Read on as I rank my cut-flower arrangements from worst to best in an effort to learn what I did wrong, what I did right, and improve my floral designs for next year.
“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything.”
—John Wooden
I have always admired people who can put together a beautiful flower arrangement.
It seems like it should be such an easy thing to do. Flowers are already so beautiful on their own.
Why does it matter so much how they’re arranged?
Well, if you’ve ever tried just plopping a bouquet of flowers into a vase, you probably already know, it matters how they’re arranged!
It matters so much.
In this post, I’m going to rank my 5 best and 5 worst cut-flower arrangements for 2023 and try to learn from my mistakes and successes.
My 5 Worst Cut-Flower Arrangements in 2023
2023 was my first year of trying to learn to arrange flowers, so there were a lot of bad bouquets to sift through!
Luckily, I think I started to get the hang of it towards the end of the season, and I have a few favorites that I’m actually excited to show you.
But first, let’s roast my worst 5 floral arrangements of the year.
1. Yellow Snapdragon and Pink Bachelor’s Buttons Bouquet
This lovely vase has an assortment of yellow snapdragons, pink and purple bachelor’s buttons, bee balm, white yarrow, and a white echinacea.
The color palette is very bright, almost garish, and I really dislike those yellow snapdragons with the pink veining. I think I was trying to match the veining by bringing in pink flowers.
Also, the bouquet is way too short for the vase. Everything feels very stiff and the flowers look like they’re standing on their tippy toes trying to peek out of the sides of the vase.
There’s no real shape to this bouquet, nor is there a focal flower. The flowers are all similarly sized, and it’s kind of hard to tell what to look at. Besides that awful yellow.
I think to fix this, I could’ve used a shorter vase, redistributed the flowers more evenly, added greenery, and maybe added more echinacea to use as a focal point.
Overall, I would score this a 2/10.
2. Blue Bachelor’s Buttons and Herbs
This one is a mess. The colors are nice, but there are too many airy elements like the parsley flower heads and the sage flower spikes.
Bachelor’s buttons and white yarrow are pretty airy and delicate as well, so there’s no contrast here.
It looks like I only had one pink rose that I could add to this vase and it isn’t even centered in the cut-flower arrangement.
If I could’ve added more pink roses, I think that could’ve made the bouquet more pleasing.
I also would’ve removed the parsley flowers and added sage leaves instead, or some other kind of greenery that would’ve added more weight to the whole thing.
The height isn’t too bad, but I could’ve taken advantage of those wiry bachelor’s button stems and added longer stems to make the flowers dance above the vase as well as had more of them draping over the sides.
I think I’ll give this a 2/10 also.
3. Sunflower and Dill Cut-Flower Arrangment
In this vase are an assortment of sunflowers and dill flowers.
I actually like the combination of sunflowers and dill together, but there’s not a definite shape to the bouquet to bring it all together.
Maybe if I had added more sunflowers and had them forming more of a rounded shape using the dill as bright accents that could’ve brought it all together.
I’m guessing the stems on these sunflowers were pretty thick, and there probably was not much room left in the vase.
In that case, this arrangement would’ve worked better having just one side to it with all the flowers facing forward to make the most of the available vase space.
I’ll give this one a 3/10.
4. Yellow Dahlias and Yellow Snapdragons
I remember thinking this one was actually pretty good when I took this photo.
And it is a definite improvement over that yellow and pink monstrosity from earlier even though it has a lot of the same elements.
Same garish yellow snapdragons (now matched by equally bright dahlias), same white yarrow, and similar small pink flowers.
But why is this one better? First, it’s got a bit more shape to it. It’s nicely rounded with a few spiky elements breaking up the roundedness and giving it a casual feel.
I also had discovered that adding greenery helps fill out a cut-flower arrangement and gives the flowers a nice foundation to rest on.
It is unfortunately a bit too short for this vase, and I think those zinnias should’ve been cut with a longer stem to make them more prominent.
But overall not too bad, Karen. 5/10.
