Our Ella Compote is probably the most versatile piece in the bunch.  Perfect for creating dainty and petite centrepieces or for more abundant, larger floral arrangements, by adding exaggerated height and width using taller stemmed flowers.

As with every piece in the Oh Flora collection, the Ella Compote is designed with sustainable, foam-free floral arranging in mind.  The shapes and finishes of our vessels aren't just for looks, they are super functional too! 

Our Ella Compote has a wide bowl base, allowing your stems space to naturally work with gravity and sprawl freely.  The tapered top helps to keep your design mechanics in place, specifically when using chicken wire. 

Before you get started, you’ll want to prepare your compote flowers.  

Flowers survive much longer in a super clean and dust free vase.

For all arrangements, always remove any foliage below the water line in your vase.  Soggy, wet foliage starts to grow bacteria, causing the water to smell and limits the life of your flowers.  

Here are our favourite top three ways to create dreamy designs in
our Ella Compote using simple techniques that are easy, reusable, and limit waste.


1. With A Ceramic Flower Frog


A heavy, solid ceramic flower frog gives weight to hold your stems in place and avoid toppling without the use of tapes, floral adhesive or even chicken
wire. 

Our Ceramic Flower Frog fits seamlessly into our Ella Compote.

You can also find beautiful, vintage ceramic, glass and metal flower frogs on online market places like Etsy.

• Simply place into your Ella, fill your compote with fresh water and get designing.
• Cut your stems at different heights as you place them into the flower frog.  This helps to create an interesting and natural shape to your design.  
• For tall and top-heavy blooms, we recommend using floral adhesive clay in four points around your frog.  Our favourite is Sure-Stik.

Our Ceramic Flower Frog has been designed for narrow stemmed flowers.  If you're wanting to arrange flowers with large, thick or very heavy stems, see other arranging methods below. 


2. With Chicken Wire

• Cut enough chicken wire, so it overlaps and creates three layers when you roll it.
  
  
• Fit and shape your wire into the vessel, scrunching it into a small ball, making sure the edges are tucked in and no sharp ends are poking out. 

• Optional:  Adhere waterproof florist tape to one side of the vessel and lay it across the chicken wire. Gently press the tape to stick on the wire before adhering to the other side. We like to tape in a criss-cross shape for the Ella Compote.  This step can be skipped if your wire is snug enough in your vessel so that it’s not rolling around.  

• Fill your vessel with fresh water avoiding the tape ends, and begin arranging your blooms!

Tip: simply throw your wire in the dishwasher to rid any bacteria between arrangements.


3. Creating a Hand Tied Posy

• Layer and cross your stems at different heights to create a small posy.
   
• Using twine or florist tape, firmly tie your posy at 1 point (don't wrap up and down the stems). 
  
  
• Gently pull at the ends of your stems in an outward direction to sprawl your posy and make it wider.
  
  
• Carefully cut the ends so that the stem length is just shorter than the depth of the compote.  Fill your compote with fresh water and place in your posy! You may need to adjust it a little or trim the stems more.  

A FEW THINGS TO NOTE

• Time is of the essence.  As soon as you’ve cut your stems, so don't forgot to pop them in the water straight away.  If you fear you’ve left your stem on the bench just that little bit too long, you can always recut it.

• Have fun and play with different heights, textures, sizes and colours... Variety in colour and shape is always a good look! 

• For tips on creating an airy and romantic feel to bouquets, you can delve into one of our previous blog posts here.

GET DESIGNING

And voila!  A gorgeous floral arrangement for your next event or dinner party.

We can’t wait to see what you create using our Ella Compote. Show us your looks and become a part of the Oh Flora Store community by tagging @ohflorastore in your IG stories and posts.

Our Ella Compotes are available in Hazel, Washed Terracotta, Shell and Beige Blush.  Shop the collection today!