When it comes to neighbours, you really get the luck of the draw, don’t you? I’m so lucky to count reknowned florists Rebel Rebel as my neighbours in Hackney. I get lots of daily inspiration from all the flowers outside their workshop and occasionally I get a free bunch that’s going spare (in turn they get lots of cake but that might be seen as too much of a good thing) and I’m the first to hear about their brilliant workshops.
Seeing all their gorgeous flowers every day made me want to learn how to tie a gorgeous bouquet. I visit Columbia Road Flower Market often and find that when I get the flowers home I don’t really know what to do with them other than plonk them in a vase, which always looks a bit “blah”.
So when I heard about the “Make a Spring Bouquet, Rebel Style” workshop I jumped at the chance to go. The Rebels have a unique, wild and rustic style of flower arranging that has seen them win awards as well as counting the BAFTAs as prestigious events under their belt. They use mainly British suppliers and only seasonal blooms, making use of lots of foliage and varying types rather than going for the overly polished look.
We started the class with a glass of prosecco – why, what else are you meant to drink on a Thursday night? And each picked a bucket a flowers to work with. The Rebels prefer a clash of colours and combining flowers in unexpected ways, living up to their name. We had a vast and very large mix of wild flowers and foliage all in season and all British. Using seasonal flowers means the flowers will last longer.
The most important thing to remember is to make sure that the flowers and foliage used are of the best quality. After all your bouquet can only be as good as the flowers you pick. The Rebels source all their flowers from New Covent Garden Flower Market as well as small growers in the West Country.
All flowers within a bouquet should be conditioned. This means cutting their stems on a slant at a 45 degree angle and removing all the leaves that would sit below the water level. The leaves cause bacteria to form in the water which cause your flowers to die.
When making a hand tied bouquet, the stems should all spiral. Start with a piece of foliage or a large flower in the centre and spiral the rest of the stems around it. This helps when you need to add extra flowers into the bouquet and also looks neater in a glass vase. The Rebels use a stem of foliage for every three stems of flowers. Try to use varying types of foliage for texture.
Choose a focal flower to go in the centre of the bouquet, something big and bold and smaller flowers around the outer bouquet. Each flower stem should sit just beneath the tips of the foliage leaves. Make sure all the stems spiral round the same way. If you’re right handed hold the bunch at the binding point with your left hand and vice versa if you’re left handed. I found holding the bouquet the toughest part as my arm started to ache quite quickly (I really need to work out my arms more, it seems kneading and rolling fondant isn’t quite enough after all). This was probably also because I was holding them too tight and some of my flowers suffered casualties as a result. Lesson learnt there.
Insert stems at the point at which your thumb rests and at an angle so that the stem points towards you and the flower head is angled away from you. After adding each flower remember to turn the bunch to add the next, turning in the same direction each time. This is harder than it sounds and takes some getting used to especially as your bunch gets bigger and your arm aches more.
View the bouquet from the top occasionally to check the position and balance of the flowers, don’t be afraid to add things and take them away if it’s not working. The spiral of the stems makes this easier to do. If you’d like a domed shape start arranging the flowers lower at the sides. The last remaining outer stems and foliage should sit even lower.
When you’re ready to tie the bouquet, wrap a length of twine or raffia twice around the binding point and tie the end firmly in a knot until the bouquet is secure. If you’re just placing the flowers straight into a vase you can skip this step.
Trim the ends of the stems so that they’re all the same length. The bouquet should now be able to stand up unaided. Your flowers are now ready to be placed in a vase or wrapped in tissue and gifted to a lucky someone.
It’s definitely not easy but so satisfying making something this pretty. I think I need quite a bit more practise before I can confidently say I could create a bouquet as good as the one I made at the workshop (luckily I had the amazing Rebel Lucy around to guide me with that one). And although I’ll definitely be sticking to my day job, my new found bouquet arranging skills can be put to good use when cake decorating.
Rebel Rebel have lots of workshops coming up throughout the year. If you’d like a book a place on one you can check them out here or follow their instagram.
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