hang in our homes.

These are our top tips:

Start Strong

It begins with conditioning. When you bring your flowers home, give the stems a trim at an angle (this helps them drink up water more easily) and get them into fresh water straight away. For woody stems, like roses or hydrangeas, try splitting the ends slightly to help them hydrate.

Avoid the heat as much as possible

Flowers don’t love being stuck in the sun for too long. Keep your arrangements away from direct sunlight, heaters, or anything that gets too warm. Also steer clear of fruit bowls (Fruit gives off ethylene gas, which can speed up wilting.)

Keep things fresh

Change the water every couple of days and give the stems a snip each time to allow them to drink up more water. Keep the vase clean and add a pinch of sugar or flower food in the water.

Mist

For delicate flowers and foliage, a quick mist can keep them looking crisp and hydrated. This is especially useful if your arrangement is outside for an event or a warm dinner party.

Flower & Press are a London based flower studio specialising in sustainable floristry for weddings and events. Follow them on Instagram @flowerandpress.