Fall Floral Design! How to Make a Festive Arrangement by L. WARD


Fall is a wonderful time of year for fresh flower floral design. There is a plethora of beautiful flowers in rich fall colors. Thanksgiving and Halloween arrangements are especially fun. Use fresh flowers and Halloween novelties to make a fun Halloween design! Or, leave out the Halloween novelties for Thanksgiving. Some flowers that are great to use for fall include: Bird of Paradise, Alstromeria, Gerbera, Roses, Chrysanthmums, Carnations, Coppertip (crocosmia), and orange thistle (safflower/Carthamus). Leather leaf, salal, and goldenrod are just a few examples of foliage that goes well with these flowers. Curly willow also will enhance the fall tone of the autumn arrangement.
Use a fairly small pumpkin for the vase of your design. To design an arrangement in a pumpkin, first clean out your pumpkin. Sprinkle flower food on the inside, this will help your carved out pumpkin to last longer. You will then want to insert plastic lining in your pumpkin. Floral foam is a great way to anchor your design. After saturating your floral foam in warm water, you are ready to begin! The previous mentioned flowers will look great in this design.
The first step will be to add some foliage to the floral foam. Put salal leaves hanging over the edge and cover the mechanics (the floral foam and plastic liner if it is showing). Next add the tall flowers and mass or focal flowers. You can cut long stemmed flowers short to have them near the base of the design or leave them tall, be creative.
Some tips for your design:
- You paid for that Bird of Paradise! Make sure you can see it! If you use expensive or unique flowers, be sure not to hide it behind foliage or cheap flowers.
- Use the "lid" of your pumpkin as part of your design, this can be attached with a wooden peg.
- Add fall leaves to your design.
- For more of a Thanksgiving look, include small squashes, vegetables, and other Thanksgiving items.
- To enhance your design, and to make it more suitable for Halloween, put Halloween novelties in it, like ghosts, spiders, cobwebs, or witches!
- Don't forget purple is the new Halloween color. Using purple flowers and foliage can add variety to any seasonal floral arrangement and help your oranges and reds not to blend together.
Fresh Flower Ideas offers free information about the care of fresh flowers and ideas and instructions for floral design. These ideas are shared at http://www.FreshFlowerIdeas.com and Related Articles - Fall Flowers, Thanksgiving, Floral Design, Online Florist, Send flowers online, delivery, fresh flowers, holidays, autumn, Halloween, How to,