How to make Instagram-worthy bouquets with flowers from your backyard
Scroll through Victoria-based gardener Tara Hurst's Instagram feed and you'll be inundated with dreamy images of flowers spilling out of milk jugs and farmers' market tote bags. This backyard farmer creates beautiful arrangements using blooms from her own garden, and here she provides us with tips and tricks to make four show-stopping, easy-to-replicate arrangements.
Bouquets from the backyard
1. Cut blooms
Cut blooms in the morning (when it’s cold) and immediatley place them in water.
2. Find a vase
Find a vase that showcases your chosen stems. Play around with different shapes and sizes. Tip: Criss-cross cellophane tape over the mouth of your vase to create a supportive framework for stems so they don’t droop over.
3. Choose your colour palette
Stick to a palatte of similar colours for a cohesive look. Tara’s front yard is filled with peonies, roses, lilacs, climbing hydrangeas, clematis and wisteria in shades of white, pink and purple.
4. Measure and cut
Measure the length of your blooms with the outside of the vase and cut on a 45-degree angle so flowers can easily absorb water.
5. Start arranging
Mix large, showy blooms cut at different heights with small, delicate flowers. Foliage should soften the arrangement and be draped around the bottom of the vase or float above. Asymmetry is key to achieving a wild, loose-looking arrangement. Stand back and look at you arragement from all angles, playing around with it until you get something you like. Tip: change the water everyday to preserve freshness and keep flowers out of sunlight for longer-lasting blooms.
Anything goes bouquet
This asymmetrical arrangement has a bit of everything – peonies, mythos roses, double tulips, rosemary, flowering skimmia and Estelle solidago.
Bouquet of herbs
Rosemary, sage and fennel join pink-speckled hellebores in this light and ethereal herb bouquet.
Big blooms bouquet
Romantic and robust white and pink peonies are set against full Romantic Antike Freelander roses in this lush arrangement.
Monochromatic bouquet
Chartreuse viburnum is paired with roses, parrot tulips and white ranunculus.
Related:
10 of the prettiest peony varieties to plant in your garden
10 perennials to plant for an infinitely beautiful garden
How to diagnose—and heal!—sad, sick plants
The very best of Chatelaine straight to your inbox.
Chatelaine celebrates, inspires, informs and empowers. We know that Canadian women contain multitudes, and we cover all of the issues—big and small—that matter to them, from climate change to caregiving, Canadian fashion and what to cook now.
Subscribe to Chatelaine!
Want to streamline your life? In our Spring 2025 issue, we’ll show you how—whether it’s paring down your wardrobe, decluttering your messiest spaces or spending way less time cooking thanks to an easy, mostly make-ahead meal plan for busy weeknights. Plus, our first annual Pantry Awards.