The day after Valentine’s Day, I’m at the store searching what I can find on discount. Some of the stems on this second day are not healthy at all. Lilies with their petals falling off. Bouquets that somebody didn’t insert back fully into the buckets of water. Roses with the tips of the petals turning brown. Yea, some of those Valentine’s bouquets are not worth to buy even after the 50% off.
I never buy flowers on Valentine’s Day, and I expect my husband doesn’t either. I’ll buy store bought flowers every now and then from the store during the winter months. Something about the intense advertising to celebrate Valentine’s Day with flowers and chocolate does not appeal to me, even though I love flowers and chocolate. I don’t like it with prices jacked up or the abundance of product being everywhere.
On February 15 though, prices are slashed and it turns into a hunt to find fresh flowers because what flower loving lady would turn down 10 stems for $5? For a cut flower farmer, to combat some winter time blues, and not the type from it snowing- just the type from not being in the garden, buying cut flowers to create a beautiful arrangement.
Tips on Buying Day After Valentine’s Flowers
When looking at the discounted bouquets, look for flowers that you like the colors of. Have multiple ideas in mind. I was looking for yellow and peach roses. I saw them there earlier, but didn’t have the heart to buy them then. They must have been sold because I couldn’t find any healthy bouquets of them. But, that’s okay. It gave me a start to then find a dozen pale yellow roses.
Double check to see if they are healthy. I searched through countless things of roses to find some healthy ones. Many of the other roses had a browning edge on their petals, and I knew those flowers would not last that long.
For this time of the year, I was wanting some lilies, but most of the lilies had lost their petals. Then, I found a bouquet with an orange lily with none of the flowers opened yet. Perfect. The blooms should open in a few days, adding to the longevity of the bouquet.
To add some freshness into a Valentine’s Day bouquet, buy some flowers from the regular floral section. Still double check for freshness, but some of these flowers may be a little bit more fresh than the clearance Valentine’s Day bouquets. I ended up buying some pale yellow carnations, looks like Marie Chabaud variety.
My Valentine’s Day Stems
My first clearance bouquet was originally $10, but was clearance to $5. It consisted of 12 pale yellow roses, all healthy with no browned edges.
To match the roses, my next clearance bouquet consisted of a pink rose, orange lily, which was not blooming yet, yellow chrysanthemums, purple statice, carnations and pink freesia. The pink rose gives a pop of color against the pale yellow roses. The orange lily will provide a bloom here soon and then disappear before the roses are done blooming. The yellow chrysanthemums provide a bright yellow hue to match the pale yellow roses. The purple statice complements the yellows in the bouquet and matches the vibrancy from the pink rose. The carnations included were white with a touch of gold and red along the edges. The pink freesia adds a touch of whimsical, contrasting the classical style of the roses.
My last bouquet I purchased was not on clearance, but it was a small amount of pale yellow carnations, just a little bit brighter than that of the yellow roses. Carnations will just add a touch of a beautiful scent to the bouquet as well. The store bought roses do not have the same level of scent as my garden roses. Carnations helped out with that in this Valentine’s Day bouquet.
Transforming Three Valentine’s Bouquets into One
The main purpose in buying these clearances stems was my creative itch to assemble a bouquet. To take me back to picking flowers in the garden, bringing them indoors to my dining room table (where I still haven’t changed the table cloth from the gardening season!!!), and create something beautiful to display in my home.
Start by taking the flowers out of the packaging. Lay them out on the work surface (the table) with the bottom of the stems facing towards you.
With the one bouquet, separate all the types of flowers. There should be piles with just one stem like a pink rose and other piles with a few stems, such as the yellow chrysanthemums.
Find the focal flower. For me, I chose the lily, followed by the pink rose to be in the center of the lily petals. The pink rose is the focal flower, but it is easier starting off with the lily, which accents the rose.
Adding the Supporting Flowers
Next we need some supporting flowers around the lily and pink rose. The chrysanthemums would have worked, as well as the freesia. I chose to go with three pale yellow roses. The roses, I do advise to strip off their leaves before assembly. Gosh, I was holding the bouquet with one hand while stripping the leaves with my other hand. Don’t do that. Just get prepped first.
When adding these flowers, the stems should all be faced at an angle, going the same direction. Place a flower, then turn the bouquet to place the next, keeping to using three for the center of the bouquet.
I followed this with the pink freesia and these green stems, which I loved the texture of them, but I never saw them used in arrangements before.
At this point, the bouquet is becoming a bit arduous to hold, so I move my hand down the bouquet, while still keeping all the stems in their relative locations. I then added the yellow carnations. These needed some of the bottom stems to be removed. Don’t throw these away though, save them for the last steps.
Finishing off the bouquet, I find the empty spots and begin adding what I have left with the stems, this includes the reddish carnations, the statice, the roses, the yellow chrysanthemums, and the rest of the yellow roses. The structure of the bouquet has already been established with the focal flowers and the first supporting flowers. Just keep the same structure and continue adding flowers.
Adding the Valentine’s Flowers to a Vase
Trim the bottom of the stems all to the same length. I took off a few inches from the bottom. That may have been an excessive amount, but these flowers are not fresh. Store bought flowers are also shipped dry, not keeping the stems in water. I wanted to give these stems the best chance of soaking up the water from the vase. If you don’t have floral shears, use a pair of scissors.
Another tip is to cut right above a node if you can. A node is that small bump on a stem. Cutting below it is best when wanting to grow roots. Cutting above is best for cut flowers to allow loads of fresh water into the stem. I don’t always cut right above a node, but if I have the chance, I do.
With buying three bouquets, I ended up having three packets of floral food. Floral food works the best of fresh cut farm grown flowers, but still use it on store bought flowers. It provides sugars and other nutrients for the stems to continue blooming, much like how they would bloom in the outdoors. Use it.
But, you don’t need to use all three packets. One packet per vase is fine. I don’t replace the water in the vase every day. The floral food will preserve the water from growing bacteria or algae. Dumping it out would rid the vase of all that floral preservation food.
Fill up with water, with the water level about half way of the vase. If it foams up, that’s okay. The foaming will go down.
Adding the Flower to the Vase
It is okay to lay the flowers down on the table while filling up the vase. I did it one handed, again. It would have been best to have that filled up before making the bouquet! Oops! When I add the flower, the blooms are a few inches above the top of the vase, and I like it. It gives the traditional look of vase flowers. After some time, I will trim the bottom of the flowers, maybe replace the water after a week with some new floral preservatives, and remove any spent blooms.
One more step. Those short carnation stems that I removed from the main stem, insert them at the same angle as the other flowers, all around the base of the bouquet. It will transform the bouquet from showing the stems to adding a few buds of blooms.
My Valentine’s Day Bouquet
This has been so refreshing to create an arrangement with flowers once again. It would not have had the same effect if I just bought one bouquet to throw into a vase. This took buying clearance flowers to building something beautiful.
The size is just right as well. Many times when buying $5 bouquets, or even $10, it never fills out a vase. It always has so much more potential than having 6 small rose stems in a large vase.
Let me just give a shout out to who really is doing the work to create this beautiful bouquet. The blooms themselves. The pink rose, the pale yellow roses, and the yellow chrysanthemums.
