Carlos Mota's trademark bouquet is tight, with little space between the blooms, and low -with the stems cut short.
In his new book, Flowers Chic & Cheap, he uses peonies to illustrate his technique of assembling the bouquet, but it works well with roses, carnations or chrysanthemums – any flower with some fullness.
Clean the stems first of leaves or thorns, then start the bunch by holding one stem and adding two stems to make a pyramid shape -with one of the two a bit higher than the other: the tops of the two flowers should touch the base of the first bloom, so no stem is visible.
Add three more stems around the base of the two flowers, again making sure no stem shows. Below the three, add five or six more in the same way.
To read the rest of this story please go to: The Montreal Gazette
