One of our favorite parts of spring and summer is the abundance of fresh flowers. Whether grown in a home garden or picked up from a city flower mart, there’s no shortage of beautiful blooms this time of year. We love to share the bounty of the season by creating a bouquet to give to neighbors and friends. Flowers wrapped in a decorated cone give this seasonal gift an extra personal touch, and preserves the flowers if they can’t immediately be put it water. This makes a flower cone bouquet perfect for leaving as a surprise on a neighbor’s doorstep or bringing as a hostess gift to a barbeque in the park.

Supplies:
White wrapping or butcher paper
Flowers*
Scissors
Ruler
Scotch tape
Paper towels
Sandwich bags
Rubber bands
Cone decorating items like pens, colored pencils, or stamps

Steps: (Correspond to the numbers on the images below)
1. Gather the wrapping paper, ruler, scissors and decorating supplies.
2. Cut the paper for your flower cone into a 12-inch square. Repeat this process until you’ve created your desired number of flower cones.
3. Decorate your flower cones. Get creative by using pens, colored pencils, or stamps. Some of the inside of the cone will be visible when it is wrapped, so decorate both sides of the paper if desired.
4. Wrap the paper into a cone shape.
5. Secure it with a piece of Scotch tape. Continue steps 4 and 5 until you’ve created all your paper cones.
6. Gather your flowers, damp paper towels, sandwich bags, and rubber bands. Create your first bouquet. See tips below for arranging flowers.
7. Once your bouquet is complete, wrap the bottom of the stems with a damp paper towel. Place the paper towel in a sandwich bag and secure it with a rubber band. This will help to keep your flowers fresh.
8. Place the bouquet in the flower cone. Continue steps 6-8 until all your flower cones are filled.

*We picked up our flowers from the San Francisco Flower Mart, but homegrown flowers make the bouquet extra special. Farmer’s Markets or stores like Trader Joe’s are also a good resource for fresh flowers. To save money, try selecting one standout flower and several bunches of greenery. Your bouquets will still be beautiful and the extra bunches of greenery ensure that you can create robust arrangements.

Tips for arranging flowers:
1.Start with the flower you want to be the focal point. In our case it was the red anemones. Place one or more of these flowers in your hand.
2. Select your heaviest flower to fill in the sides of your arrangement. Continue this process of filling in your arrangement, moving from the heavier stems to the lighter and airier blooms.
3. Make sure there is enough space between each stem so individual flowers have space to shine, and that stems are at varying heights to add visual interest.
4. Once you like how the arrangement looks in your hand, cut at least an inch off the bottom of each stem. Cut the stems at an angle to allow the flowers to absorb the maximum amount of water.