The Victory Garden . Grow . Primers & Projects . Arranging Irises

Publish date: 2024-05-05

Arranging Irises

Michael and Robin
Robin Piselli joined Michael for a quick lesson in iris arranging.

People often think of the iris as an outdoor-only flower, but they actually lend themselves well to beautiful cut-flower arrangements as well.

Certainly it's fine to take irises straight from the garden and stickthem in a galvanized bucket, as Michael Weishan says he often does;the flowers are easily gorgeous enough to take care of themselves.Recently though, arranging expert Robin Piselli joined Michael in hiskitchen for a couple of quick and easy lessons on how to take arrangingirises to the next level.

First things first: Make sure you start with clean water, filled atthree quarters of the way to the top. Over the next few days be surealso to maintain this water level, as the flowers will drink a lot. Ifyou want, you can use one of the additive products — or, Robin says, adrop or two of bleach — to help cut down on any bacteria or algae thatmay want to form in the vase.

Robin arranging irises
Robin demonstrates how to overlap the stems to create a nice visualeffect in a clear glass vase.

Robin likes to arrange irises in a clear glass vase so their large greenstems can add to the overall beauty of the display. Cut your stems at a45-degree angle to create a large surface area for water to be absorbed;as opposed to a straight-across cut, the angle also keeps the stem fromresting flat on the bottom of the vase, which will usually block waterabsorption. You should also remove any excess foliage from the stems.

The first and slightly simpler of Robin's methods is to place the irisesone by one in the vase so that the stems criss-cross one another. Inaddition to being attractive, this arrangement creates a supportstructure for the flowers that becomes stronger the more irises you add.

Iris stems
The iris stems settle into a graceful spiral that will accent the beautyof the flowers.

Robin also demonstrated a fancier technique, creating a braided effectwith the stems. To do this, trim all your stems to the same length witha 45-degree cut. Then one-by-one take the stems into your hands,overlapping each one crosswise with the previous stem, like acollapsible fan, allowing the stems to twist into a bundle as you takemore in your hands. (See the image above.) If you're working with alot of stems it's helpful to have someone handing them to you. Whenyou've got them ready, carefully place the bundle into the vase. Theresult will be a graceful spiral of stems that will enhance the visualeffect of your arrangement.

One final note on gathering cut flowers from your garden: Robinemphasizes that the best time of day to cut flowers is early morning,after the cool of the night has restored their vitality. Otherwise, cutthem after sundown, when the flowers are filled with food. What youalways want to avoid is cutting flowers in the heat of the day, becausethey'll be stressed and limp from the sun, and not as able to cope withthe trauma of being cut.

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This segment appears in show #2707.

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