Floral Tips from Debi Lilly for Any Occasion

This post contains affiliate links that I earn a commission through. Thank you for supporting Twins and Coffee!

Disclosure: I was recently hosted by Albertsons Safeway and have decided to share with you my experience along with tips from Debi Lilly. All opinions expressed are my own.

With the holidays coming up, I figured now would be a good time to share with you guys something you might not know.

I used to be a florist for Albertsons.

I was actually a part of the company merger a few years ago with Safeway, as well as the launch of their Debi Lilly Floral line.

So when I received an offer to be hosted by Albertsons and Safeway in a fall floral debut event with Debi Lilly, I was pretty excited! Working in floral years ago was actually one of my favorite parts about working for Albertsons.

Being able to attend a fun floral class taught by Debi brought me back to my fun days as a florist, and surprisingly enough, she shared a few new tips that I hadn’t heard of before.

Floral Tips from Debi Lilly and a Past Florist

1. Pick your flowers

   Now you can go the hard way or the easy way here. Hard- pick out bunches of flowers that you like and try to piece together. Easy- grab one of Debi Lilly’s handcrafted bouquets and you’ll be set to ‘chop and drop’. One thing to keep in mind when making up an arrangement; roses do not last as long as other flowers. So if you are making a centerpiece you want to last, I suggest going with a minimal rose variety.

2. Groups of three

   Another thing to keep in mind while picking out your flowers is threes. Arrangements tend to look more put together with flowers in groups of threes. For example, three roses, three mini daisies, three mums, ect.

3. Always use the floral packet

   This is your key to helping your flowers last. When they are first cut and put into the vase with the floral packet, the flowers soak up the nutrients and it helps them last as opposed to water without the packet.

4. Remove excess greens/stamen

   Before cutting and arranging the stems, remove all excess greens. As pretty as they might be, they will make your water go bad quicker and result in moldy flower stems. Also remove all stamen, ie the yellow, powdery tips in lilies and the like.

5. Cut at an angle, right above the ‘joint’

   Now when cutting, make sure to cut at an angle and right above the ‘joint’. This helps the flower drink as much water as possible to remain looking fresh even longer.                                     

6. Cut at the right height

   Also when cutting, get down at the height of the vase. Or bring the vase up to eye level. Then place the stem in front of the vase and eye how much of the flower you want above the top of the vase, and cut off the portion of the stem that extends beyond the base of the vase.

7. Place in water right after cutting

   After cutting, make sure to place stem in water right away to avoid it sucking up.

8. Start with multi stems and cross

   When it comes to arranging, start with the multi stems first in order to create structure. These are the flowers that have multiple smaller stems coming out of one larger stem. Starting with these help create the structure in order to hold the single stems (like roses and mums) in place.

9. End with single stems

   After you have your structure, have fun with it and place your single stems all around. I usually like to cut the single stems a little longer for them to pop out of the arrangement a little bit more.

10. Skip it all and use a Debi Lilly Chop and Drop Bouquet

    Instead of arranging yourself, you could use a Debi Lilly Bouquet that she specifically made for people to chop and drop. No design skills required!

11. After 24-48 hours, replace water and recut ends

    Either way you decide, make sure to replace the water and recut the ends after a day or two. This will help keep the arrangement going strong for twice as long. Best way to go about it is to use one hand to hold the arrangement out of the water, empty and replace water in vase with other hand, and then trim a little off each stem end. This gives a new, clean drinking source to the flowers.

I hope you take these tips and put them into action this holiday season.

And that you take the time to check out the Debi Lilly line inside of Albertsons and Safeway stores. Her chop and drop bouquets are a real game changer, and not to mention beautiful!