Flower Arranging Ideas on a Budget

Fresh flowers are one of my favorite ways to decorate around the house! Whether it’s in the garden or in a vase there is nothing like the sight of colorful and cheerful flowers to make the day brighter. Personally, I love informal arrangements because they don’t feel stiff or unwelcoming. The flowers seem to say “hello” to you when walking in the room. However, living out here in the forest means many of those gorgeous, sun-loving blooms don’t grow in my garden. Consequently, there are many times when I need to buy flowers for bouquets when we entertain. This gets expensive, but a little creativity keeps costs down.

Our local store often sells simple bouquets of a single type of flower for a few dollars such as tulips. Tulips don’t want to grow in my forest garden, so I bought them for arrangements for our Easter gathering this year. They are very economical at $4 for a bundle of tulips, so I bought 6 bunches along with a couple of $10 bundles of hydrangeas. When I got home, I went out into the yard and trimmed fern leaves and other leafy foliage to fill out the arrangement. They were a gorgeous touch to the tables at our party, giving it a festive atmosphere. Some arrangements were larger, but for smaller tables I used small, inexpensive white pitchers and made little bouquets. The whole effect was lovely!

One of my favorite free hacks is using ferns to fill out an arrangement. Ferns are such a timeless and elegant filler and are worth growing a few in some shady spot in your yard to have on hand. There is also a lot of new growth on ferns during the Spring which coincides with the tulips blooming. This makes it is an ideal time to clip new fronds to pair with tulips or other Spring flowers that are available. Other ideal fillers include Oregon grape, and ivy, all of which have new growth right now.

When you clip ferns strip the bottom leaves by using 2 fingers and pushing down the stem against the base of the leaves. This will neatly strip the bottom leaves. Leaving them on will create unnecessary bulk and cloud the water in your vase.

And when it comes to vases think outside the box. Home Goods has a great clearance section where I often shop. Last week I spotted a large apothecary jar with a missing lid for $7. When I first saw it, I knew it would be a lovely vase, so it now sits in our dining room. Large candle jars would also work well as a vase for a bouquet.

In short…

• Check your local store for bargains on flowers or grow your own.
• Look around nature for bouquet fillers. There is a lot to use and it’s free. Ferns are a great choice.
• Be creative with your vases. Pitchers, apothecary jars, etc. make wonderful and inexpensive vases for your bouquet.
• Make sure to trim bulk from the bottom of your flower stems.
• Check out your local farmers’ market. They can be a great place to get lovely flowers for a lot less money.

A large arrangement doesn’t have to cost a lot. For $44 I got five flower arrangements for our Easter party!

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