Brooklyn Style: D.I.Y. Floral Design

Florist-to-the-hipsters Kathleen Hyppolite of Kat Flower displays her gorgeous arrangements at the Brooklyn Flea, a flea market in Brooklyn, NY. In our slideshow, she shares some great tips about how to condition flowers before arranging and how to load your containers with textures and pops of color.

At the Kat Flower stand at the Brooklyn Flea, Hyppolite always displays an arrangement with flowers from the week's offerings to entice people to come to her stall and to advertise for her custom arrangements. This week's arrangement, which would be perfect for a holiday table, includes beautiful flowers in a loose organic arch that is set off by the bright blue of the vase. Reminiscent of a Dutch still life painting, the lush bouquet drew admiring comments from passersby all day long. In the arrangement, Hyppolite includes scented geranium leaves, ranunculus, peonies, carnations, stock, eucalyptus, yarrow, oregano, astilbe, veronica, kumquat, pittosporum, and pieris.

Filling a mason jar with a few stems of bright ranunculus and greenery, Hyppolite puts together a simple arrangement to decorate The Good Batch, her friend's stand, which sells stroopwafels. Mason jars serve as inexpensive and rustic-chic vases. Hyppolite suggests using extra flowers from a larger arrangement to place in jars or bud vases to adorn a bathroom counter or side tables throughout a house. "Don't throw anything away," she says, "Add a ranunculus bloom and some herbs to a small vase and it's perfect for the bathroom."

At the flea market, Hyppolite arranges her flowers by color and type, selling buds by the stem. This is also a simple way to create a chic look in your own home, she suggests. Pick two colors, buy a few stems of flowers in each hue, and arrange simply in a glass vase with greenery for an unfussy arrangement that looks modern and fresh.

"Everybody loves peonies and ranunculus," says Hyppolite, "but sometimes they only have a carnation budget. But carnations can be beautiful." Ruffled and deeply hued, just like the more popular peonies, carnations don't deserve their chintzy reputation. Display them on their own or use them to fill in empty spots in a full bouquet. They're elegant and easily available throughout the year.

These leafy green branches of pieris and pittosporum add a sylvan, almost wild feel to any cut flower arrangement. Consider looking beyond the traditional ferns to fill out an arrangement and create a range of verdant hues. Hyppolite says, "I like arranging with fruit, herbs, and vegetables on the vine. And try using ingredients from your kitchen in your arrangements, such as herbs or citrus fruits, such as kumquats."

Anemones are a burst of joy in the winter, when so many colors have faded and disappeared. Autumn and winter are the time for anemones to shine, with their crepe paper-like texture and dramatic black centers. Gather a bunch of anemones and scented geranium leaves for a centerpiece that has both visual and aromatic appeal.

Silvery and felt-like leaves define dusty miller, a plant that makes an unexpected textural addition to a winter arrangement. Or try eucalyptus branches, above right, which echo the gray of the dusty miller, with a stronger undertone of green. Both can be used in a flower bouquet as filler. Alternatively, gather a large cluster of one or both of the leaves for a monochromatic and sculptural centerpiece.

Bittersweet is ideal for cut flower arrangements, as the branches of the bright orange and red buds will last for days, if not weeks. Its cheery yellow-husked red berries are often featured in Thanksgiving arrangements.

In order to keep your flower arrangements at their best, thoroughly clean your vases and dry them before filling them with a water and a bit of flower food. When bringing any cut flowers home from the market, trim off each end on the diagonal with a sharp knife, remove any lower foliage that might end up under the water line, and place each stalk into the vase at an angle to help it rehydrate. If flowers gives off sap, such as poppies, the end should be cauterized with an open flame, after being trimmed, before being placed into the vase.

These brightly colored blossoms of ranunculus are the most popular bloom at the Kat Flower stand. Though they are more expensive than other cut flowers, ranunculus are a good value—with proper care, they can last almost a week in an arrangement. Hyppolite especially likes ranunculus for bud vases and suggests buying shades of ranunculus in the same color family (like the pink, red, and orange blooms above) for sophisticated and easy arrangement.

Sprays of astilbe, scented geranium, and milkweed (or asclepias), are grouped together for a sweet mix of pink, green, and orange stems. Feathery, fluffy pink astilbe are perfect for adding a vertical element to an arrangement. They can evoke a delicate coral reef with their unusual shape. Scented geranium leaves, the plants in the middle of the vase, have a wonderful perfume and are an easy way to bring the garden indoors—if you have any growing at home, trim several stems to use in your holiday arrangements. And on the far right, milkweed, or asclepias, has a milky sap, and needs to be cauterized with an open flame after trimming so that its sap does not cloud the vase's water, which would prevent water intake for the other types of flowers.

As you consider your holiday arrangements, stop by your local farmers' markets to discover small stands like Kat Flower, which are great sources for stylish, unusual, and in-season blooms. No matter what you choose, the result will be sure to please.