Arranging tulips in Kumamoto, Japan
Channel: BLOOMBOX CO
Date: 02/04/2017

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Hey everyone! Mel here. I’m filming my project for this weeks challenge from our airbnb in Kumamoto in Japan! Kumamoto is a small city on the southern island of Kyushu. It’s a sleepy town compared to the hustle and of Tokyo and Osaka and we’re here to visit my husband’s grandma.

I’m doing the voice separately because we’re all squeezed into a tiny, but very funky airbnb house so there’s lots of chatter and babies crying in the background today.

I was hoping to pick up some sakura, aka cherry blossom for this project but it was just a tiny bit early for the season, so I picked up some gorgeous tulips instead for this video in coral and beigey pink. As you can see, some of these are quite open - I bought them like this on purpose so they’d look awesome right now for this video, and also because we’re only here for a few days so they don’t need to last long. If you’re buying tulips for your home though, I’d recommend that you buy them closed as tight as possible so they last longer and you can enjoy watching them bloom as the days go by!

Any let’s get into it!

This week’s project is about simplicity, so all I’m working with is my 6 stunning tulips, and a few little vases and cups which I’ve found in our Airbnb house, and I did buy one extra from a local store. I’m also just using a pair of kitchen scissors I found here because I don’t have my floristry shears with me but anyway these scissors are totally fine to use, especially because tulips have a soft stem. If I had been able to get cherry blossom, I might have had a bit more trouble because thats got a super woody stem which is much harder to cut, even with shears.

I’m starting with the tallest vase, and simply removing the lower leaves so we don’t get any rotting below the water line.

 This vase is the one I bought here in Japan - actually it’s a sake serving flask, but I loved the handpainted effect and the imperfect organic shape.

I’ll just put 2 long tulips in my sake flask and staggered the heights. Even if you only have a couple of flowers to work with and one vase, staggering the heights instantly adds visual interest and harmony to your work. 

The theme of simplicity is perfect because I’m traveling. I don’t have lots of tools or vases to work with, I don’t have the space I do at home, and I don’t want to spend too much on flowers that I’ll need to leave in a few days. I do, however, want to put my personal touch on the space we’re living in and make it feel homely as possible even though we’re living out of a suitcase. Fresh flowers is the perfect way to do it when you’re traveling because not only does it make things inside your hotel room or holiday house look and feel great, it’s a good excuse to get down to your local shops and experience your location in a different way. By that, I mean that usually when we travel we rarely look at or buy things that we can’t eat on the spot or take home with us and I think that flower shopping in a new area is a really cool and creative way to suss out your holiday spot.

Moving on to the next next little arrangement, I’ve chosen up a small sake cup, or tea cup - I’m not sure which it is, but it’s a really pretty lilac colour which I thought would look nice with the colour of the tulips. Because this is going to be a very short arrangement, I’m going to give this one three tulips so it has more volume to make up what it lacks in height. I’ll just measure these and cut them to size and then cluster them in.

Lastly, I found a vintage crystal glass in the house to use for my last 2 tulips. This is pretty straightforward, just remove any leaves and cut to size. 

Add some water to your vases - actually I should have done that before I started so the stems weren’t out of water for so long, oops! And then pop your vases wherever you like! How easy was that? Don’t forget to show us how your blooms turned out - we’re loving the projects coming through.