Guides
Filling a planter with faux stems without it looking staged
A bundle of twenty stems dropped into a pot reads as a bundle of twenty stems. Spread and layered, the same bundle fills the same pot like something that grew there.
Start at the rim, not the middle
Bend the first four or five stems outward so their tips rest over the rim of the pot. That single step covers the soil line and stops the arrangement from looking like a posy.
Then work inward in a spiral, keeping each stem a little more upright than the one before it, until you reach the centre.
Match the count to the container
A 12 inch bowl takes about four to six stems, a long window box takes a full set of twenty, and a tall narrow pot takes fewer but needs stems of a longer length so the proportions hold.
If a pot still looks thin, add height before adding more stems - a taller stem behind the front row does more than another dozen short ones.
Keep the wire from poking through
The stems carry a wire core, and the cut end can work its way through a soft fabric liner. Fold the last half inch over itself, or stand the stems in a shallow layer of gravel inside the pot.