5. Shiloh Noelle Dahlia and Cosmos
These are some of my favorites from my cut-flower garden: Shiloh Noelle Dahlias and Sensation (I think) Cosmos.
I love the sweeping shape of this arrangement; I think it adds a lot of movement and really takes your eyes on a journey.
Really nice use of the cosmos wiry, curvy stems and the clematis vine hanging off to the side.
I remember this was the first Shiloh Noelle that bloomed and I was so excited to use it.
I like that we have that 3/4 view of the dahlia as that also adds movement.
What I don’t like is that the dahlia is seated so low. I cut the stem too short on this one.
Plus this could’ve used a few more dahlias facing forward instead of being hidden in the back to make use of the limited focal flowers I had.
But still very pretty. 6/10.
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My 5 Best Cut-Flower Arrangements in 2023
Ok, that was painful, but necessary.
It seems like most of my mistakes boiled down to: not having enough greenery, putting short arrangements in tall vases, and a lack of focal flowers.
One resource that helped me improve was Floret Farm’s A Year in Flowers.
Erin breaks down how she puts together her stunning bouquets with lots of photos.
It is a great book if you want to learn how to arrange flowers.
Now let’s see if I learned from my mistakes and evaluate my best arrangements from 2023.
5. Shiloh Noelle Dahlias and Pink Zinnias, Hydrangeas, and Roses.
One of my favorite vases to arrange with is this short plant pot. It’s very neutral, fits a lot of flower stems, and the open shape of it makes it easy to make flowers drape over the sides in a natural way.
The pinks kind of clash with one another and with the lavender dahlia, but I do love the fullness of this cut-flower arrangement.
7/10.
4. Queeny Lime Orange Zinnias and Purple Nepeta
This arrangement contains Queeny Lime Orange Zinnias, Lilliput zinnias, blackberry leaves, sage leaves, Little Lime hydrangeas, burgundy Bachelor’s Buttons, and Walker’s Low nepeta.
Orange is not my favorite color, but the more orange flowers I grow, the more I like the color.
When combined with the lavender blue of that nepeta, I think the colors really sing.
I think I’ll give this one an 8/10.
3. Bright Yellow Sunflowers and Purple Nepeta
I think it’s so funny that this highlighter yellow color kept showing up in my garden this year even though I don’t really care for it.
However, these sunflowers are just too beautiful to not put in my top 5.
They just look so happy!
Unlike my earlier sunflower arrangement, this one has an appropriate amount of flowers to make it feel very lush and full.
Plus that purple nepeta also looks so good with the bright yellow.
(Is that the key to making ugly colors look good?)
I only wish that I had put this in a solid colored vase as I think the lamb’s ear stems look really weird in the glass.
8/10.
2. Little Lime Hydrangea Cut-Flower Arrangement
I just love hydrangeas. We have a hedge of Little Lime hydrangeas in our front garden and I just have to pick a bunch for a bouquet every year.
My flowers were actually too short for this vase, so I had to put a small jar inside this vase and place the flowers in the jar.
Just a nice little hack if you’ve got a big vase and short flowers.
I wish I would’ve stuffed a few more hydrangeas in here. I know there was plenty of room!
This arrangement looks so elegant in that urn, and it was super easy to put together.
I give this an 9/10.
1. Crazy Love Dahlias and Sensation Cosmos Cut-Flower Arrangement
This is my favorite bouquet of 2023.
I love the colors; I love the way the flowers drape over the sides of the vase.
I think the cosmos adds a lot of movement and texture.
My eye is really drawn to those three Crazy Love Dahlias in the center.
10/10 for sure!
I’m Still Learning!
I enjoyed seeing how much my flower arranging skills improved, and I know I still have a lot of areas to improve.
Hopefully, this post was fun for you to read too, and I hope you feel inspired to practice and refine a new skill, whether that’s flower arranging, or something else!
If you want to learn how to start a cut-flower garden and grow your own bouquets, read this post next.
