Mixed Bouquets in Singapore

Mixed bouquets: how it looks on day five

Anyone can judge flowers on the day they arrive. The more useful question is what they look like halfway through, once the shortest-lived variety has finished and the rest are still going. Such an arrangement ages unevenly by definition. Whether that matters depends entirely on where the weakest items were placed.

A good build assumes something will be taken out.

Put the short-lived flowers at the edge or in a defined pocket and the bouquet can be edited without collapsing. Bury them in the centre and pulling them out leaves a hole nobody can close. Anemones, ranunculus and sweet peas are the usual candidates for early removal, with tulips not far behind. Chrysanthemums, carnations, alstroemeria and lisianthus outlast almost everything else in the same water. Roses and gerberas sit in between at roughly a week, provided the stems are cut and the water is changed.

The gap matters more than it sounds. One long-lived group beside one short-lived group looks tired days before most of it is actually finished. Matching the expected life of the components is the least visible decision in the whole arrangement and the one that decides how it is remembered.

The structure underneath

Four roles do the work: a dominant, a supporting flower, a filler and foliage. The dominant is whatever is seen first, usually the largest heads, and keeping their number odd stops the bouquet splitting into two halves. Support sits a size down and links the dominant to everything else. Filler puts air between the heads, and foliage draws the outline, which is also why it is stripped hard below the waterline, since a submerged leaf spoils the water within a day.

Colour follows the same discipline. Either one shade across half a tone of variation, or two neighbouring parts of the wheel, because three unrelated bright colours leave the eye nowhere to settle.

Flowers that trouble their neighbours

Narcissi leak a mucilage from the cut that blocks the stems standing next to them, and roses and tulips in the same vase go over sooner as a result. The usual practice is to stand narcissi on their own for a few hours, then add them without cutting again. Lily of the valley affects almost everything near it in much the same way. Tulips also keep growing after the bouquet is tied, gaining a couple of centimetres in the vase and shifting the geometry, so a florist seats them slightly below the intended line. Ripe fruit in the same room is the other quiet problem, since the ethylene it gives off ages every stem at once.

Lily pollen comes off before delivery, not after it has stained a sleeve.

What to look at when it arrives

Check the waterline first, because leaves left below it are the commonest shortcut of all. Then look at the heads from the side rather than the front, where uneven heights and a sagging outline show straight away. Bruised outer petals on roses are normal and get peeled off; brown edges further in are not.

Care is mostly water and position. Cut the stems on a slant, change the water daily or every other day, and wash the vase instead of topping it up. Keep the flowers away from a radiator, direct sun and the fruit bowl. None of that is optional in mixed bouquets, where one struggling stem spoils the water for everything else in the vase.

Rebuilding is a stage rather than the end. When half the flowers are done, the survivors make a smaller arrangement that will stand for several more days.

One question decides how adventurous the composition can be. If the recipient in Singapore will see the flowers within an hour or two, short-lived varieties are worth including for their colour and scent. If they will wait at a reception desk until the evening, longevity beats variety, and any florist will say the same.