Our Grace Girls meeting this week was learning about floral arrangements, how to create one, and when it would be useful.

This was a really great topic for us! In fact, I have felt like all of the classes we have attended lately have been aligning perfectly with our new venture to open our general store – Morozov Mini Market. Flower Presses, Soap Making, Arranging Flowers. The universe is sending very clear messages to me right now, preparing us for our new journey.

When we arrived, the room was set up with a large table in front for the flowers to be visibly arranged on so everyone could see what we were working with.

The first thing we did was soak our “oasis” foams in buckets while we went over our lesson. Our teacher tonight, Ms. Kathy, had grown up creating floral arrangements with her grandmother for their church & has taken 3 professional floral arrangement classes. During the lesson we discussed when people use flowers:

Weddings, funerals, welcome home celebrations, sick/in hospital, new baby, holidays, house warming/thanks for inviting me gift, birthdays, etc.

We also went over tips such as:

💐 Removing the lower flowers so they don’t rot.

💐  The little packets that come packaged in store-bought flower bouquets aren’t meant to be dumped at once, they are meant to be used throughout water changes as well to keep the flowers alive longer.

💐 Always trim the stems, when you get the flowers and when you change the water.

💐 You can check a flowers freshness by pinching the stem gently under the base of the flower. The more tough it is, the more fresh the flower.

💐 Don’t bend the stems

💐 Always use a lot of greenery to fill in the vase or arrangement. The more the better.

Once we finished our lesson, we collected our oasis from the buckets of water and received our flowers that we were to work with.

I love these little reusable “buckets” they come in. The buckets are re-useable, but the standard oasis foam is not, due to bacterial growth. The unused foam rounds should be stored in a dark & dry place so they don’t get damaged from sunlight or dampness. After some research I did find that oasis recently designed a more eco-friendly reuseable option, Terrabrick.

I had no idea that these were able to be used with real flowers. I only ever see then at stores like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby next to the fake flowers. I thought they were only for fake ones, but now that I know they are for real flowers too, it’s a total game changer for me! My options are endless!

We began grouping into small piles of greenery & different types of flowers.

Everyone was given greenery, yellow flowers, and purple flowers. There was light and dark purple to chose from, or you could do a little of both. There were a few different yellows to work with. There was a very small amount of white to work with also.

At the end of the night, each girl got to choose a special flower from the vase arrangement display to bring home. We already have ours set up in the propagation station hoping to get some roots growing and new flower varieties to add to our gardens next Spring for free.

Once we were ready, we began filling in our oasis with greenery. You need to remove about 2 inches of the lowest leaves to be able to stick the stem into the oasis. Make sure to have your compost bin ready!

You’ll want to stick them in all over the sides of the oasis, the outer ring of the top of the oasis, and put some aside for filling in the center. For those center pieces of greenery, try to find the pieces that stick out to you the most: maybe the size, the way the leaves are shaped, maybe they are more fun looking or bend in an interesting way. Just let the greenery work it’s magic.

For real, the more greenery, the more beautiful & full-looking it will be. Even if it looks like it’s going to be too much, it’s not.

After adding greenery, we filled in the center with our flowers.

🌿 Start by placing one flower directly in the center then the rest of the flowers surrounding the center flower, spread out as evenly as possible, working with one color at a time.

🌿 Add smaller flowers or accent pieces.

🌿 Then fill in the remaining spaces with the remaining greenery you set aside.

I love that each girls arrangement looked so different even though we all used the same flowers, with slight variations in color. It showed their creativity.

Athena did not follow directions on this lesson, but that’s kind of who she is in general. She lives outside the box and does not any want limitations in art. She has her own visions, and will see that they are carried out. She is a true artist & free-spirit.

Out of all the girls, Mia holds the most love and appreciation for flowers & nature. At home she loves putting together bouquets for her favorite people & loves pointing out beautiful flowers wherever we go. She loudly exclaims “this one is BEAUTIFUL!!!” anytime she finds out she adores. She’s already asked for her own flower press for all of the flowers she falls in love with.

I was really happy that the moms were also able to participate in creating floral arrangements. A lot of the activities so far have been for only the girls, or mom supervision required (learning knife skills or building/cooking over a fire). I had SO much fun! It was really exciting for me to get to make my own rather than help the girls build theirs. It also gave them much more creative freedom with focusing on my own arrangement instead of how theirs is turning out.

I absolutely adore how it looks & I am SO happy to learn how to perfect my bouquets & now, arrangements.

This was such a great class, I feel like we learned so much. Ms. Kathy did such a great & thoughful job putting this lesson together for us and it was truly a blessing. This is a skill that our family will definitely be using for the rest of our lives & I am so happy that we are learning these skills together as a family – that makes it even more special.

The arrangements look beautiful on our table & I love that they are created with love by us.

I was offered one of the ferns to take home to continue creating more arrangements with. Ms. Kathy said they were at the end of their cycle, but I plan to keep it inside through the winter, hopefully giving it a much longer life span and many more beautiful arrangements.

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov