How to Make Beautiful Flower Arrangements

I have several small places around my yard where I want to plant flowers, but I don’t have a clue how to mix and match and arrange the plants so they create a pleasing color scheme and organized pattern of flowers.

Any tips on how to arrange colors, flower types, designs, etc?
Oh, and I’m going to be planting drought-hearty flowers.

I design using a mix of foliage types and plant heights as well as colour schemes, as this adds even more depth and interest to a flower beds. Many plants are lovely to feel, due to interesting textures, so look out for incorporating interesting leaves, as well as foliage scents, once you’ve done your main planning.

You could have single colour beds which work incredibly well – I like red and white beds, and the white can have a cooling effect in summer time. Generally, if you want to choose complementary colours, the same rules apply as for example decorating. Complementary colours may also be contrasting, and I love purples or blues and yellows together, for example.

So, having a master plan of my garden, and what I want to achieve, I’d then start off selecting the colours by the location of the bed – some may work better in some locations than others. Then from my colour scheme determine which plants could achieve that, and from those which will give me the height variation and foliage mix that would work best for me.

You could also decide to have decidedly different feels for some beds too, such as bright striking colours and contrasts in some, and softer pastels in others.

Using a tool that artists and designers use would be helpful, so that you find the colour mixes that work for you. There’s a simple page of information here – http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm

The other tip I’d add is to look at how you can incorporate patterns too, so that you have your mix of curves and straight shapes. Some of us like formality, whereas this may appear to rigid to others, and I generally use a more organic, flowing feel to the garden that I design. We’re all so unique that we each like may be distasteful to the next – I’d encourage you to go for the schemes that please you.

Overall, there is now such an abundance of plants for us to choose from that we can really get creative in our designing. If you’re good with plants, then it’s only about forming your colour combinations, textures and overall plan. If you’re less knowledgeable about plants, then I’d encourage you to get some advice upon which plants will thrive in your varied garden spots, so that all of your plants will flourish in the types of places that they thrive in, sunny, dry, shaded, boggy etc,

Hope this helps. Good luck! Rob

I love gerber daisies and was considering using them for bouquets and centerpieces. I am planning on buying the flowers online and arranging them myself. I would just like to know if they are easy to work with and durable. How long do they usually last before wilting?

ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!!!!! My friend is doing them in her wedding they look so cute her colors are orange and white and she got centerpieces in those colors I love Gerber daisies and totally recommend them 4 weddings!:]

Thirdly, the characters truly demonstrated value shift of interest between the younger and older generation. For example, readers learn from the conversations between the father and the daughter about women’s position in Japanese’s culture that a woman’s role is to take care of the family at home and never question her husband on anything. The daughter views this as prison and an ignorant life that she does not look forward to embrace. The daughter demonstrates this when she says “I am in a prison and I yearn to be free” (act 1 scene 1). The grandmother demonstrates her strong cultural value throughout the play. For instance the grandmother was displeased about how the younger generation dress, talk, walk and even the way younger generation arrange flowers. The grandmother viewed these as the total opposite of how things should be in a Japanese culture. In addition, the older generation in the play “Protest” solidified their great value of Japanese culture when the grandmother sacrificed her life by committing suicide in order for the daughter to believe and value their tradition. The father and mother viewed the grandmother’s decision as a part of Japanese tradition even before she committed the act. However, the daughter was depressed over Grandmother’s death and daughter was left in a regrettable situation when she was notified that her action of against Japanese tradition was behind grandmother’s death. There is a value shift of interest demonstrated by the characters in the play which lead to intergeneration conflicts.

Subsequently, the younger generation compared to the older generation characters demonstrated a significant value shift of interests. Readers discover from the conversations between father and daughter about the intended role of the women in the Japanese culture; the role of the woman is in the house taking care of the family, and to obey without question every command of the husband. An imprisonment and ignorant life is what the daughter perceives of her own life. The daughter exclaims, “I am in a prison and I yearn to be free” (act 1 scene 1). Throughout the play, the grandmother convey her strong cultural values by her constant discontentment about how the younger generation dress, talk, walk, and even the arranging flowers are wrong. All that the younger generation does is entirely opposite of the appropriate way in a Japanese culture. To “Protest” the great value of culture, the grandmother committed suicide to prove to the daughter the importance of culture as well as having value their traditions. The father and mother believed that the grandmother’s choice of death is written within the culture. Depressed over her grandmother’s death, the daughter regretted her actions against the Japanese traditions, which inevitably caused the death of her grandmother. Inter-generation conflicts become visible because of the value shifts of interest demonstrated by the all characters in the play.

