Purple flowers and fall themed foliage make this dramatic arrangement a sophisticated addition to a Halloween tablescape.
Floral Design for Fall
October is one of my favorite months of the year. Not only is the seasons change in full effect in Western Washington finally, and the rain returns (yes I want the rain), but October is when Halloween happens! Halloween is not my favorite holiday, but it’s up there in my book. It has all the best elements of a holiday: décor, fun food recipes, getting people together, costumes, and all sorts of other fun crafts.
As a kid, I was the one who drove the Halloween celebrations at my house. I dressed up every single year and decorating the front porch, more so than my parents. I remember being in 5th grade and having convinced one of my parents to take me to the party store down the street where I was able to buy a bag of fake bones with glow in the dark paint on them so I could scatter them amongst the dead leaves, branches, carved pumpkins, and other décor that I’d already set up on the porch that year. I think I may have even stuffed some old clothes full of newspaper to make a scarecrow man that could sit in the chair on the porch and greet trick or treaters. Yes, I was all over this holiday as a kid.
As an adult, as I’ve mentioned, I still absolutely love this holiday. But I’m not exactly dressing up every year (I wear all black and creepy accessories at minimum), and I’m not decorating the porch quite so exuberantly right now. Not that I don’t want to, but I’m having an RA flare this month that won’t quit and with COVID I’m not super thrilled about having people come to my high-risk doorstep. I still want to celebrate in small, maybe more sophisticated ways this year? So, I decided to start getting back into my flower arranging craft and attempt something that was reflective of the holiday, but maybe a little less traditionally colored and “dead” looking as some arrangements for this holiday can get (I’m sorry but just because it’s Halloween does not mean that all the flowers have to be dead or black). Hopefully you will find some inspiration from my attempt to be chicly festive this year and add a little floral element to your party table this weekend!
Fall Floral Arrangement with Purple Flowers
Materials:
- Pedestal Bowl
- Small Glass Bowl
- (2) small branches/twigs from a fruit tree
- 1 stem coleus
- 5-6 stems of alstroemeria
- 3-4 stems of football mums
- 3-4 protea
- 4-5 stems of lisianthus
- 5-6 stems of snowberries
- 3 stems of astilbe
- 3-4 stems of tufted grass varieties
Instructions:
- Start by filling the main pedestal bowl with a little water and placing the smaller bowl completely filled with water in the center. Instead of using a frog or something, I’m going to build the arrangement around this smaller bowl.
- Next clip and place the two small fruit tree branches so that they drape out of the left side and back of the pedestal bowl. Place the coleus stem so that the leaves are spilling over the front of the bowl.
- Clip the alstroemeria and arrange them around the outside of the bowl so that the blooms/buds are resting on the edge of the main pedestal bowl. Clip and add one protea so it nestles in amongst the alstroemeria on the left side of the bowl, then clip and add the other adjacent to it so that it sits slightly more above the first protea.
- Next clip and fill the middle of the arrangement with the mums and lisianathus so that they dome up slightly in the middle and then spill towards and over the top of the coleus leaves. I like to trim the lisianthus so that each stem gets slightly longer as I work towards the edge of the bowl, this helps with the spilling effect.
- Add the grasses around the front left and back right sides of the bowl so they spill out and the tufts drape down. Fill in blank spaces with some of the snowberries and the astilbe.
Make sure both the inner and outer bowls of the arrangement are full of water and keep checking and adding water over the next day or so as the arrangement settles. If you keep the bowls filled with water, your arrangement should last for at least a week or two. See the photo of mine below after 10 days. Happy arranging!
