Flower Arranging Workshop in Tai Seng at Botany Studio

Botany Studio is a floral design studio and florist school at 8 Burn Road, Trivex, #16-11, Singapore 369977, four minutes on foot from Tai Seng MRT. Its hobby workshops last 1.5 hours, need no experience, and cost S$95 per person for either a round vase arrangement or a hand-tied bouquet. All materials are included, and in the vase class the glass vase itself comes home with you. For anyone who wants more than one evening, the studio also teaches a four-lesson Basic Floral Course for S$480.

The studio is on the 16th floor of Trivex, an office and light-industrial building on Burn Road, in unit #16-11. The studio's own pages give the nearest station as Tai Seng, on the Circle Line (CC11), and say it takes about four minutes to walk from Exit A. Paya Lebar is two stops away on the same line, so the studio is easy to reach from the east side or from the city by changing at Paya Lebar.

This is a working atelier rather than a shopfront. Botany Studio says it specialises in event displays and in running private and corporate workshops, and it lists clients such as Audemars Piguet, Cartier, Chivas Brothers, Citibank, Estée Lauder, Maybelline and Piaget on its About page. That commercial background explains why the classes feel like a florist's bench: you work with the same kinds of stems, tools and wrapping that the team uses for events.

Classes can also be held at the atelier or at an outside venue of your choice on request, which suits birthday groups and company teams.

The vase workshop is the most popular way to start. It costs S$95 per person and lasts 1.5 hours. The studio describes the result as a round vase arrangement, designed to sit on a dining table, coffee table or kitchen counter as a centrepiece, and it says participants take home both the arrangement and the vase for future use.

The outline is simple and practical. You begin with an introduction to the types of flowers on the table, move on to preparing and conditioning the stems before you arrange them, build the round shape in the vase, and finish with how to care for the flowers at home. No experience is required, and the studio sets the minimum age at 13.

Because the flowers depend on what is in season and available that week, the studio notes that its photos are for reference only. Expect a mixed palette of blooms and foliage rather than an exact copy of the picture. On the studio's schedule, the vase class has run on Saturday mornings and afternoons, and if the published dates do not suit you the studio asks you to contact it to join a waitlist.

The Handtied Bouquet Workshop is also S$95 for 1.5 hours. The studio calls the hand-tied bouquet the most popular arrangement for gifting, and the class covers arrangement techniques and wrapping. The outline runs from an introduction to flower types, through conditioning the flowers, to arranging a mixed bouquet, packaging it and looking after it afterwards.

The minimum age is 14, and registration closes two days before the session. For a last-minute place, the studio asks you to email or WhatsApp to check whether seats remain. It also says a minimum number of participants is needed for a workshop to run, and that it will tell you in advance if the date or time changes.

A hand-tied bouquet is a good choice if you want to give the result away on the same day, since you finish with a wrapped bouquet rather than a vessel. The spiral technique you practise, in which stems are added one at a time and turned in the hand, is also the foundation for most florist bouquets, so it carries over if you continue to the longer course.

The Basic Floral Course costs S$480 and is taught as four lessons, delivered over four weeks or across two days, with all materials included. The studio lists the content as tools used in floristry, choosing and sourcing blooms, conditioning flowers and foliage, ribbon work and simple colour theory. Over the course you make four arrangements: a round bouquet, a box arrangement, a dome centrepiece and a vase arrangement.

The studio's page for the basic course sets out the four lessons. The first covers florist equipment and conditioning and ends with a hand-tied round bouquet. The second introduces floral foam and aftercare and ends with a box arrangement. The third teaches colour matching and a table centrepiece. The fourth covers choosing and sourcing blooms and ends with a vase arrangement. For two-day versions, full attendance is required to receive the certificate of participation.

Other courses on the class list include a Handtied Bouquet Course, an Intermediate Floral Course and an Advance Floral Course, each priced at S$450 on the studio's class page. Smaller workshops include a Box Arrangement workshop at S$95 and a Preserved Floral Jar workshop at S$89, which uses dried flowers rather than fresh ones.

Around the end of the year the studio adds festive classes: a traditional wired door Christmas wreath made from pine, cones, dried fruit and ornaments, a foam table wreath that doubles as a candle holder, and a mini Christmas tree of about 40 cm with a ceramic base. The studio says these pieces last two to three weeks and dry attractively, and it offers a pair-booking discount code for the Christmas workshops. Hobby classes are all 1.5 hours.

Booking is done through the studio's website, where each class page has a date selector and an add-to-cart button. Because every participant's materials are prepared individually, the studio is strict about changes: moving a date at least six working days ahead costs an admin fee of S$5 per person, while cancelling at least six working days ahead incurs a 15 percent charge.

Changes or cancellations three to five working days before the class cost 50 percent, and anything less than three working days ahead forfeits the full fee. Read the full terms before you pay if you are booking for a group, since each person is charged individually.

Tai Seng is a business and lifestyle district rather than a tourist area, so the simplest plan is to book a Saturday late-morning class, carry your arrangement home on the Circle Line, and lunch near the station or at Paya Lebar before you go. If you are collecting your bouquet as a gift, it is wise to book the class before an event so the flowers are at their freshest.

Bring a tote bag or a sturdy shopping bag for the vase, since the vase and the wet flowers are heavy, and keep the arrangement upright on the train. At home, trim the stem ends again, change the water every two days and keep the vase out of direct sun and away from fruit bowls.

Address: Botany Studio, 8 Burn Road, Trivex, #16-11, Singapore 369977. Nearest station: Tai Seng (CC11), Exit A, about four minutes on foot. Prices: vase and hand-tied bouquet workshops S$95 each for 1.5 hours; Basic Floral Course S$480 for four lessons. Official website: botanystudio.com, with the full schedule on its Class Schedule page.

Dress for working at a bench, tie back long hair and remove rings if you want a firm grip on the stems. The minimum ages are 13 for the vase class and 14 for the bouquet class, and the studio runs separate parent-and-child seating for its festive classes.