Help with trimming shapes

The Trim function breaks any groups that are included, and forms a single group of all the resulting elements. You can use the Group Selection Tool to select (and then group)the various pieces of each flower, or ungroup the whole then use the Selection Tool to select (then group) the parts of each flower.

On the other, or at least another, hand, you can use the Minus Front function in the Pathfinder panel something like this:

1) Be sure that each flower is a group, so three separate groups.

2) Select and copy the blue and teal flowers.

3) Select all, click Minus Front, then Paste in front.

4) Select and copy the blue flower.

5) Select the blue and teal flowers, Click Minus Front, then Paste in Front.

Each flower, appropriately trimmed, should now be a group that can be selected and moved.

Peter

I'm not really sure why you are trimming anything. Doesn't putting one on top of the other accomplish what you want? I would perhaps go a step further and create a symbol out of the flowers if they are complex, so that your file size doesn't get too large as you continue to work.

defaultms,

As I (mis)understand it, you can just create a Group of the paths forming each flower and then have the blue one on top of the teal one and the teal one on top of the red one, in the stacking order . You can do that by ClickDragging in the Layers panel, or by selecting the teal flower Group and then hold Ctrl/Cmd while pressing X and then F to put it on top, and then do the same for the blue flower Group.