It’s been 2 months since I’ve had fresh flowers in my home and I feel like I’m dying. That might be dramatic, but I’m sticking with what I said. There is something magical about colorful, fresh flowers in your home. They add nature to your home, like what life was like a long long time ago. They add color to your home. Whether that’s in the dead of winter where everything is dark and cold or in the Summer where you can use every reminder of life and growth. And if you pick the right ones, they add fresh scents to your home.
To me, having fresh flowers in the home (along with potted plants, but that’s a story for another time) is the way to add some life back to you. They may not last forever but the few precious weeks you do have them are weeks that simply feel better. Turns out that science is even proving that fresh flowers simply make you happier.
If you’re anything like me, you’re on a budget. Flowers can get expensive fast and therefore don’t always make it onto your shopping list. That’s why I stick with grocery store flowers. A variety of beautiful flowers on a budget I can work with. To get even more specific, I shop at Trader Joes. They have the best selection for the best price. I usually aim for $5-10 for a week’s worth of slower but spent closer to $20 for this bouquet because I really needed something special.
Whether you decide to just get one type of flower and enjoy their colors or go big and combine multiple flowers, you won’t regret adding some color and life to your home.
Creating A Grocery Store Bouquet
First things first. You need to choose your grocery store flowers. There’s a variety of options, there are even pre-made bouquets if you want to save time and just go for one of those.
I look for flowers I love. This week I chose peonies my absolute favorite and spirit flower along with hydrangeas. I like to choose two flowers that differ in size and colors to mix things up. If you wanted to add a third some baby’s breath for a little white would have been a great addition to this palette of blue and pink. The third thing you need is filler. Usually, some sort of leaf whether stiff like regular Eucalyptus or flowy like this Silver Dollar Eucalyptus. A filler will add height or fill holes while adding another texture to your bouquet.
Next, you’ll need to trim the stems.
Cut the bottom of your stems under cool water at an angle. You’ll want to measure against your vase before making the final cut to make sure it’s the right size. Just as with different sizes of flowers, you want different heights too. The bigger flowers I usually make shorter to ground the bouquet while the smaller flowers have a little more height to stand out. The filler is then cut at varying sizes to fill the holes. In this bouquet, I used it to flair out the sides to feel like a wild bouquet.
With as many flowers as I bought, I decided to make them go further by creating a small arrangement to have on my desk as well as the large one for our dining room table.
The water in your vase should be cool or room temperature and if the flowers come with powered food, be sure to put that in before the flowers. If you want to make your arrangement last longer, cut the bottom of the flowers 1/2 – 1 inche every couple days.
