Create a Happy Summertime Basket Flower Arrangement (It’s Foam Free!)

With July being officially named American Grown Flowers month by the U.S. Senate (woohoo!), we at Team Flower wanted to celebrate! Check out the official press release here. And what better way to celebrate than with a bright and happy floral arrangement! This particular design is foam free and in a structured woven straw basket. 

If you’re curious where your flowers are coming from and you don’t see a label, ask for American Grown Flowers from your floral supplier—or connect directly with one of their farms! Read more about American Grown Flowers by visiting their site. 

For this feature, we worked with our friends at American Grown Flowers (AGF) to create a fun summertime design filled with bright flowers from local farms. And in this tutorial, the flowers we used are from the following beautiful growers: 

• Albin Hagstrom & Son in Pierson, Florida

• Texas Specialty Cut Flowers (aka Arnosky Family Farms) in Blanco, Texas

• Star Valley Flowers in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin

• Ocean Breeze Farm in Carpinteria Valley and Nipomo, California

• Sun Valley Floral Farms in Arcata, California

Ready to make a cheerful modern basket flower arrangement? This one is perfect for an outdoor summer picnic or BBQ. If you want a large floral arrangement to put on the ground of your outdoor buffet table or in front of your door to greet guests as they arrive for a summer brunch, then this design is for you! You can’t go wrong with a big basket filled with beautiful flowers. 

With so many bright florals from AGF, I wanted to create a happy and lush arrangement overflowing in a straw basket. Flowers in baskets just scream summer to me, and the different textures play off of each other perfectly! 

Choose Your Basket or Container and Your Floral Mechanics 

The first step is to decide on your basket or container. Feel free to use any basket you have on hand, big or small! The market basket I’m using today is from Target, but you can find them at any home goods store or thrift store. 

Next, decide which floral mechanics you’ll use for your arrangement. This particular arrangement is 100% foam free! I simply started with two buckets filled with water. For a sturdier arrangement, you could add a ball of chicken wire inside each bucket and waterproof tape at the top. For today, I left my design open and free! 

Add Your Greenery 

I started my summertime floral arrangement by adding my greenery. The tree fern from Albin Hagstrom added such a fun, rich color and excellent texture against the woven basket I chose for my container. I like to add greenery in clusters, so you’ll see the tree fern is heavy on the left side of the basket to add more of an impact to the arrangement. 

Choose Your Focal Flowers (Also Called Mass Flowers) 

Next, I added in some of the larger focal flowers (sometimes called mass flowers) like the sunflowers, gerberas, zinnias, and marigolds—still clustering in groupings of 3–7. I find that with wildflower arrangements like this one, the more color the better. So I’ve added whites, yellows, oranges, pinks, and peaches! You can’t go wrong with all these warm tones.

Add in Your Filler Flowers (Also Referred to as Floater Flowers) 

Lastly, add in your filler flowers (also sometimes referred to as floater flowers). For the shorter stems like the tulips, celosia, and hellebore, I used water tubes. This means that these smaller-stemmed beauties can be in direct water but still sit at the top of the arrangement. Once the majority of an arrangement is full, I love to add little floaters scattered for a delicate texture—and the Queen Anne's Lace from Texas Specialty Cut was perfect for that! 

As a floral professional, there’s nothing better than supporting your local flower farms while creating meaningful and happy arrangements—and you can do that through American Grown Flowers. 

While July is now the official month of American Grown Flowers, we can shop local any month! Thank you AGF for sharing such beautiful products from incredible American farms across the country. 

I hope you enjoyed this quick summertime basket flower arrangement tutorial. Here’s a fun time lapse of me making it! We’d love to see what you’re creating with American Grown Flowers (or growing yourself!) over on the Team Flower Community.