Easy Guide To Designing Your Own Floral Arrangement

by Nicole Berglund | Apr 2023

Resident shares tips and tricks for curating the perfect bouquet.

A beautiful floral arrangement doesn’t have to be reserved for special occasions. Tajalli Missaghi, owner of The Petal floral design in Edina, believes that flowers can be as much a part of your home’s décor as a painting or throw pillow. But the beauty of flowers is they can be swapped out whenever the mood strikes. Today, she shares her advice for designing your own stunning floral arrangements.

Step 1: Pick Your Vase

Before picking flowers, Missaghi recommends choosing your vase, while keeping in mind the shape, size and style of the arrangement you want to create. “I design around the vase,” she says. “But I also pick a vase that complements the design I’m working with. I really love low bowls for soft, organic arrangements. I also really love compote arrangements in footed vases.” She recommends a basic cylinder vase if you’re looking to create an arrangement with more height or a traditional vase with a neck that flutes out for a fuller arrangement, as the vase will help fan out the arrangement.

Step 2: Gather Your Greenery

Missaghi begins all her arrangements with greenery to add shape and depth while creating a unique textural experience. “Greenery builds your base and your shape, so it adds all fullness first, and then you accent it with the flowers,” she says. Understanding the movement of the flowers will determine which greenery to use. A more stiff arrangement pairs with stiff greenery, like Israeli ruscus or huckleberry, while a whimsical arrangement demands loose plants capable of movement, like eucalyptus, Italian pittosporum or weigela.

Step 3: Choose Your Color Palette

The color of the greenery sets the tone for the rest of the arrangement, as it should complement the hues in the flowers. Missaghi says rich, dark greens, like huckleberry and Italian ruscus, pair wonderfully with the deep tones of the berry color family; pale greens, like eucalyptus, pair with pastel florals. When bringing in a variety of floral colors into the same bouquet, Missaghi recommends using a color wheel as your cheat sheet. She typically chooses colors next to each other on the color wheel—like pink and purple—complementary colors, such as purple and yellow, or various shades of the same color. She also plays with the different color tones found in the flowers—say, playing off the yellow center of one flower with yellow petals on another.

Step 4: Add Variety and Depth

Beyond the color palette, Missaghi also uses a formula to bring in different types and sizes of flowers. “I always include the focal flower, filler flowers, textural elements, a linear flower and then … I call them floaters, [but] anything with movement,” she says. This variety in blossom size, height, texture, movement and placement gives a bouquet visual depth, resulting in an arrangement that feels organic and totally unique.

Designing a Floral Arrangement

The Petal: From Creative Outlet to Successful Business

Floral design began as a hobby for Missaghi, who had always enjoyed purchasing flowers by the stem at her local flower shop to create unique arrangements. She began to formalize this hobby when she designed the florals for her brother’s wedding, and later for other friends and family. By 2014, she turned her creative outlet into an official floral design business, The Petal, which she operated out of a home shop in Chicago.

Tajalli Missaghi, owner of The Petal floral design studio in Edina.

After moving to Minnesota in 2019 with her husband, Amir, and their two children, she continued her business, and in October 2022 opened a brick-and-mortar location to share her passion for flowers with the community. “I love working with people and creating something that is memorable for them,” she says. “I absolutely love watching people just have fun with flowers.”

Today, The Petal floral boutique offers floral designs for weddings, special events, and holidays; it also offers custom arrangements with local delivery. But inside this Edina shop, Missaghi’s Bloom Bar offers a unique experience for individuals to build their very own arrangement, alongside small giftable items throughout the storefront.

On any given day, The Bloom Bar contains roughly 15 varieties of flowers and greenery with curated color palettes catered to the season. The flowers, which are locally sourced in the spring and summer, are available for purchase by the stem. Visitors can build their own bouquet, or Missaghi can create an arrangement for you with florals and greenery from the Bloom Bar.

Dried Flower Bouquets