Submerging Flowers

The following tips and pictures are from Nancy Liu Chin Designs.  I think this is very helpful for a beautiful do it yourself flower arrangement.   The key to submerging flowers in a vase is to begin with a great vase. 24 to 30 inches tall  and unusual tapered vases work well. Of course, it’s important to put your own spin on it, so try different variations until you get it right. For this arrangement she  chose a tapered vase.

The other key element is selecting a flower that would look great submerged. Orchids work well for this look.

Believe it or not, some flowers don’t really work submerged. And others just look plain silly like hydrangea or carnations . There are many techniques for submerging.

For this project you will need:

• 1 27 inch tapered or pilsner vase
• 3 Stems of white phaleanopsis orchids (available in several colors) (shorter vase would require less flowers)
• Water
• Water crystals (optional)
• Shears
• Windex (or other glass cleaner)
• Towel

1) Make sure your vase is super clean. Remove any stickers and rinse out the inside of the glass. This really makes a difference.

2) Remove one or two blooms from each orchid stem so that you have a total of 5 blooms. Note, don’t remove them all from one stem.

3) Pour 3 inches of water into the tapered vase.

4) Line the 5 white orchid florets from small to large. Take the smallest orchid bloom and place delicately into the vase that has 3 inches of water.

5) Take the shortest stem of orchid. If they are about the same size, then just take any one stem. Remove and cut off excess stem. Place this stem into the vase. Fill with water so that it covers the entire stem.

6) Add in loose white florets to fill spaces when necessary. Add another stem of orchid. Continue to fill the vase with water. Make sure to leave 2 to 3 inches at the top.

Designer tip: Make sure that orchids face both sides of the container. Also, make sure when you insert the orchid stems that you put the bottom side in first. Don’t dunk the head of the flowers into the vase.

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