Guide to the 3 5 8 Rule in Floristry — Petal & Poem - HK's Top Luxury Florist (2024)

FAQs

Guide to the 3 5 8 Rule in Floristry — Petal & Poem - HK's Top Luxury Florist? ›

What is the 3 5 8 Rule? The 3 5 8 rule in floristry refers to the concept of using three types of flowers, five stems of greenery, and eight stems of filler flowers in a floral arrangement. This rule provides a balanced structure to the arrangement by ensuring a harmonious combination of different floral elements.

One of the European designs that we create in floristry is called the Form Linear, in which we apply flowers by using the 3:5:8 rule, with 3 main focal groups: 3 = Sub-dominate Group/Placement. 5 = Contrasting Group/Placement. 8 = Dominate Group/Placement.

In traditional flower arranging, there are four basic forms to create a perfectly balanced arrangement: the upright, the tilt, the horizontal, and the drooping. There are also three basic principles: follow nature, learn from nature, and present nature in a better way.

Employ The Golden Ratio

According to Bruni, the "golden ratio" for floral arranging is creating a visual where the arrangement is two-and-a-half sizes bigger than its container.

The rule of three is a design principle based on the inherent human preference for odd numbers, which tend to look more natural and less rigid than even-numbered groupings. Arranging items in odd numbers can create a more appealing and balanced visual composition.

In general, a flower has four whorl components, namely the calyx, corolla, gynoecium and androecium.

Floral formulae are a system to represent a flower's structure using specific numbers, letters, and symbols, hence it is a simple way to present salient features of a flower. It portrays the number of parts, floral symmetry, connotation and adnation, ovary position and insertion.

Ikebana is the centuries-old Japanese art of arranging flowers. The practice, which roughly translates to “making flowers come alive,” uses carefully selected blossoms, greenery and other flora to convey a specific feeling or emotion to an observer – just as a painting or sculpture might.

Unlike the particular placement of flowers which emphasizes structure and form in Japanese flower arranging, the Chinese craft is an expression of mood and feeling which does not adhere to a standard form, While arrangements may lack the decorative beauty of their Japanese counterparts, they possess a creativity seldom ...

Grouping flowers through the design gives a sense of movement and continuity. Curved lines create greater movement than straight ones. Recession, achieved by placing some flowers at lower levels than others, is also important.

What is the flower petal ratio? ›

Phi appears in petals on account of the ideal packing arrangement as selected by Darwinian processes; each petal is placed at 0.618034 per turn (out of a 360° circle) allowing for the best possible exposure to sunlight and other factors.

Phi is usually rounded off to 1.618 and this is a common number throughout nature. The numbers of petals in many flowers (not all) follow the Fibonacci sequence. Oddly Phi appears as each petal is placed at 0.618034 per turn (out of a 360° circle) which is allowing for the best possible exposure to sunlight.

The 3 5 8 rule in floristry refers to the concept of using three types of flowers, five stems of greenery, and eight stems of filler flowers in a floral arrangement. This rule provides a balanced structure to the arrangement by ensuring a harmonious combination of different floral elements.

The perfect arrangement of flowers is the one with the right balance. This means that the height of the arrangement should be at least one and a half times more than the height of the container. Although the height of the arrangement can be higher than this, it is never lower.

A well-balanced arrangement is stable in appearance and does not appear to tilt to either side. Proportion refers to the proper relationship between various parts of the arrangement and between plant materials and the container. Size of flowers and foliage and stem length are major considerations.

How tall should flowers be in a vase? As a rule of thumb, flowers or vase should dominate in ratio 1.5:1. For tall arrangements, flowers should be 1.5x the height of the container. Alternatively, for a low arrangement (like a mound of hydrangeas in a cube vase), these proportions should be reversed.

Flowers should be one and a half to two times the height of their vase. For example, for a 12-inch flower vase, your flowers should be 18 to 24 inches tall. For bowl-shape and small cube containers, keep flowers at about one and half times the height to the vase.

Size: In Floral Design, size is a visual dimension of a component, rather than the actual dimension. The six Principles of Design are: Balance, Contrast, Dominance, Proportion, Scale and Rhythm.

The five elements of design are line, color, form, space and texture. I will discuss each element and what the importance of each element is. The first element I will discuss is line.