Welcome in 2026 with a Free Flower Class Lesson

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If you’re up for something a little bit interesting, a little bit creative, and quietly confident, we’ve got a free tutorial we think you’ll enjoy.

Cavolo Nero for Dinner is a free floral design lesson taken directly from the Flower Class membership. It’s a tablescape project that leans into the unexpected and shows how an everyday ingredient can be used in a way that feels juicy, unusual and dynamic, while still being incredibly commercial.

Flower Class is where I teach florists and flower lovers from around the world how to design with confidence, but these lessons are yours to enjoy completely free, so you can experience the joy of creating professional designs at home.

👉 ACCESS YOUR FREE TUTORIAL HERE

At this time of year, choice can feel limited. The garden is only just beginning to wake up and inspiration doesn’t always shout. This is where Cavolo Nero comes into its own. Affordable, readily available and surprisingly strong, it becomes the backbone of a design that feels graphic, confident and quietly luxurious. And no, it’s not just for your January kale smoothie.

This is a design Joseph particularly loves for its clarity and its sense of play. It starts with a simple but deliberate idea: treating Cavolo Nero not as background foliage, but as a structural material in its own right. Used this way, it creates instant line, rhythm and presence, giving the whole composition a clear direction from the very beginning.

In the tutorial, Joseph shows how to build a strong palisade structure using Cavolo Nero, creating a framework that does the heavy lifting. Once that structure is in place, everything else becomes easier. The design develops calmly and with intent, rather than being pushed or filled for the sake of it.

From there, the piece is layered thoughtfully with hellebore, ivy, rose whips and a touch of fresh bun moss. Each material has a job to do. Ivy brings movement and breaks the line. Hellebore adds softness and subtle colour. Rose whips lift the eye and introduce height without overwhelming the table. The balance between chunky, low elements and taller, finer lines gives the tablescape its energy.

The result is a piece that feels open and conversational. The bulk of the design sits low, keeping sightlines clear so people can talk, eat and enjoy being around the table. At the same time, the vertical elements bring just enough height and drama to create atmosphere and presence. It sits comfortably between low and tall, which is what makes it so effective.

Throughout the tutorial, Joseph talks through the thinking behind the decisions, from proportion and placement to how the design will behave in a real space. You’ll see how to approach preparation sensibly, what to put in place in the studio, and what’s best added on site. It’s practical, straightforward and rooted in experience.

The full flower recipe is included, along with clear, step by step instruction, so you can design along with confidence. You can recreate the tablescape exactly as shown, or adapt the technique to suit your own tables, events or installations. The idea scales beautifully, working just as well as a single centrepiece as it does repeated along a long table, or even interpreted in smaller vessels.

Like all Flower Class lessons, adaptability is at the heart of the design. This isn’t about creating copies. It’s about understanding the bones of a composition and then making it work for your own space, your own brief and your own style. The technique shown here can be applied to other materials just as easily, once you understand how and why it works.

This free tutorial offers a genuine glimpse inside the Flower Class membership, where Joseph shares ongoing lessons, techniques and design thinking with florists and flower lovers from around the world. The focus is always on clarity, confidence and creating work that feels considered rather than overworked.

If you’re looking for something that feels a little bit different, a little bit fun, and very much usable in the real world, Cavolo Nero for Dinner is ready to watch.

👉 ACCESS THE FREE TUTORIAL HERE

“Honestly, this is genius. Simple, unexpected, and it just works.”

Team JM