It’s time again, for more FMB decorating tips for a refreshed floral arrangement. Of course, I’m a little embarrassed to show you the before photograph. When I picked up some silk cornflowers from that summer tent sale, I placed them into the vase and left them as is. I got a great price on them since there were originally marked $15.99 and marked down to $5 a stem; I purchased two.
As you can see, the new silk flowers are way too long for the vase. I am only now getting time to refresh the floral arrangement–busy summer.
Before photo: Normally, the new flowers would have tipped over the vase, but I use glass vase fillers which weighs the bottom down.
Steps to Refresh the Floral Arrangement
The first thing I did was to take out all the flowers in the arrangement. I, also have some red berries in this arrangement that I put in around last year’s holiday and never removed.
Separate the silk and plastic flowers from the berries. If you wet the red berries, they will bleed and start to lose their red color. If a stem is wrapped, do not place it in water. They will have to be dusted carefully with a cloth or fine brush.
I filled my clean kitchen sink with some soapy cold water. I then proceed to dunk each silk flower in the soapy water, quick rinse and then a flick of the wrist to get most of the water off. I even washed my new orange coneflowers, as I wasn’t sure how long they were in the store and probably were a little dusty.
In cleaning floral stones or pebbles, one has to be very careful that none of them go down the drain. They would stick up the garbage disposal if that happened. Either wash them outside or I used a colander. I, also, used soapy water and then a quick rinse. I dried them on an absorbent towel before adding them back to the vase.
I washed all my vase filler stones this way but be careful none of them go down the drain.
Trimming Floral Stems
Since the new orange coneflowers are way too long for the vase instead of bending them back, I decided to cut them down. You will notice on the more expensive silk floral stems, that they have cut lines.
Guesstimate how long you want the stem to be. It is better to cut longer rather than shorter. Because you can always recut a stem.
The floral stem had wire in it, so I used a pair of wire cutters to cut through it.
I used wire cutters and also bent the stem with a little bit back and forth motion to snap the wire.
Ending Notes on Refreshed Floral Arrangement
I really like the look of the refreshed floral arrangement. It is not only dust free, but the new coneflowers pick up the orange in the accent pillows on my couch. I hope you enjoyed my refreshed floral arrangement hacks.
Notice, I removed all the red berries. They are more for the Christmas holiday season.
Oh wait, let me see the white hydrangeas and coneflowers are summer flowers, right? OK, I might be behind the season again.
I’ll be dusting off those red berries and adding them to arrangement in a month or so.
And so, things go in My Farmhouse Magic Blog Kingdom better late than never.
Happy Home Decorating Everyone!