After a year full of women dealing with a TON of bullshit and also uniting to stand up against it , this is definitely the year to really embrace Galentine’s Day (which, ICYMI, is the other half of Valentine’s Day, when you celebrate your love for your lady friends!) and we’re here to help. Joanna had the vision for a Galentine’s Day bouquet of sorts and together we dreamed up this whimsical, classic-with-a-modern-twist bouquet that we hope you can be inspired by and recreate for your lady loves this February.
Galentine’s Day Bouquet
Materials:
- pale pink carnations
- dusty miller
- leucadendron pods
- panda anemones
- floral sheers
- rubberband
- 2 ” linen ribbon
- skinny pale pink velvet ribbon
- kraft brown tissue paper
When we were discussing a color palette the first thing that came to my mind were these caramel, dusty pink carnations. Joanna, ever game, didn’t balk at my suggestion of using carnations, but totally jumped on it as a way to embrace a classic. As a floral designer, I’m not much of a fan of most of the bouquets you see next to the produce section at most grocery stores. They often feature carnations, along with a collection of other flowers that we’ve come to view as cheap and tacky. And I agree that they usually are! BUT, there are some carnation varieties that are anything but tacky and actually add so much to an arrangement or bouquet!
I found some gorgeous panda anemones to add that modern bouquet flare in with the carnations and to balance out the pink, chose some tried-and-true broad leaf dusty miller for our greenery and planned to pick up some silver brunia berries for a funky accent. I was super bummed when I couldn’t find them anywhere, but ended up happening upon these really cool leucadendron pods which looked so great with the collection of flowers I had.
Putting together a small bouquet like this, especially with just 3-4 flowers and greens, is pretty simple. Always start with prep — get each stem in the condition you want it to be for the bouquet because it’s much harder to remove leaves while you’re holding the bouquet in your hand. Once you’re ready to make your bouquet, use the pointer finger and thumb on your non-dominant hand to form a circle. This will be your bouquet holder. Make it tighter at the beginning as you are just adding flowers and expand it as the bouquet fills up. I usually begin with the flower I want in the center (in this case a carnation) and build out from there adding anemones and leucadendron. While I often mix greens throughout the bouquet, I saved most of the dusty miller to place around the edges of the bouquet which created a nice secure base, since this bouquet will most likely be placed in a vase. At this point cut all the stems to the same length, at an angle so they are able to drink water. Once the bouquet is finished, use a rubber band it hold it together. The trick to this is to loop the rubber band through one of the most sturdy stems, then wrap in around all the stems tightly, finally looping it around another sturdy stem to secure it. Here’s a helpful animation:
I love tying a pretty ribbon around the stems just to make it look extra pretty for gifting. We layered a natural linen ribbon with a thin dusty pink velvet one. Next, we wrapped a couple pieces of tissue paper around the bouquet to add some protection for transport and just secured it with a small piece of clear tape.
The great thing about these bouquets is that you can easily make several from a few bunches of flowers. You can make them smaller or larger and use our ingredients only as a guide — get creative and happy Galentine’s Day!
photography by Meghan Klein. DIY by The Stemmery for Jojotastic.
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