It taxes almost everything from cigarettes to income. Polygamy, prostitution, gay marriage, and ticket scalping bans all seem unnecessary. New York wants to control how much salt the people can eat and the shape of hot dogs because they’re a choing hazard. Our phone calls are not private. You have to get a liscence for everything even if its arranging flowers or instructing yoga. Chicago had all those surveillance cameras put up to keep people from being unorthodox. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are all in trouble finacially while congress keeps giving themselves higher paychecks. The war on drugs is an absolute failure and more people smoke pot everyday in this country. People die from illnesses that could have been saved if the FDA didn’t regulate new drugs. Our public schools are failing and other countries do better on tests. See a pattern here? Why don’t people realize the Constitution restricted our government for a reason?
ThinKabootit- I am upset that the majority do not see this danger. I know we are a Republican Democracy.

Government is larger, because Obama was elected. He wants to change America, like Fidel changed Cuba. Look, if you want to know who a man is, look at his past. Words and Promises mean absolutely nothing. He’s actions, his past and the people he surrounded himself with. That speaks volumes about is character and his interest. "If you think health care is expensive now, just wait till it’s FREE". He Preys on the Poor and the Weak and Promises a better Tomorrow, while slowly he’s destroying the Best Country on Earth! Who has he Helped? Is unemployment up or down? Is America better off? How has benefited from the Stimulus? Are you better off today? How Long will he keep blaming Bush? Like I said, he’s words and promises mean nothing and his actions, speak volumes. People need to wake up!

I’m not sure how to solve this problem. If someone could explain the steps I’d be very grateful!

"If you were planting 10 flowers in a row and 5 of them were red, 3 of them were yellow, and 2 of them were purple, in how many different looking arrangements could the 10 flowers be arranged?"

Dear fournier,

There are ten positions in the row you are planting. Imagine that you decide where to plant the red flowers first, and that flowers are not distinguished by any other features. Then there are C(10, 5) different placements possible for these five flowers, where C(n,k) = n! / [k! (n - k)!] (known as the binomial coefficient, which is the number of ways that exactly k items can be chosen from a set of n items). This leaves five positions for the other flowers. If you decide where to plant the yellow flowers next, then there are C(10 – 5, 3) = C(5, 3) different placements for these flowers, given the positions of the red flowers. The remaining purple flowers go into the last two positions, so there is only one placement left for them, given the positions of the red and yellow flowers. (You can express this mathematically as C(10 – 5 – 3, 2) = C(2, 2) = 1.) If you multiply together these ways of placing each color of flower, then you obtain the total number of different-looking arrangements:

C(10, 5) C(10 – 5, 3) C(10 – 5 – 3, 2)
= C(10, 5) C(5, 3) C(2, 2)
= (10! / [5! (10 - 5)!]) (5! / [3! (5 - 3)!]) (2! / [2! (2 - 2)!])
= (10! / [5! 5!]) (5! / [3! 2!]) (2! / [2! 0!])
= 10! / (5! 3! 2!)
= (10)(9)(8)(7)(6) / [(3)(2)(2)]
= (10)(9)(4)(7)
= 2520.

Notice that there is no requirement that you decide to start by placing the red flowers. For instance, if you begin with the yellow flowers, then the purple, and finally the red, the total number of different-looking arrangements is the same:

C(10, 3) C(10 – 3, 2) C(10 – 3 – 2, 5)
= C(10, 3) C(7, 2) C(5, 5)
= (10! / [3! 7!]) (7! / [2! 5!]) (5! / [5! 0!])
= 10! / (3! 2! 5!)
= 2520.