Flower Arranging in a Cocktail Shaker
It's funny how suddenly the long nights start drawing in, and it's time for watching whole boxsets, enjoying red wine in the pub by the fire and getting friends round the table for pasta filled dinner parties.
As the weather gets colder here in the UK, less fresh flowers are available that are grown locally or in the garden. To keep enjoying florals at home, dried flowers are here to save the day. Look for naturally dried flowers that haven’t been bleached, painted or dyed. Or, if you have flowers growing in your garden… you could harvest some of them at the end of Summer. Then hang them upside down to dry and arrange them so you can continue appreciating them long after the garden outside has faded into Winter.
To really take advantage of dried flowers at this time of year, I've got a flower tutorial for you if you're having people over for drinks or you'd just like to spruce up your drinks cabinet as the cosy indoor season begins. This simple DIY tutorial is all about how to arrange flowers in a cocktail shaker, you can find the full instructions just below.
You will need:
- a cocktail shaker that you’re not using anymore
- dried or fresh seasonal flowers with very thin stems (I used dried flowers including: yellow achillea, pink statice, blue eryngium thistle, bunny tail grass, nigella seed heads and lilac limonium)
- scissors
Step 1
If you're using fresh flowers, fill your cocktail shaker generously with water (about 2/3 full). If you're just using dried flowers keep the shaker empty with no water in at all. Get a little bin ready beside you to put all your dried leaves and cut stems straight into the compost. Dried flower stems can be a bit sharp so I try and keep them tidied up whilst I’m flower arranging.
Step 2
Remove the leaves from the lower part of the stems. This will make the stems much easier to slide into the holes at the top of the shaker.
Step 3
Starting with the flowers you'd like to be tallest, slide each stem into the holes in the lid near the back and down into the vessel. Repeat this with each stem, creating a variety of heights and angling the flowers in different directions so the flowers look like they're growing out at different angles. Slide in the shorter flower stems nearer the front of the shaker and into the holes round the sides.
Step 4
Display your shaker by your drinks cabinet, or by the drinks in the kitchen if you're having a party, and if you've used water for fresh flowers, change the water every other day until the flowers go over. Dried flowers last much longer in a dry room inside.
Have fun arranging your cocktail shaker flowers! You could use a colour palette that links in with colours of your room or go bright and colourful as the weather gets more stormy outside. Another colour theme idea is: natural, clay and terracotta coloured dried flowers and grasses, they’d look beautiful in a room with a neutral colour palette.
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