How I Prep Flowers Before Bouquet-Making

When it comes to creating bouquets, preparation makes all the difference. Taking the time to properly prep your flowers sets you up for a smoother, more enjoyable design process, and often leads to better results.

Here’s a look at how I prep my flowers before diving into bouquet-making.

1. Conditioning the Flowers

Whether I’ve just received flowers from the market or harvested them from the garden, the first step is to condition them properly. This varies depending on the type of flower. Some stems need to be seared or placed in boiling water; others do best in deep or shallow water.

It’s also important to consider the stage of the blooms, some need to go into the cooler right away to hold, while others are better left out to open a bit more.

Here is a great resource from the Garden Club of Brookfield in CT on how to Condition Flowers for Floral Arrangements.

2. Selecting and Reserving the Best Blooms

Once the flowers are cleaned and conditioned, I sort through them to pick the ones I want to use for bouquets, usually those with the best shape, size, color, or posture. I usually choose small- to medium-size blooms (not overly large and heavy ones) with slender, smooth, strong, and healthy stems, to make bouqeut making easier and smoother.

I place these in a separate bucket labeled “For Bouquets” to avoid using them in centerpieces or other arrangements. It’s a small step, but it keeps the design process clear and intentional.

For the greenery, while cleaning the stems, I cut off the side stems from the larger ones and select the stems with the best shape for bouquets. I also remove any extra leaves from the part of the stem that will go under the binding point. Then I place the cleaned stems in water and store them in the cooler, so I already have the best ones ready for use.

3. Getting Flowers Ready for Design

If you’re making bouquets with hands, it’s helpful to prep as much as you can ahead of time, because once you start holding stems, it’s hard to stop or do things like wiring with one hand. I typically remove excess leaves, thorns, bumps, or side shoots from the stems, and wire any soft curved stems or top-heavy stems that need extra support.

But since I use our StemSlider bouquet-making tool, I can skip this process. Because it allows me to work with both hands free as the StemSlider is holding the flowers for me as my third hand, I can prep flowers as I go – removing leaves, going back to the flower cooler or my garden to see other flowers, or wiring blooms at any point in the process. It adds a lot of flexibility and ease to the design flow.

4. Organizing by Flower Category

When it’s time to design, I like to sort my flowers into different vases by category. For example, if I’m working with delphiniums, astilbes, roses, dahlias, ranunculus, zinnias, cosmos, and sweet peas, I’ll organize them like this:

• Line flowers – delphiniums, astilbes
• Primary flowers – roses, dahlias
• Secondary flowers – ranunculus, zinnias
• Movement flowers – cosmos, sweet peas

Putting them in separate vases by category helps me see everything at a glance and plan the composition with more intention. It makes it easier to create natural movement, layering, and balance in the bouquet.

If you’d like to see which flower categories I use for my bouquets, check out my blog post here!

6 Categories of Flowers For Loose and Airy Garden-Style Wedding Bouquet

These are the key steps I take to prep my flowers before making a bouquet. Everyone has their own way of working, so if you have a routine you love, I’d really enjoy hearing about it!