Have you ever been to a wildflower farm? There is something serene and calming about going to a pretty farm that grows beautiful wildflowers. I recently took a Spring Flower Centerpiece Class at Aunt Willies Wildflower Farm. The arrangement is beautiful and every flower, blossom and bloom even the greenery was grown on the farm. Keep Reading I will take you on a tour and DIY for making this lovely spring arrangement.

Such wonderful flowers can be found at Aunt Willies. . . peonies, campanula, snapdragons, sweet peas, ranunculus, anemone, spirea, viburnum and tulips. I don’t know which ones are my favorites for they are all so lovely. It amazes me how Father God creates such masterpieces, He has such an eye for detail. I mean just look in the mirror… He made YOU! A perfect masterpiece inside and out, whether you believe it or not… believe it.

Linda the owner of Aunt Willies Wildflower Farm gave us a tour of her hoop house, where seedling trays of warm season annuals were growing. Rows of trays and grown flowers were blooming. It was exciting to see and to see the work that goes in to this farm. Hard work planning and growing. She does have a farm manager and her husband but it is a huge job. Yes, she provides flowers for weddings and events. In the past I have purchased her buckets, which are 5 gallon buckets full of the season’s finest blooms. Pricing is on the high end but not when you consider the time and attention it takes on the farm. Well worth it. On a side note, I met Linda Doan on Daytime Tri-Cities and she was one of my guests on the first Serve it up Sassy Show.

How to Make The Spring Centerpiece/Arrangement

Our outdoor class began with a floral demonstration from Linda. She arranged step by step how to create her masterpiece. Here is her centerpiece photo below

To prep the flower stems, with pruning shears cut stems the length you desire and cut the ends at a 45° angle. Be sure to remove all stem foliage/leaves from the stems. Removing the leaves that will be underwater is important, as the leaves will rot and bacteria will form in your vase. Its not very pretty, smelly and causes your flowers to perish quickly.

Filling the Vase

Next, she filled vase with woody stems like dogwood branches with blooms, bridals veil, spirea, and viburnum as structure for the individual flower stems. NO frogs or foam was used in this arrangement. No packets of preservatives or sprays were used when creating these centerpieces. On a side note, my friend and former White House Chief Florist Laura Dowling didn’t use preservatives or sprays either when making fresh floral arrangements for the White House. How about that!

After the greenery base is the look you want, add the sturdy flower stems, like lilacs, snapdragons, and large head blooms, save the delicate flowers for inserting last.

Buckets of pinkish red snapdragons, white and red tulips.

Now that we learned the basics, it was our turn to make a centerpiece. We could select as many flowers and assortments as we wanted. That was the hardest part of making this centerpiece; selecting the beautiful flowers.

Here is what my centerpiece looked like when finished.

The delicate flowers are campanula, snapdragons, pink and orange ranunculus, purple anemone, spirea, viburnum, white bridals veil the trailing stems, white and pink tulips. I was on the verge of having too many flowers…but can you ever have too many flowers in an arrangement? Yes… you can. If it gets to over crowded it looses its shape and form. My challenge was keeping the arrangement lower in the middle, like a crescent shape instead of a triangle. The class was so much fun and every one had a great time.

I really liked this one too. (below photo) more dogwood branches and blooms but very Meadow. Looked they they were still growing in the field.

When we finished, we celebrated Lindas birthday by decorating her cake with fresh flowers.

We cleaned up our work areas and then all the fresh flowers that were leftover were put in the back of her jeep ready to be used for another class or arranged in mason jars to take to the nursing homes. If you are like me… we just wish flowers would last longer and never fade.

There is something so wonderful about flowers, we all should have fresh flowers in our homes whether it is a single tulip stem to a full size grand centerpiece. They (the flowers) just makes everyone happy.

To learn more about Aunt Willies Wildflower Farm, here is Linda’s website. If you live close by, take one of her classes you will enjoy it. Farm is located in Blountville, TN in Upper East Tennessee.