Flowers are really such a personal form of expression that it's hard to label things as appropriate or inappropriate. It really depends on your own preferrences and the message you're trying to get across. You have can always talk to the mother of the baby and see what she thinks might be good for a baby shower. For baby showers, most people want to stay with pastel colors and a delicate look. Of course, most people include baby's breath, but this isn't an absolute.
Some of my favorite flowers for baby showers and new arrivals are: stock, lisianthus, lilies, tuberoses, roses, sea lavender (caspia or limonium), godetia, snapdragons, alstroemeria, larkspur, and dendrobium orchids. These are a lot of flowers that I like to use for a baby shower, just because it not only gose with the baby shower out look but also it will make the shower look more for the child then anyone else. Please forgive me if I get too basic with my information. I'm not sure how experienced you are with floral design.
Floral
To make it look more nice you could use, the above flowers go best in bubble bowls - little bowls similar in appearance to goldfish bowls. These can be a little hard to work with. What I recommend is to buy some floral tape, not floral stem wrap, and tape several pieces across the top of the bowl in a crisscross pattern. Then use of greenery to cover the tape. Make sure the stems reach the water, and remove any leaves that fall below the water line.
You'll need something that cascades a bit to cover the edges of the tape on the bowl. Some greeneries I recommend are: plumosa (asparagus fern), salal (lemon leaf), leather leaf, silver dollar eucalyptus, seeded eucalyptus, and ivy. You can use baby eucalyptus, Bells of Ireland, and myrtle for a bit of height.
Don't stuff the bowl full of greens, as this will make placing flowers difficult. But use enough to cover the majority of the tape. If any tape still shows after the flowers are placed, you can always fill in with greens afterwards.
After this, add your flowers, starting with the largest flowers first (like lilies or roses, if you decide to use them). I always recommend to use odd numbers of flowers - 3, 5, 7, etc. You should make the arrangement symmetrical, but try to use varied textures against one another for the most appealing look. Then add your tall flowers, and finally, fillers (baby's breath, sea lavender, etc.).
Of course, you can still arrange flowers in an urn. It tends to give a bit heavier, more formal look. You'd soak your brick of floral foam by filling a sink and placing the brick on top of the water and allowing it to sink, when saturated, the top will be around 1/4 inch above the water line. If you try to submerge the brick with force, you will get dry pockets inside the brick, which will kill the flowers.
Cut a piece of foam that fits tightly into your container, and then use a couple pieces of floral tape across the foam diagonally to secure the foam. Use greenery (I suggest salal and leather leaf) to cover the foam. With these arrangements, you should start with your tallest flowers first to create the frame for the arrangements, then place your focal flowers, then smaller flowers, and finally, fillers.
Vase arrangements are also a favorite and are never outdated. You would use the same technique as with filling a foam arrangement (greens first, follwed by tallest flowers). Vase arrangements do not need to be taped, usually. Be warned that these are very hard to transport, though.
So if don't want them to get brown from to much wind or something along those lines. I would sugget that you do the flowers were you are having the baby shower so that way the flowers still look nice an neat. You can always do the flowers the night before the shower so it will be ready to go or you can go early and do the flowers. It is just easyer to get that out of the way and not worry about losing the flowers.
But if you want to try using fake flowers then that is a good iead too. You could go to any craft stores and get the flowers that you like and get acrylic water. It is a hard sustain that you can mix in a bowl pour it into the vase then put the flowers in the way you want and the acrylic water will harden and the flowers will still look nice. But the acrylic usullay takes all night to harden so doing it the night befor is a good idea.
You can also use plastice vase so that way none of the vase at the shower get broken. You could also use the flowers as a take home gift for the people that cam eto the shower. Something for them to remember.
Flower Arrangements For A Baby Shower
Victor Epand is an expert consultant for http://www.SendFlowersGift.info/. SendFlowersGift.info offers same day flower delivery within the US and Canada, as well as fast worldwide delivery to international destinations. Start here to search by "Occasion": http://www.SendFlowersGift.info