So you’re scrolling through Instagram, walking by a flower shop, or see a picture of a stunning floral arrangement in a magazine and wonder, why don’t my flowers ever look like that?
The secret is foliage (or filler).
If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Flowers naturally grow surrounded by leaves, so they’re going to look most natural and flawless with lots of greens in a vase too.
Some other advantages to using filler are that they:
- Can be found in almost any grocery store
- Are inexpensive
- Fill in the gaps and empty spaces
- Help hide grids of tape
- Add texture, motion, and structure
They pretty much do all the work for you, which is why everyone uses them.
I love foliage and leaves so much that I very often have arrangements of greens without the flowers. Give me big bunches of eucalyptus, fig leaves, or cuscus leaves and I’m happy.
Here are some tips for using filler in your next floral arrangement.
1. Decide on a look and color scheme:
Each type of filler has a different look. Some are light, dark, rustic, or delicate. Deciding on the look you want to achieve first will make it easier to decide what to buy.
2. Fill as you go:
Now for the fun part. Start by placing filler and flowers in your vase, trimming to your desired height as you go. Don’t over think it. You’re the artist, do what feels right. A general rule for height is that the height of your overall arrangement should be two-and-a-half times as tall as your vase. However, some stems can definitely be a drop shorter or taller than others (see next tip).
3. Balance. Not symmetry:
Instead of striving for a perfectly symmetrical arrangement, go for balance, which can be equally as beautiful (and so much easier to nail!). So if you have large dahlias on one side, balance the other side out with some filler.
4. Repurpose
My last tip is to use the filler and foliage post flowers. Most of the time foliage is still in perfect condition when the flowers need to be thrown away. Simply trim them down and put them in a small vase to add charm in a different place in your home.
As you can see from the tips above, you can have a casual approach to arranging flowers. The whole point of your filler is for it to do a lot of the work for you. If, however, you want a more structured step-by-step floral tutorial, we have plenty of those too!
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