Create a Blooming Easter Basket!

Happy Friday! Are you in need of some flower therapy? We had a light dusting of snow this week. After a balmy February with 70 degree temperatures, March’s blustery winds and frosty weather seem like a cruel joke from Mother Nature! If you’re in need some flower therapy, you’re in luck since I’m joining my blogging friends for Floral Friday. You can find the links to more floral inspiration at the bottom of this post.

Our common theme this week was a basket for this edition of Floral Friday. I put together a blooming Easter basket that’s easy to assemble using flowers from the grocery store. Daffodils and tulips both say “spring” to me and join mini iris, along with a new-to-me flower, Charmelia, meaning ‘Charming Beauty’.

To build a blooming Easter basket, start with a basket of your choice. I found a basket several weeks ago at HomeGoods that reminded me of the greenvine baskets at Pottery Barn, but at a fraction of the price.

I lined the basket with a double layer of plastic grocery bags as a precaution. Brown grocery store bags provide a little camouflage and blend with the weave of the basket, but a kitchen trash bag would work and provide some protection from any unexpected spills or leaks.

Instead of using wet floral foam to hold my flowers, I used jars as vases to tuck in the basket. The individual jars are easy to remove to  refresh the water and change the flowers as they fade, so you can enjoy your basket arrangement several weeks until Easter.

I added a packet of floral preservative to the jars that comes with your flowers from the grocery store. Make sure your jars are clean and fresh from the dishwasher so they don’t introduce any bacteria to your flowers.

Strip any leaves from your flowers that would be below the waterline, removing the excess foliage and recut the stems, removing about one inch from the bottom. Cut your stems at a 45 degree angle for maximum water uptake. Add water to your floral preservative, stirring until dissolved. Use room temperature or lukewarm water for maximum absorption for your flowers except for your tulips.

While opinions vary about whether tulips benefit from the addition of floral preservative, there is no debate over the water temperature for tulips~ tulips will last longer with and prefer cold water.

Mini pots of $1.00 iris were blooming at the garden center at Walmart. I watered them thoroughly and then removed them from their pots and wrapped them in plastic bags, tucking them in between the jars in the basket (if you have room in your basket for the pots, feel free to keep them potted). The iris can be planted in the garden after the flowers fade and enjoyed next spring.

 Daffodils secrete a sap after they’re cut that can shorten the vase life of other flowers so keep them in a separate jar instead of mixing them with other flowers.

You can tuck in as many additional flowers or pots that your basket will allow. Pots of trailing ivy or flowers that would cascade or spill over the edges would be a pretty addition to your basket. Add some newspaper or additional plastic bags to fill in the empty spaces between your jars and the edge of the your basket so everything fits snugly and jars don’t tip or spill when you move your basket to your table to enjoy as your centerpiece.

Top your basket arrangement with moss to conceal your mechanics and as a finishing touch your arrangement. I used green preserved Spanish moss.

Faux Easter eggs and decorative egg picks fill in the spaces among the moss for an Easter embellishment in the basket.

Keep your flower basket centerpiece out of direct sunlight and away from direct heat and change your vase water every 2 days to help prolong the life of your flowers.

Everybunny will love your blooming Easter basket at your table ;)

Hop over to visit my blogging friends to see their beautiful baskets for Floral Friday. . .

Shirley at Housepitality Designs

Lidy at FrenchGardenHouse

Pam at Everyday Living

Basket / HomeGoods

Preserved Spanish Moss / Hobby Lobby

Bunny and Chicks pillow / HomeGoods

Decorative Egg Picks / Michaels

Thank you for your visit, sharing with:

 Metamorphosis Monday