Some of the Principles and Elements of great design in floral art and flower arranging are; accent, balance, colour, contrast, dominance, form, line, pattern, proportion, rhythm, scale, space and texture. A brief introduction to each element and principle as associated with floral design is available in this free series with a more comprehensive series of instructions and examples available on the DVD Elements of Floral Design and its companion DVD Six Secrets to floral design with 6 principles. The feature illustrated here is the element unity and you will find links to the others in this free series at the top of each page

Unity is all about choosing your plant material and container carefully so every part of the design is used in harmony so all the parts look great when put together. Therefore the container and accessories colour, size and shape should be considered as part of the design.

Unity by using colour gives a design feeling of all being connected, each part being in tune with each other part

Unity by form; By repeating the same forms such as mostly round or mostly linear, unity is also achieved

unity with rhythm;When most of the elements of your flower arrangement are following a similar pathway you will have created unity with rhythm

unity with accessories;Drapes winding through a design will unify it but another way is to use accessories such as small ornaments, pearl headed pins etc which pick up the flower colours beneath

Unity with mechanics; White paper cones used to house flower phials in a modern European design are placed for example, on Willow sticks thus giving instant unity throughout.

Unity with texture;If the texture is all the same it creates unity but it would be boring so use the opportunity for strong colour or form contrasts.

From these six examples you can see unity doesn't just mean all the same colour. It can be repetition of colour OR form, shape, texture or pattern.

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