If you’re lucky enough to have a garden, it is a lovely habit to pick garden flowers to display indoors. Even just a few daffodils and spring blooms can bring a space to life.

It’s nice that cutting flowers frequently can actually increase the quantity of flowers you get!  Plants need to set seed, and so if you cut off the flowers before the seeds form, many plants will produce new blooms.

To get started you’ll need a nice hot drink, sharp secateurs, a basket or tub to collect the flowers, and a vase to arrange them in. Radio optional.

Step 1 – Go into the garden and gather some greenery. I like to start with 3 big foliage stems to make a ‘foundation’ for the bouquet. So I cut a few sprigs from this big weigela behind the table.

2. Trim the foliage on the base of each stem. This is to stop any leaves going into the vase where they’ll start to rot, and to stop the stems getting crammed in too tightly in the base of the arrangement. Take up to half the foliage from the bottom of the stem, using your secateurs.

3. Arrange your three big foliage stems in the vase. At this point the stems are often floppy and fall in the opposite direction that you want them to go. Don’t fret, they’re only flowers, and the bouquet will take shape as it grows.

4. Peruse the garden for interesting colours and textures. I find the ‘Malus Royalty’ Crab apple with its plum coloured blossom and purple leaves rather lovely. Get into the garden and cut a sprig or two of contrasting foliage. When cutting branches from trees, aim to prune neatly and deliberately. You’ll usually get more growth branching out beneath the cut, so choose carefully where to cut.

5. Trim and add your new stems, and wiggle the vase about. If your foundation foliage is floppy, you can twist sections of garden wire into ‘S’ shapes and use these to support your arrangement by fixing stems together.

6. Have another look around the garden. What’s abundant right now? I find that threes and fives make good groupings, and so here I’m adding three bluebells, which I’ve trimmed to slightly different lengths.

7. This is an April bouquet, and so there’s got to be tulips. I’ve selected five in reddish tones, two large purple tulips called ‘Blackjack,’ and three miniature scarlet ones called ‘Red hunter.’

8. With all the coffee gone, and all the flowers in place, I’m happy to call this bouquet complete. There’s little point faffing with this more outdoors, so I’ll make the last tweaks inside.

9. Place the bouquet indoors, and twiddle any fiddly bits as you fancy. Ensure the vase is topped up with water every day, and change the water every few days.

10. Enjoy your long-lasting fresh garden flowers. Here’s the same bunch 8 days later, (with a fresher bouquet in front).  I love how the tulips have grown towards the light, it’s so cool that they keep on growing in the vase.

I hope you have a little time to try arranging garden flowers, it’s easy, free and fun!