Dressing Up for Spring

Still a bit of snow on the ground here but there are signs of spring and little shoots are beginning to pop up from the ground. It’s time to put away the heavy parka and move to lighter jackets and sweaters. It’s also time to bring out some special mechanics for the spring blooms.

Working with Sand

Sand is a good medium for spring flowers because it holds lots of water and supports delicate stems with just a couple of quick tricks. Use play sand instead of builder’s sand because it has fewer particles.

Fill your container with sand and add water until soaked through to the top. If water pools at the top, just add a bit more sand. When finished with your design throw the sand out in the back garden and wipe the vase well before rinsing.

A rectangular vase filled with sand holds spring flowers.

Plant your stems into sand like you are planting a garden with stems placed in a parallel fashion or in small groups.

To strengthen daffodil stems a bamboo skewer may be inserted into the stem.

Multiple stems of small flowers may be gathered together with wire or tape and attached to a wooden skewer.

Spring flowers with their bulbs and tender hyacinth stems may be staked with bamboo skewers before inserting into sand.

A low planter filled with sand holds hellebores, hyacinth, cherry blossom and tete-a-tetes. Part of the sand is covered with small onions waiting to sprout. All of these flowers are from our local Trader Joe’s.

For Easter, fill eggshells with sand along with your flowers. They are the perfect size for little tete-a-tetes or muscari.

Working with wire

Another good way to support spring flowers is to wrap 12g wire with florist tape and create a grid. This works particularly well with tulips with their droopy arching stems.

Loops of wire covered with tape make an excellent support.

Tulips, hyacinth and pussy willow are supported by the wire grip. Two little tubes are wired outside of the vase to hold short-stemmed jasmine vine. The tulips will grow in the vase so it will be fun to see where the flower heads are tomorrow.

Daffodils and hellebores are supported by a white and gold wire grid. The gold is made by covering the wire with thin gold paper and wrapping with golden wire.

With spring in the air I look forward to “dressing up” a bit. Enjoy your spring flowers and happy arranging.