Tips for making a bouquet that needs to travel

     I made several bouquets that needed to travel to the event.  There are little tips for putting them together and how to transport them. 
     The available funds for the flowers was almost nil, so I asked a few people for flowers and cut my own greens from my property. 

    1.  The first thing to do is cut your own greens.  Living in the Pacific Northwest, I have lots of wild greens in my yard.  Even in the winter, the evergreens are abundant.  Cut long pieces, you can trim them later.  Fill a large tub with water and set them in the water....

     Notice that I also put in the wet foam.  This is done the day before assembly.

2.  The day before assembly, I picked the flowers.  Put them in water in buckets with flower preservative (packets you get with store bought flowers).  My mother used to put aspirin in the water with flowers.  I've heard of people putting 7-UP in the water too.

3.  On the day of assembly, collect your vases....

4.  I added rocks from my driveway, after swishing them in a bucket of water, to the bottom of the vases.

5.  You could insert a leaf along the side of the rocks...

 

6.  Add some water to the rocks.  Take out the foam that was soaking in the greens bucket.

 

7.  Using one of the vases upside down, press into the foam to make a nice circle the size of the vases.  Insert this into the vases on top of the rocks...

8.  Add the greens, pushing the stems into the foam.  This will help keep the bouquet's greenery and flowers from moving around...

9.  Criss cross the greens that are "flat".  These greens do not stand up straight, but are on the sides of the bouquet.  This will provide a framework to support the flowers.

10.  Place other greens in the foam. 

11.  Now add the flowers, keeping in mind that the bouquet will be seen on all sides.  I had few flowers, so I had a lot of greens to make the bouquet look full.

12.  The bouquet is pretty, but I needed a "highlighted" item.  I picked one sunflower to put in each bouquet...

13.  I also added some more flowers.  Look around your yard and along side the streets.  I found Queen Anne's Lace to add to fill in any gaps.

14.  Now, we don't want to see the foam through the glass of the vases, so we cover the vases with burlap ribbon and floral ribbon bows.  I do this last because some ribbon may bleed or stain when wet.  I taped the burlap ribbon in the back with packing tape to keep in place...

15.  To transport them - Take a large foam take out box...

16.  Close and cut an "X" on the top.  The vase will fit snugly in the "X".  Place the containers in the flat box (es).  Just in case, take an old bath towel and wind it like a snake around the vases.  Drive carefully.