A Winter Camellia Arrangement

Camellias are one of winter's most stunning flowers and ours begin blooming in January.  The earliest variety to welcome the new year usually is this soft pink Debutante Camellia.  Its profusion of petals in soft blush and light pink are a lovely prelude to the parade of flowers that will follow.

The twirling waves of petals and round shape of these camellias make them a perfect choice for a simple design that draws attention to the flowers by eliminating the foliage. 

I chose a gold pedestal bowl for a container and trimmed the camellia stems to about 3-5" long.  Then I stripped the leaves from the stems before inserting them into the water-filled bowl.  The shortest stemmed flowers were placed around the edge of the bowl first.  Then the longer stemmed blooms were added in the center for height to create a dome shape.  

Another easy and elegant way to display camellias is to clip the stems off completely and float them in a bowl of water as shown above.  Be very careful when handling these flowers as they are extremely fragile and touching the petals may cause scarring.  Holding them at the stem or base will keep the blooms beautiful.