Recently, I started up another blog called Inside the Flower Studio, where I post about floral design. I’ve been back in the cut flower business for just a short while (it’s where I got my start many years ago, putting myself through college), but I already feel constant inspiration to write on the topic.

A customer came to the shop today to order some flowers for a party at her
house next week, and while she was in, she mentioned how much she loved the rose arrangements we did for her parent’s anniversary party four years back. It struck me how incredibly memorable flowers are when they’re done right..and I suppose they’re just as memorable when they’re done wrong.

I hear a lot about how wonderful our roses are–how they last, how they open,
how big their blooms are, how they make people smile–and it is so encouraging to
know that the effort we put intofinding the best roses around has such an
impact. Those roses make their way from our shop out into the world, and they do
everything they’re supposed to.

It is important for our signature designs to be just as unforgettable as the quality of our flowers.

Good design is not always easy to find. The arrangements at the grocery store are usually haphazard, and not every flower shop takes design seriously like we do. In my opinion, if an arrangement does have that je ne sais quoi, it is better to buy loose flowers and lovingly arrange them in a vase you already have at home.

At Bay Hill Florist, we make sure our arrangements do have “a certain something.” In December, we introduced our custom In the Garden arrangements, which truly feel like they were put together from garden-grown blooms. Instead of following those strict rules of floral design where there should be an odd number of each flower, and the placement should be even, I ignore everything but the flowers themselves.

I make a bouquet of several kinds of greens first as a base. I look in the cooler at what’s fresh and a pick a few of this and a few of that, and sometimes one special bloom that captures my heart. I tuck them in at all different heights and make sure there is plenty of color and texture, and when I stand back and look at the design, I make sure there aren’t any off moments that were harder to notice close-up. Usually at this point I add more dimension to the arrangement in the form of an additional color or different size flower than what’s already there.  Finally, I add wispy greens that flow out from the bottom of the vase.

What’s awesome about these designs is that each one is unique, and you know that you are buying one that was made just for your order. There’s no prescription–just a natural creative process that shows off flowers at their best.