Behind the Book- Beautiful Lilac, Roses & Sweet Peas

When you have a big old brass punch bowl and an armful of beautiful blooms- you create some floral magic. This arrangement of lilac, roses and sweet peas is from my new book IN BLOOM and today I am sharing a little bit of the Behind the bouquet story.

Lilac, Roses & Sweet Peas & More

Such a pretty combination isn’t it? Sometimes when you are playing with flowers and arrangements – those mingles just come together perfectly without any planning. The week that I took these photos, I had a whole lot of pretty blooms from the flower market in the house. A bunch of Juliet garden roses, box of Lilacs and those delightful Japanese Sweet Peas. I also had a bunch of burgundy hellebores from the garden to use as well. I started out with the lilacs and the rest all kind of came together.

I placed a heavy vintage metal frog inside the punch bowl to help keep the lilacs standing tall and then got to work tucking them in.

The key here was to start with the sturdy blooms- so in this case, the lilac branches. This added a bit of structure and support for the arrangement to start. Then I filled in the sparse areas with those ruffly David Austin Juliet roses.

The tip for the roses is the cut them at various lengths. Especially when filling in a large arrangement like this one- you want some to fill in the inner layers of flowers and some to stand out a bit more with the other flowers.

Up next, the sweet peas and hellebores.

Sweet Peas and Burgundy Hellebores

Sweet peas are tall and lanky blooms so they do well in a somewhat ‘vining’ kind of fashion in an arrangement. I left these cut long so that they would pop out a bit further than the rest of the flowers.

To fill in under the blooming beauty, those burgundy hellebores were perfect for adding a rich color and flower ‘base’ that made the arrangement feel full underneath. I also tucked a few sprigs of hellebore in among the flowers to echo the color palette and flowers and voila- it was finished.

All in all- just 4 types of flowers, an antique punch bowl and a few minutes created a stunning arrangement that would be perfect for a moody table setting.

Or enjoying on a favorite antique chair.

Spoiler – I included a lot of flowers on chairs and stools and benches and you name it photos in my new book. There is something about the combination that just speaks to me. But really, you could set a simple chair in the house somewhere and place a floral arrangement on it and create a flower filled moment in your home just as easily as a chair out in a pile of leaves. It is all about creating a moment of whimsy wherever you would like to.

What do you think of this arrangement?

Get the Look

For more- you can preorder my new book In Bloom and also grab access to my Flower Magic Ebook for more inspiration before the book releases. I also found a few sweet containers if you would like to create an arrangement similar to this one. Just click on the photos below to shop.

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