Combining fresh roses, peonies, and hyacinths in exciting new ways allows us to enjoy their beauty each day. We asked floral designer Gaye Drummond to show you some shortcuts and tricks of the trade for making several of the stunning arrangements that are her specialty. Fashion one of these delights whenever company's coming or any time you're ready for a wonderful treat.

Welcome to the South
Gaye's exquisite arrangements always look as though they've just been plucked from a country garden. She perfected this distinctive style in her hometown of Dedham, England, while decorating for parties, weddings, and other events. Three years ago, her husband, Allan, was named chairman of the illustration department at the Savannah College of Art and Design. With their sons Edward, George, and Henry, the couple established a wonderful new home in one of Savannah's historic neighborhoods. In her workroom there, Gaye continues to create fabulous designs such as these. Lucky for us, she's sharing her tricks and secrets to creating bunches of blooms that will brighten your own home.

Let's Talk Flowers
Here are Gaye's tips for capturing this gorgeous, inspiring look.
• Use a plentiful amount of blossoms and greenery, and combine plant materials with different colors, textures, and shapes. Use fern fronds, ivy, moss, and eucalyptus to frame the flowers and to fill out arrangements.
• Look for blooms with unbruised leaves and buds that are just starting to open. Recut all stems, and stand them in a mixture of cool water and flower preservative until it's time to arrange them.
• Balance the lushness of your arrangements with simple containers such as baskets, clay pots, glass vases, and iron urns.

Spiral the Stems To make a posy (a classic English hand-tied bouquet), Gaye uses long-stemmed flowers such as snapdragons, roses, tulips, and lisianthus. Eucalyptus and viburnum add various shades of green. The clear glass container showcases the posy's distinctive spiraled stems. 1. Starting about 8 to 10 inches from the top of the flowers, remove all foliage from the stems. Carefully strip off any thorns with a sharp paring knife. 2. Hold a cluster of several flowers in your left hand, at the midpoint of the stems. Gradually add other blooms, three stems at a time. Place each addition of flowers on the right and angle the stems to the left, gradually forming a spiral. As you add the rest of the flowers, give the bouquet frequent clockwise quarter turns.
3. At the center of the spiral, tightly wrap the stems with florist tape.	4. Along the bottom, cut stems straight across.	5. Set the posy in a glass vase filled with water and flower preservative; cut and remove tape. Change the water every two or three days.