Easy Moody Spring Floral Arrangement

When I was asked to participate in a spring floral arranging blog hop, my initial thought was that I wasn’t able to do it, not because of schedules, but abilities.  My inner monologue went something like this, “You’ve never created a floral arrangement in your life.  What makes you think you can do this, and make it look good enough to be blog worthy?”  Are you familiar with similar voices of self doubt?  I’ve been working on quieting mine, or completely changing its narrative.  I replaced the words with this instead. “You’ve never created a floral arrangement in your life. You might end up being really good at it, and in the very least it will be a learning experience to try something new and push yourself our of your comfort zone.”  That simple change in my inner monologue convinced me that I had to give it a try.  I had nothing to lose, and so much to gain from trying something different and out of the box for me.  Today I am excited to share with you what I came up with, and you can find several others sharing their arrangements at the bottom of this post as well.  While I’ve never before created a real arrangement aside from the thousands of weed-filled sneeze-inducing bouquets I made for my mom when I was a kid, I love using seasonal and natural elements always.  I knew I wanted to create a budget-friendly bouquet that had some parts foraged from my own yard plus some parts foraged from the flower buckets at Trader Joe’s which always feature beautiful seasonal stems.

Selecting Elements of a Floral Arrangement

When it comes to floral arrangements, I tend to love simple arrangements that feature loads of one type of flower (all of my bridesmaids carried only hydrangeas), or various stems in similar color palettes.  As a child, I would gather every flower I could find under the sun to create the most colorful and eclectic bouquets, but as I’ve gotten older, my tastes have definitely changed.  Spring has just started to arrive here in Greensboro, and my daffodils are blooming outside my window, and the neighborhood is filled with early blooming trees.  However, it’s still so early that I wasn’t ready to go into a colorful spring mode, and knew that I wanted to select a pretty green and neutral palette, and I wanted to complement it clippings from my own yard… I’ve always been a forager!

Luckily for me, Trader Joe’s opened here last fall, and they always have the best selection of inexpensive branches.  Of course, they offer bouquets as well, but you can also purchase groupings of like stems for around $3-5.  I hot my Trader Joe’s just last week, and gathered my supplies.

First, I selected pussy willows.  As soon as I saw that they were available, I was sold!  I have always had a fondness for them, and recall playing in fields by a little stream with a friend and we would cut branches of pussy willows. It was the only place where I knew them to be near my home when I was a kid growing up in New England.  They’re soft, neutral, and add such great texture and whimsy… I had to have them! FYI, I bought two bunches of  these, but only used one.

Secondly, I selected thistle.  I actually didn’t see them at first- they were hidden in the buckets, and because they’re darker and not as colorful as other flowers, they didn’t stand out.  As soon as I saw them, I had to have them.  They scream deep, moody, and brooding… perfect for how I feel this time of year (as winter ends!).  They add a gorgeous subtle purple color that complements the gray of the pussy willow as well as other greens.

For my last Trader Joe’s pick, I selected a bunch of greenery that had similar thick waxy leaves to magnolia, but much smaller in scale.  To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what it is because the package was labeled as “various greens.”  I can tell you that when I cut the stems, they had a sort of pine-like aroma to them.

Finally, I cut a few branches of my magnolia leaves.  I wanted to use something from my own yard, and I love the dramatic size of these leaves compared to everything else in my bouquet.

As far as the budget goes, each of the Trader Joe’s bunches was $3, and my magnolia was free, so all in all, I spent $10.

Arranging Floral Elements

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, I have no experience with floral arranging, so I just followed my instincts.

As you can see, I gathered a couple of vases, but in the end opted for the shorter wider one since I planned to put this on my coffee table. I began by snipping the ends off the thistle and placing it in my vase, which had the prepared nutrient water.  I am such a simple girl that I loved it just like this.  However, that wouldn’t make a very exciting blog post, would it?

After adding the thistle and spreading it out in the vase a bit, I used the greens I bought, snipped them to be a little shorter than the thistle, and filled in the vase to give the arrangement some weight. I cut them shorter than the thistly because I wanted the thistle to be visible and prominent.  The job of the greens was truly just to act as a filler.

Next, I added a few short branches of magnolia leaves just around the outside of the vase to add some interest with its large scale, and fill around the mouth of the vase.

Finally, the last step was to add in the branches of pussy willow.  I wanted to keep these sparse and whimsical, sort of shooting out from the bulky green arrangement.  I only ended up using 7 branches.  For some reason, I had to stick with an odd number.

Once it was all finished, I brought it to my coffee table to shoot and enjoy for a bit until it was time for the toddler to come home from school… at which time I realized a vase filled with flowers and water that he could reach wasn’t a good idea, and relegated the arrangement to my dining room.

Let’s just pretend for a moment that it stayed here though, OK?

I truly wish it could stay here because I love how the greens of this bouquet play off of the plants in my living room.  We’re painting this space very soon by the way!  Actually, we may have already painted it by the time this post goes live, but you’ll have to wait to see it. I can’t wait to get some color on these walls.

All in all, I am happy with my first real attempt at floral arranging.

I love the various textures and size of the elements.

And I especially love the softness of the pussy willows juxtaposed with the harsh prickliness of the thistle.  They truly balance each other out so well.

Have you tried your hand at floral arranging?  If you have a Trader Joe’s or a fresh flower market near you, I highly recommend giving it a try!  Don’t let that inner voice tell you you can’t do it… You show it you can!

Now be sure to visit all of the other blogs sharing their centerpieces and arrangements today- I know you’ll be so inspired!

20 Beautiful Flower Arrangements

Click the links below each group of images to visit these inspiring ideas for spring!

Creative Flower Arrangement Ideas for Spring – Happy Happy Nester // How to Arrange Grocery Store Flowers – The DIY Mommy // Grocery Store Roses Spring Arrangement – Craftberry Bush // DIY Easy Tulip Arrangement – A Blue Nest 

Spring Floral Arrangements – My 100 Year Old Home // A Flower Arrangement in a Vintage Find – Finding Lovely // Farmhouse Flower Arrangement – My Sweet Savannah // Simple Spring Tulip Floral Arrangement – Zevy Joy

DIY Faux Eucalyptus Garland – Modern Glam // Elegant Tulip Eucalyptus Floral Arrangement – Inspiration for Moms // Easy DIY Flower Arrangement – She Gave It A Go // DIY Color Block Vase – Lolly Jane 

Easy Flower Styling Ideas – The Handmade Home // 8 Ways to Style a Big Vase with Faux Spring Florals – The Happy Housie // Spring Floral Table – Taryn Whiteaker // Moody Spring Floral Arrangement – Cassie Bustamante 

Easy Spring Flower Arrangement – Twelve on Main // 5 Tips to Make Faux Flowers Look Real – Hallstrom Home // Spring Flower Arrangement – Jennifer Maune // 3 Ways to Style a Faux Flower Arrangement – The Tattered Pew