When making a gardenia bouquet, such as for a wedding or other special occasion, thin wire should be used for the maximum flexibility. Either a more contained or a flowing type of bouquet with or without other flowers can be created using gardenias, greenery and florist's tape to secure the hand wiring. Another good method for gardenia bouquets is to glue the flowers into floral foam. It's important to remember that gardenias are very delicate, waxy-textured flowers that usually shouldn't be formed into bouquets sooner than two days before the event.
Misting the flowers with cool water and keeping them refrigerated, but not at too cold of a setting, can help keep gardenia edges from browning or curling. When it's time to create the gardenia bouquet, the flowers should be handled carefully, as the thin wire will usually have to be pierced through the base of the stem end. It may take a few X-shaped movements with the base wire to secure the bloom on its wiry "stem." As natural gardenia stems are typically very short, the lengths of wire should be quite long and any excess may be snipped off later.
Short, ball-shaped gardenia bouquets are better projects for beginners than the more involved spray types of flowing floral arrangement. Yet, it usually just takes practice in twisting the wires together underneath the gardenias to show on the top of the flowing bouquet. Green paper florist's tape to wrap the wire stems of a ball-shaped gardenia bouquet can also be used to support the twisted stem connections when hand wiring floral sprays.
Using a piece of floral foam is typically a much faster way than hand wiring a gardenia bouquet. Less wire is needed, but it may need to be thicker in order to keep the gardenias from looking droopy when inserted into the foam. The wire stem ends of each gardenia will need to be inserted to make an indent in the floral foam before glue is added. Then each flower can be secured into the bouquet.
To suit the delicate appeal of gardenias, lacy or airy types of greenery such as ferns or thin grasses should be used in the bouquets. As for adding other flowers to a gardenia bouquet, roses often make an ideal choice, especially in delicate shades of cream, peach or pale pink. Gauzy ribbon can make the perfect finishing touch to gardenia bouquets, although care should be taken not to overwhelm the dainty flowers with too much strong color.
