How to arrange flowers according to Sydney's best florist

Florist Sean Cook or Mr Cook florist is known for being one of Australia's best florists. His floral installations are inspired and his bouquets are beautiful. And lucky for us, Sean has taken the time to teach us how to arrange flowers in just 10 easy steps.

In this tutorial, Sean combines green and pink flowers of different shapes and textures to create an extravagant arrangement.

Here, the only floral aspects are hydrangeas and roses, picked fresh from the garden or bought from a florist or market. The rest is an eclectic collection of potted plants and cuttings from the garden that are placed next to, not in, the arrangement. But the star is a discarded banksia branch. This arrangement is very large so it’s probably best to arrange your branch where you want it to stay first.

Gather your supplies

Cuttings from a fruiting fig tree (Ficus carica)
Potted chalk sticks (Senecio serpens)
2 potted painted leaf begonias (Begonia rex)
Branch from a banksia tree
3 hydrangea blooms
2 dozen standard red roses
2 dozen red and pink Colombia roses
Large rhipsalis leaf (Selenicereus chrysocardium, formerly Epiphyllum chrysocardium)

You’ll also need

Large bowl; wide shallow container; 2 tall vases (can be different heights and shapes); secateurs

Need to know

Refreshing the water regularly may disturb this large arrangement. Add Milton anti-bacterial tablets (used to sterilise baby-feeding accessories) to water before you start arranging to keep it fresh.