Want to create an impact in your home or office?

Get your hands on some great flowers (that's half the battle won!).

Then follow some rules.

Then work with your instincts to create flights of fancy.

Work With The Line-Mass-Filler Principle

Line flowers are tall and give your arrangement height, width and balance. Most line flowers have buds growing up a centre stalk (as with gladiolus, delphinium, tuberoses...). Branches and tall foliage can serve as line flowers too.

Mass flowers give the arrangement weight and are generally round and full- faced. They are usually single-flower stems and usually bring colour and interest to the arrangement. Roses, carnations, gerberas, lilies, zinnias and chrysanthemums are examples of mass flowers.

Filler flowers and foliage round out your arrangement and give it a fuller look. Queen's Anne lace, ferns, asters are filler flowers.

Go Arrange

Depending on the flowers you have at hand, you can arrange a single striking bloom in a bud vase (with a few accompaniments), or arrange them artfully in a vase, tie up some to make a tasteful bouquet or go all out and create a centrepiece (or should we say 'masterpiece'?). (Basic instructions in: 'Arrangemnet By Type')

Review And Reject The Rules If Required

At the end of the day, a stunning floral arrangement is about working with the materials at hand and your own creativity. Yes, you may decide to follow the latest trends in design and Ikebana, but the important thing is to go with your instincts. If you think certain flowers or colours will look good together, put them together - irrespective of what the books or schools say.

Arrangements By Type

The Bud Vase: Select a narrow necked vase and fill it with water. Cut a flower stem twice the height of the vase. Strip it so no leaves will be covered by water and place it in the vase. Add support if you like, with a stem or two of linear foliage or a curly twig. You could also add a few small leaves at the rim of the vase to balance the look.

Loose Flowers In A Vase: Fill your vase with water. Strip off the leaves that will otherwise be under water. Cut the stems to about twice the height of your vase, leaving a few a little longer for the centre of the arrangement. First insert your foliage and filler flowers to create a grid that will hold your line flowers. Add your line flowers, starting at the rim of the vase towards the centre, as if they were points on a triangle. Place the reserved long stems in the centre. Review the arrangement and make adjustments if necessary.

The Bouquet: Start by stripping leaves from the lower half of all stems. (While making this bouquet, hold the flowers and foliage midway up the stems between your thumb and fingers.) Pick up a flower and a foliage stem. Begin by placing one stem directly on top of the other at about 45 degree. Continue adding stems of flowers and foliage at an angle, building your bouquet in a clockwise fashion. Place similar colours across from one another. When you have the handful of flowers you want, bind it with twine or ribbon at the point where your hand is on the bouquet. Pull the twine up through the bottom stem and tug gently. Trim the stems evenly at the bottom.

The Centrepiece: Fill a shallow container with wet floral foam. Cut all the flowers and foliage to approximately the same height, leaving a few stems longer for the middle of the arrangement. Create a green foundation by inserting foliage (filler), starting in the middle of the foam, and using the tallest flowers first, and moving outwards in a circular fashion. Repeat the process with your line and mass flowers, tallest flowers first, working outwards to a fan shape. Review, adjust and add filler if necessary. As you grow more adventurous, explore with horizontal, vertical and triangular arrangements.

Compiled by Primrose Monteiro-D'Souza

Some Tips

• Make sure your blooms are the best.

• Make sure your containers are clean.

• Use a sharp knife or pair of scissors to trim.

• Keep the arrangement away from traffic pollution or a smoke-filled environment.

• Get your water temperature right.

• Remove all leaves and foliage below the water line.

• To refresh the water in an arrangement, place the arrangement in a sink or bucket and add fresh water till the container overflows and the water runs clear.

• Use wire and tape to give heavy flowers extra support.

Schools Of Floral Arrangement

The Japanese have imbued the system of arranging cut flowers with such vision that schools of philosophy and design principles were born. In India, the Ohara School of Ikebana is very active, holding regular demo-cum-lecture workshops and organising learning trips to Japan.

Ikebana Themes

"Themes can be fun, though it does require a bit of thinking!" says Ohryu Rekha Reddy, who has been practising Ikebana for the last 20 years. Last year, Rekha had worked on the theme - 'Krishna Janmashtami'. The arrangements intelligently showed Krishna by the choice of colours or flowers. 'Raasleela' - a circular arrangement with yellow gladioli, and Krishna atop Sheshnag - with the use of special flowers. Her recent exhibition in Hyderabad, was based on the theme, 'Books and ikebana'. Some books represented were, 'White Mughals', 'Three Men In A Boat', 'The God of Small Things', 'Moon and Sixpence', 'Gone with the Wind' and 'Flight of the Falcon'.Talking about one of her exhibitions in Ladhak, she exclaims, "I picked up flowers as we drove up to Leh and used Ladhakhi containers for vases." She believes in using locally available material - be it lichen or moss, which she used in New Zealand or the wild flowers in Ladhak.