Calculating Flower Walls. ~ Mayesh

I typically start my day checking social media pages and Facebook groups. This morning I came across someone asking how many roses do you need per square foot when designing a flower wall? If you have the same question, here is my answer that you can use if you are trying to cover any type of surface with flowers.

You may remember that I love flower math! So here is the math broken down step-by-step so you can figure it out depending on whatever flower(s) you want to use.

I am going to use a 5-foot by 8-foot flower wall as an example:

1. calculate the total area of the wall in inches; (e.g. for a 5×8 wall …. 60 in. x96 in. = 5760 sq. in.)
2. determine the average area of the flower you will use in square inches (e.g. 2 inch flower  – depends on variety this will need to be adjusted …. Multiply Pi (3.1416) with the square of the radius …. 3.1416*1*1 = 3.1416)
3. divide wall area by flower area (e.g. 5760/3.1416 = 1833-ish)
4. you will need roughly 1833 roses for a 5 ft x 8 ft wall, but that will need to be adjusted based on your design, spacing, other flowers that you may use, etc)

If you simply want to know how many flowers per square foot, again this depends on how wide the flower is.

If the flower is 2 inches wide, then:

1. 12 inches x 12 inches = 144 square inches
2. 2 inch flower = 3.1416 square inches
3. 144/3.1416 = 45.83

You would need about 45 flowers to cover one square foot.

If the flower is 3 inches wide, then:

1. 12 inches x 12 inches = 144 square inches
2. 3 inch flower (3.1416*1.5*1.5) = 7.07 square inches
3. 144/7.07 = 20.37

You would need a little over 20 flowers to cover one square foot.

Here are some other flower calculation blogs that I’ve done:

How to determine the number of flowers to cover a round table:
http://www.mayesh.com/flowers-geometry/

How to determine the number of flowers for flower balls:
http://www.mayesh.com/flowers-geometry-spheres-balls/

I would love to hear from you about how your flower wall design projects have gone. Share links to your designs in the comments below.

Christina Burton-Fox AIFD floral artist & instructor