One of the greatest joys of summer is being able to bring my cut flowers indoors. It's a simple thing, but there's something wonderfully indulgent about filling a bowl with fragrant blooms gathered fresh from the garden. While roses are often associated with more formal bouquets, I much prefer arranging them in a looser, more natural way that celebrates their beauty without feeling overly styled.
For me, the best floral designs begin in the garden. I love creating an arrangement that feels gathered rather than constructed. And this particular style allows each rose bloom to shine while still capturing the relaxed abundance of midsummer.
In this episode of Petals & Roots, I'll show you how to create a low table arrangement using garden roses, along with a few simple design principles that professional florists use to achieve a soft, romantic look that's perfect for summer entertaining.
What You Need
- For this design I used 20 roses of different varieties, all cut from the garden
- Chickenwire, available in rolls from Walmart
- Floristry snips, such as these ones from Amazon are vital. Spending a bit more on a really good pair of sharp scissors or shears pays off as they will make cutting thick stems so much easier
- A low, wide vase. I've found this gorgeous ceramic long and low vase from McGee & Co , which has classic vintage appeal.
How To Create This Design
Garden roses behave quite differently to those straight, formal bunches you might be used to seeing in the grocery store. They are much more relaxed, the heads are more open, there are lots of buds on each stem, and of course they also have exceptional fragrance.
They might flop and move a lot more than the commercially-grown stems, which is why you need to make sure you have the right mechanics in place within your chosen vase or vessel before you get started.
For this design, I have filled my low vase with a pillow of chicken wire. This creates a structure within which I can design, so I don't have to worry about all the stems moving around whilst I'm creating.
If you have any shrub or climbing roses in your yard, these are ideal to begin your design with. They will have lots of movement and look lovely trailing down along either side of your vessel.
Place one or two stems at either end, varying the angles if you can, and leave some foliage on to make it look natural and garden gathered.
Then you can begin to add your larger rose blooms. I think the trick with this is to not overthink it. Leave all the buds on and some foliage if you like. If you have lots of large blooms you won't need many to create a full look.
Bear in mind you want to create some height and depth, so vary the stem length, and don't be afraid to make this as abundant as you like. You can keep any shorter stems and place them lower down.
If any of the petals on your roses look bruised or a bit weathered, you can carefully pull them off individually and the flower will instantly look revived.
This design is all about celebrating the beauty of nature, so have fun when you're making it and let the roses do all the work for you.
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Petals & Roots is a weekly video series fronted by me, Rachel Bull, Head of Gardens at Homes & Gardens. Every weekend on social, I share my seasonal gardening and flower arranging expertise and advice.
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