Here was my approach to the problem. Please others comment on this.


The minimum amount of flowers you can have is 3.

Bouquet 1 can have flowers: 1, 2, or 3

Bouquet 2 would have flowers: 1, 2, and 3


So in this case you would have:

Table 1…..1
Table 2…..2
Table 3…..3
Table 4…..123
Table 5
Table 6
Table 7
Table 8

However, you run out of unique arrangements after 4 tables.

So let’s try 4 types of flowers

Bouquet 1 can have flowers: 1, 2, 3, or 4

Bouquet 2 cab have flowers: 123, 124, 134, and 234

To get bouquet 2 you could also do:
4c3 = 4!/3!(4-3)! = 4

So in this case you would have:

Table 1…..1
Table 2…..2
Table 3…..3
Table 4…..4
Table 5….123
Table 6….124
Table 7 ….134
Table 8…..234


So you need 4 types of flowers to make 8 unique arrangements.