Whether you buy your flowers, or pick them from your own garden, you want them to look beautiful and last as long as possible. So here you'll find a step-by-step guide for creating a variety of superb arrangements for everyday pleasure and special occasions. Plus there are tips to help you keep your gorgeous blooms fresh for ages. Enjoy!

1 Create a dramatic sculptural display with ornamental fruits, palms and glossy leaves such as monstera (above). They're great value as they can last up to a month, provided the water is changed every other day.

STEP 1 Select a tall bottle-shaped vase, fill it with water and submerge a monstera leaf in the bottom.

STEP 2 Put 4 tall palms in the vase. The stems will be partially concealed by the monstera leaf.

STEP 3 Insert a bunch of red chillies, shorter than the palms, in the centre front of the arrangement. Finish with a couple of monstera leaves around the rim of the vase, angling them slightly.

2 Mix flowers with different textures to great effect. Try teaming showy gerberas with waxy leucadendrons and soft amaranthus with their long rope-like flowers.

STEP 1 Cut all stems to suit the height of a spherical vase and remove leaves below the waterline. Gather several leucadendrons in one hand, crossing the stems. Group tall green amaranthus at the back and red amaranthus at the front of the bunch, crossing the stems.

STEP 2 Put the arrangement in the vase. Insert wired red gerberas, cut to size, between the leucadendrons, aiming for a fan-like shape with an even distribution of colour.

3 Gather an armful of cottage-garden flowers, such as dahlias, stock and lisianthus, in pale colours for a dreamy arrangement.

4 Chrysanthemums are long-lasting, hardy flowers that are also extremely easy to work with. So if you are looking for a bouquet you can put together in an instant, pick up 2-3 bunches of chrysanthemums in two colours.

5 When the perfect vase is not at hand, raid your crystal cabinet for a suitable vessel. When arranging delicate, bruise-prone gardenias, first fill the vase with water to lessen handling. Place the longest gardenia stems in the middle and, turning the vase around as you go, arrange shorter stems around the rim. Is your vase too tall for the flowers you want to display? Simply raise the base by putting clear glass pebbles or scrunched Cellophane in the bottom of the vase.

Decorator's tip

As soon as you bring flowers home, cut the stems with a very sharp knife under water to prevent air bubbles from entering the stems. Cut the stems at a 45-degree angle to encourage your flowers to absorb water. Immediately plunge the flowers into a vase of tap water.