What's the best way to arrange a bouquet of flowers that includes bleeding hearts?
I love bleeding hearts, but they look so goofy in a vase. They sprawl out in every direction like tentacles, but I know there must be a nice neat way to arrange them. Do they need to be propped up? What about other flowers in the vase that would help tame them? They grow enthusiastically in my backyard, so is there a way to train them to grow straight for next year's arrangements?
Answers ( 1 )
Personally, I would use Bleeding Hearts sparingly as a foil, rather than a focus.
Because Bleeding Heart arches so nicely, they should be placed to draw the eye around the whole of the arrangement. Use an odd-number of fronds, and slide their stems in and around the center of a squatter bouquest- say, of mums or roses- so they arch delicately up and over around the outer aspect of the other flowers.
I have also seen them placed with a few other arching-stemmed flowers, such as lilac or even the more static forsythia. They would like also do well with other cut greenery, such a fern fronds.
If you have your heart set on displaying them with no other flowers, then form your bouquet in layers with shorter stems in front, and longer stems arching over from behind, and then hold the stems together with florist's wire and tape, then slide into your vase. If you use a narrow-necked vase, you should not have to fasten the stems together much at all: the vase neck should do that for you.
Examples (courtesy of Google images)