When I started arranging flowers, my bouquets always looked... busy. Like I'd grabbed whatever was pretty and shoved it in a vase. Here's the one rule that changed everything:

Pick exactly 3 roles for your flowers — never more:

1. Focal — your biggest, showiest bloom (peonies, garden roses, dahlias). This is what the eye goes to first.

2. Supporting — a mid-size flower in a complementary shape/color that fills space around the focal (ranunculus, spray roses).

3. Filler/texture — small, airy stuff that fills gaps and adds movement (waxflower, thistle, greenery).

That's it. No 4th category. The second you add a 4th 'type' of flower, the arrangement starts competing with itself and reads as cluttered instead of intentional.

Professional florists follow ratios here too — roughly 20% focal, 50% supporting, 30% filler by stem count. You don't need exotic or expensive flowers to make something look expensive. You need restraint.

Been teaching this to beginners inside Bloom School and it's the single biggest 'aha' moment people have. Curious if other florists here have their own version of this rule — would love to hear how you think about composition.