Arranging Flowers

Vases and containers are essential elements in the art of flower arranging. I discovered this very early on, when I created arrangements for my mother using cut flowers from my father’s garden. We had a rather sparse supply of containers and I encouraged my mother to invest in more variety, despite her tight—oftentimes nonexistent—budget for such luxuries. I do recall using Ball jars, drinking glasses, teapots, and pitchers, filling them with masses of colorful tulips, handfuls of lilies, or gatherings of muscari and lilies of the valley that grew in profusion in the Elm Place garden. I started my own collection of containers when I got married; I was given incredible silver compotes, vases, a tea set, and various crystal vases, many of which I still have and use for flowers. On my travels and at the myriad tag and garage sales I frequented, I added to my growing assortment.

There are no rules for building a vase collection, but I can suggest that you choose vessels of varying sizes. Different widths and heights and depths will enable you to arrange all sorts of flowering and leafy materials. I particularly love ginger-jar shapes—the narrow mouths and copious bodies hold tall or short flowers upright and provide space for plenty of water. Accordingly, I have collected many clear blown glass, pottery, and Paris porcelain ginger jars. Wide bowls of all shapes, sizes, and materials can be fitted with flower frogs or grids of tape so flowers can be arranged nicely in masses.

Because these vessels can take up lots of space, it is imperative to find sufficient storage allowing vases, containers, and bowls to be housed and retrieved easily. I am fortunate to have a real flower room in my house in Maine that includes a sink room, a vase closet, and a refrigerator room where cut flowers and arrangements can be kept cool until ready to display. In the garage in Katonah, I created a room that doubles as a second prep kitchen as well as a flower-arranging space. Nevertheless, I still bring most flowers to the kitchen, where I can trim and prep and arrange right on the sink in the servery.

In addition to vessels, there are many other supplies that Kevin and I use every time we arrange blooms. These supplies can be found at flower markets, in many crafts stores, and online—a complete description of essential arranging tools can be found on the following pages. I suggest also reading up on other florists’ techniques and instructions. You’ll soon be well versed in creating arrangements that are memorable and distinctly your own.

Just as planting a variety of flowers widens your possibilities for beautiful bouquets, having an assortment of vessels in a range of sizes, shapes, styles, and colors keeps things really interesting. This collection of containers in lustrous shades of soft gold and yellow includes, from left to right, a brass cauldron, a Venetian amber glass bottle vase, a twentieth-century Italian faience mantel urn, an Old Paris porcelain tureen, a Majolica pineapple sugar bowl, a gold vermeil etched vase, a High French classical urn, a flip glass, and a Chinese ginger jar.

In the greenhouse at Katonah, hydrangeas, phlox, coneflowers, apple branches, and yarrow soak in collecting pails full of water, while Kevin prepares an arrangement that also includes white hydrangea and the more unusual addition of rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus). With its beautiful vase-shaped blooms and contrasting centers, rose of Sharon is a member not of the rose family but the Malvaceae (mallow) family. The flowers are fairly short-lived when branches are cut, however, so an arrangement that includes them is fairly ephemeral.