Tips to having a perfect flower bouquet

1. Think of cut flowers like ice cream. Don't buy them unless you're rushing right home. The sooner they are in water the better!

2. Buy from a local florist rather than a grocery store because the quality is much better due to the fact that they take extra care in each flower and are experts on them and they tend to last much much longer!

3. Start with foliage with all different textures i.e: 3 Baker fern, 1 Tree fern, and a bunch of Eucalyptus (to add a draping look)

4. pick your flowers in odd numbers like 3 Peonies, 5 Daisies, 1 Bells of Ireland, 3 Lupine,

3 Stock, 3 Curly Willow and so on so forth! Pick colors that compliment each other and think to brighten up your room you don't want it to blend in but stand out and add brightness and fun to your day! For example I love pairing Orange with hot pink, yellow purple, a little blue and white and lime green together!

Also pick flowers that differ in shape and texture like above the peony is the only large round shaped flower because if you have too much of that it will take away dimension and fullness and just make it look like a boring ball!

5. Make sure you have flower food and follow the instructions on the back too much or too little can hurt the flowers!

6.Use clean vases and tools. Mold speeds up the decaying process in flowers. (Make sure everything is well rinsed, too, since soap changes the pH of the water.)

7. Remove leaves that will be below the waterline. They promote bacteria growth that hinders circulation.

8. Don't bother cutting stems underwater. Just have your vase ready. The difference in life span is inconsequential. But, make sure everything gets a fresh cut right before putting them in their vase!

9. When cutting them make things different heights so it adds more depth and texture.

10. Consider where you will want to put it-as a centerpiece because then you would want an all around look, but if it will go up against a wall then consider 1 or 2 sided!

11. clean the vase out and give flowers a fresh cut when the water begins to look cloudy-this helps with the longevity of the flowers!

12. Enjoy them and when they are done blooming stop in and buy yourself more because you deserve to treat yourself! Switch it up, try new flowers every other week instead of getting the same thing because it's fun to see how long things last and how they open up and bloom!