Summer Splendour Artificial Flower Arrangement

Forty-three stems. Twenty varieties. The kind of arrangement you walk past in the lobby of a five-star hotel and assume someone is maintaining daily.

Pink peonies with full, open heads. White Casablanca lilies with wide, elegant blooms that are virtually indistinguishable from fresh. Dark blue hydrangeas. Blue delphiniums with their tall, cottage-garden spires. A white magnolia branch. Six colours of sweet pea. White cosmos. And that's before you count the green viburnum, paniculata hydrangeas, blueberry sprays, eucalyptus, ficus, salal leaf and Queen Anne's lace filling it out.

The palette moves between pink, blue, white and green with real confidence, and every stem brings a different bloom shape, height or texture. Peonies are round and full. Lilies are wide and open. Delphiniums are vertical. Sweet peas are fine and ruffled. The foliage varies from eucalyptus discs to glossy ficus to salal leaves. Nothing repeats the same note twice.

At around 85cm, it demands a room with space and height. Entrance halls, large living rooms, dining rooms built for entertaining. It needs a vase with presence to match. A tall, wide-mouthed ceramic or a large glass cylinder.

Originally designed for interior designer Sophie Robinson, and it shows. Hotels pay florists weekly to keep arrangements like this looking fresh. You do it once.