- Upgrade Grocery Store Flowers
Your supermarket stocks fresh-cut flowers that cost a fraction of what the florist charges, but the bouquets lack grace and style. If you take apart those banal bunches of blooms, however, and remember a few quick lessons, you'll be able to transform themost common supermarket flowers into charming centerpieces.
Divide and conquer.This mixed bouquet -- carnations, chrysanthemums, Oriental lilies, roses, golden solidagos, and a few stems of greenery -- is typical of those sold in supermarkets. It's a confused mishmash of colors, textures, and sizes.
View the five stunning centerpieces Real Simple created from these flowers on the following slides.
Photographer: Ellen Silverman
- Upgrade Grocery Store Flowers
CONTRAST COLORS
Red roses and red carnations seem more vibrant when accented with a few sprigs of bright yellow solidago.
Lesson: Never mix more than two contrasting colors in the same vase.
Photographer: Ellen Silverman
- Upgrade Grocery Store Flowers
GO MONOCHROMATIC
All the bouquet's pink blooms -- alstroemeria, carnations, lilies, and daisies -- are pulled out, cut short, and rearranged in a cylindrical vase.
Lesson: Assorted flowers of different sizes and shapes can be mixed when they're all in the same color family, such as reds and pinks, yellows and oranges, or reds and purples.
Photographer: Ellen Silverman
- Upgrade Grocery Store Flowers
CONTRAST TEXTURES
Orange alstroemeria is paired with hypericum berries for a lush and bold autumnal bouquet. The marriage of smooth, round berries and spiky flowers proves that opposites attract.
Photographer: Ellen Silverman
- Upgrade Grocery Store Flowers
CONTRAST TEXTURES
Lesson: When pairing two dissimilar flowers, choose varieties with distinctly different textures and shapes.
Photographer: Ellen Silverman
- Upgrade Grocery Store Flowers
CUT AND EDIT
Red roses are always available, and more often than not they're sold with unnecessary greenery and baby's breath.
Photographer: Ellen Silverman
- Upgrade Grocery Store Flowers
CUT AND EDIT
For a dramatic arrangement, cut the stems short and place the roses in a simple frosted cylinder vase. Let the stems rest against one another to create a perfect mound of red.
Lesson: Don't be afraid to discard unwanted accents or chop down long stems.
Photographer: Ellen Silverman
- Upgrade Grocery Store Flowers
MAKE IT A MASS
Carnations are sold in almost every shade of the rainbow, and because they're inexpensive, you can buy two bunches for the cost of one of another flower.
Photographer: Ellen Silverman
- Upgrade Grocery Store Flowers
MAKE IT A MASS
Cut the stems short and stuff a vase, leaving no space between the blooms.
Lesson: Common flowers look more sophisticated in large quantities.
Photographer: Ellen Silverman
