I love to garden and entertain – cooking a big meal, making delicious cocktails and using flowers and greenery from my garden (with supplements from the flower shop) to make a flower arrangement for the table.
While I have plenty of pretty napkins and beautiful dishes and glassware to use, and loads of hydrangea, ferns, and herbs from my garden to put in an arrangement, historically I’ve found that actually putting together a pretty centrepiece is hard to get right. To help save frustration, I’ve learned to follow the simple 3-5-8 flower arranging rule.
The 3-5-8 rule (it’s related to the Fibonacci sequence in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones…aka maths) recommends using a specific ratio of flowers and greenery in an arrangement to help achieve a balanced and harmonious look. Specifically, the rule calls for using three types of dominant flowers, five greenery stems, and eight stems of an accent flower.
Here’s how the 3-5-8 flower arranging rule works
Start with the 3
Start by choosing three main types of flowers. These are considered the focal flowers as they will be the central focus of your arrangement. They should vary in shape, size, and colour.
These blooms should be large (like hydrangea and roses) and draw the eye. I prefer to stay within the same colour family when choosing my focal flowers, e.g. white hydrangea, dusty pink roses, and dark purple calla lilies. While this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, I think it makes the arrangement look more cohesive and sophisticated. Place the flowers in the vessel so that they are at different heights and going in different directions.
Next, add the 5
Once you have arranged your focal flowers, fill in and around them with five stems of foliage or greenery. These add depth, texture, and colour to an arrangement. These can be cut from your yard – think fern stems, rosemary sprigs, or olive or citrus tree branches – or bought from the market.
When choosing greenery, consider whether it will hang down (like the rosemary in this image) or stand upright and pert. For visual interest, it’s best to have a mix of both types. Pro tip: Always start with the branches on the long side when first placing them, they can always shortened later if need be.
Add the final 8
The last step of the 3-5-8 rule is to add eight stems of filler flowers. These flowers should be small, delicate, and complement the focal flowers in their colour and texture. Distribute the filler flowers evenly throughout the arrangement, using them to fill in any gaps or holes. A few easy-to-find filler flowers would be flowering eucalyptus, cosmos, and heather.
A few final tips
- Be sure to distribute all the elements evenly throughout the arrangement to ensure symmetry.
- Vary the heights of the focal flowers, greenery, and filler flowers to add dimension and visual interest.
- Save £££ by foraging from your yard. Beyond snipping greenery from shrubs, consider planting a perennial cutting garden that will yield at least some of the flowers you need for your arrangements year after year.
Gardening must-haves
Filberts of Dorset Gardeners Hand Salve
Haywards Garden Bee and Butterfly Water Stations, Garden Décor, set of three colourful bee water cups .
Home Sussex Handmade Peg Apron
Painted Garden Label/Marker
The Fae Potter Wild Bird Feeder ceramic hanging
WhinnyPoo WhinnyPoo Box of 3 Plant Feed
Charlyne Mattox is the Food and Crafts director with over 20 years recipe development, recipe editing, and crafting experience. Prior to starting at Country Living in 2014, she worked in the crafts department at Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Kids before attending cooking school at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. She was nominated for a James Beard media award while a senior editor at Real Simple magazine and authored a cookbook Cooking with Seeds.
When not in the kitchen she loves to garden, focusing on growing flowers and kitchen herbs (of course), watering her 25 house plants, and knitting scarfs or hats she will never be able to wear in the always hot and steamy Alabama.
