Floriculture
Lesson Title:
Green Floral Arrangements
NE Career Field/
Career Cluster/
Career Pathway:
Agriculture, Food, and Natural ResourcesPlant Systems
Overview:
This lesson provides a hands on learning experience where students can put their knowledge
of floral design to work on a tight budget.
Student Learning
Objectives:
Objective 1: Learners will create a lasting floral design using recycled plastic pop bottles.
Time:
Three 45-minute periods for construction of arrangements. Additional time needed to
introduce concepts leading up to project.
Tools, Equipment,
and Supplies:
Recycled plastic bottles of all shapes and sizes
Recycled bottle caps
Scissors
Spray Paint
Floral Wire
Ribbon
Sand
Drill w/ small bit
Interest Approach:
Have all supplies sitting on a table at the front of the room.
Objective 2: Learners will implement floral practices such as shape, design, harmony, unity,
color, balance, proportion, scale, focal point, rhythm, line, form, space, depth, and texture.
 Today we are going to make floral arrangements using only the materials on this table.
Take 2-3 minutes to come up with your idea for how you might make these materials into
a beautiful arrangement.
Give students 2-3 minutes to come up with ideas. Have a few volunteers share their ideas for
making floral arrangements. When finished, hand out instructions for making arrangements.
 You have all shared some very creative ideas. I have just handed out the instructions for
how we are going to create our arrangements. What are some floral practices that we
should keep in mind as we create our arrangements?
Discuss some of the previously covered concepts and how these can be implemented into the
design.
Steps for
Construction:
Step #1: Go dumpster diving! Have students collect bottles from home or the trash at school. For
the smallest arrangement, you will need at least 4 bottles of different sizes and at least 3 extra
bottle caps. One bottle should be big enough to be made into the vase. Remind them that when
digging through trash, it isn’t a bad idea to where latex gloves.
Step #2: Wash bottles, remove labels, and let dry. Many of the bottles that you will find will still
have liquid in them. It is important to rinse them out and also remove the labels before using them.
Be sure to keep the bottles caps, as these will be used in the design as well.
Step #3: Cut up bottles. Choose which bottle you want to use as your vase, and set it aside. Cut
the tops and bottoms off the remaining bottles. The more plastic you cut, the larger the flower. To
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make the petals, cut in an “S” curve towards the centers of the tops and bottoms. Students can get
creative by cutting thin or thick strips. Also, the type of bottle used will determine the shape of the
flowers. When finished cutting, make sure that all of the tops have a cap.
Step #4: Paint the flowers. Using what students have learned about color and design, have them
choose colors to spray paint their flowers. Because the plastic drips paint, it is best to lay all of the
flowers out on one side, paint that side, let them dry, and then flip them to paint the other side.
Extra caps can also be painted to use as filler in the arrangements.
Step #5: Create stem holes. A drill with a small bit can be used to drill holes in the flowers made
from the bottoms of bottles as well as the extra caps. Two holes must be drilled in order to attach
floral wire.
Step #6: Attach stems. The flowers from bottle tops can be attached by wrapping floral wire
around the cap. The flowers from bottle tops and caps must be attached but putting the wire up
through one drilled hole and down the other. You can create spirals in the stems by wrapping wire
around your finger.
Step #7: Create your vase. Cut the top off of the bottle that you chose to use as your vase. Paint
the bottle and fill with sand.
Step #8: Arrange the flowers and caps. Keep in mind concepts of floral design as you create your
arrangement. Have students try to create a focal point, rhythm, harmony, and balance. The height
of the flowers can be adjusted by cutting the floral wire. NOTE: The flowers stand up best when
the wire in the sand is twice folded.
Step #9: Create a bow. When the arrangement is complete, use mad bow making skills to create a
bow that suites your arrangement.
Review:
Once all arrangements are complete, you could have students judge each other’s
arrangements using a rubric with terms from floral design. They can rank each arrangement
on a 1-5 scale based on harmony, proportion, scale, etc. You can then call on them to
discuss components of each arrangement.
Extended Classroom/
Laboratory Activity:
There are several ideas online for how to jazz this project up. I didn’t want to turn my
floriculture class into an art class, though, so I decided to keep it simple.
Extended
FFA/Leadership
Activity:
Students can create arrangements for FFA banquets, for gifts for supporters, etc.
Extended
SAE/Experiential
Activity:
A student could perfect this idea and create recycled arrangements to be sold online or at a
local craft store.
Assessment:
See Attached Rubric
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