Greenery and filler have become such an important part to my creations and making them look more natural. I’ll admit though - it took me a little while to learn how to best use them in arrangements and even more time to learn how to make each and every piece count!
They usually come in bunches of stems. I find it easiest to use single stems while building my bouquets and other arrangements and here are some of my go-to moves to prepare them!
- Use your wire cutters to remove each individual stem from the bundle. I cut as close to the "handle" as possible.
- Remove the leaves/filler that are close to the base of the individually cut stem. You'll only need the top section (at most around 4" from the tippy top for a small bouquet), so pull off the pieces below that. Use scissors or wire cutters to remove the extra nubs from the stem. We will stem those extra leaves next!
- Some leaves have a little "cup" at the bottom which is how they held onto the original stem. You can glue the floral wire directly into that cup. See the lamb's ear (top right and found here in the shop) in the picture above as an example.
- Other leaves/filler have a hole at the base. For these, I like to insert my floral wire into the hole and loop it over. You can use needle-nose pliers to secure it into place or just give it a tight squeeze with your fingers. The laurel above (on the left and found here in the shop) is a good example of how to do this!
- Some fillers may have very short stems after you cut them from the handle. To lengthen them enough to place into bouquets, I will use floral tape or vinyl tape to attach a separate floral stem (as seen with the tiny white spring flowers in the lower right of the above picture and found on our site here).
While this is a relatively easy task, it can be tedious and take a bit of time. Throw on whatever show you're binging on these days and get going!
Let us know in the comments if you have any tips or if you have found a greenery/filler that needs a different technique!
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