As Floral Designers and Crafters we all know that some flowers are going to challenge us with their large diameter stems. In this case, you can cut the web between several holes to accommodate the larger stem. If you know that several flowers you are working with have larger stems then it will be easier to cut the webs and create several larger holes in advance of starting your bouquet.
When you are creating a bouquet like this one or just have flowers that have heavy heads or are top heavy, you will want to put flowers on each side of the dome shaped form to keep it balanced as you keep arranging. The plastic form is thin to create flexibility under the flower heads when you band the stems together so sometimes it wants to tilt a little or will seem unstable. This is purposeful to allow the flower heads and stems to flex as you band. This also allows you to easily twist and lift off the bouquet from the tube when the bouquet is completed.
When trying to create cascading flowers off a hand held bouquet. You can place a water tube underneath the dome shaped form and it will hold the stem in place but just to be sure, I always use a stem tie and band it to the plastic form to be sure it stays in place.
Here you will see that I use a stem tie around the water tube and the plastic dome to make sure it stays in place.
In this bouquet, I had to cut the webs between several holes so that I could put in the Birds of Paradise since their stems are extremely large. I also put several water tubes up under the dome shaped form in this bouquet to create a cascade of flowers and greens.
In this bouquet I used clear stem clips to straddle the holes so that I could create more height in the crystals.
When trying to create height in the middle for a vase arrangement you can use the clear stem clips that straddle the hole or floral clay as seen in this picture. It takes quite a bit of floral clay and a few minutes to dry but once dry I have been able to easily arrange the rest of this bouquet.
Here you will see that I used water tube lids to create more height in the Calla Lillies. The lids will move around on you unless you make sure that you have support flowers surrounding them. They also work better on flowers that don’t have a heavy head. You can also use floral clay or the clear stem clips to straddle the holes and create height as well. Every Floral Designer develops their own technique and preferences based on the flowers used.