Dried Fall Flower Arrangement How-To

I’m loving the cooler weather so much that I decided to pull out my fall decorations.  I’m not quite ready for bright orange Halloween decorations, so I thought I’d use muted dried flowers and pumpkins.

Here’s how I made this arrangement:

Get 2 medium sized outdoor flowerpots.  The ones I have are made of a lightweight fiberglass material.  We have some strong wind gusts, so I put rocks in the bottom to weigh it down.

 

Put a disk of styrofoam (designed for dried flowers) in your container.  This is a good base for heavier branches and keeps you from having to fill the whole bottom of the container with styrofoam.

Cut pieces of styrofoam blocks (again-for dried or silk flowers-not the kind you soak in water for real flowers) and arrange on top of the styrofoam disk.  The cut pieces don’t have to fit perfectly.  I put mine almost flush with the top of the flowerpot.

Here’s where the handy dandy duct tape comes in. I usually used waterproof floral tape, but didn’t have any. I figured the pot was gray & the duct tape was gray, so why not?

Tear off strips of duct tape the width of the container’s opening. Tear each strip in half. Place in a spoke-like fashion over styrofoam.  These strips provide further support to your arrangement.

**All you perfectionists, take note: flower arranging is not about being perfect.  It’s about what looks natural and we all know…nature isn’t perfect.  Don’t be afraid to move things around if they don’t look right, but realize that arrangements look best if you don’t “fiddle” with them too much.

Start adding larger branches at a slight angle in the center.

Fill in with dried/artificial flowers. I bought all of these at Hobby Lobby, but use whatever colors and types you want.

I really dislike fake flowers & never use them in my house.  However….if they look organic & like something you’d actually see in nature, then I say go for it!

 

Keep filling until you get the fullness you want. Again, don’t over-think this…..my girls helped me do this part. You can do it!

Add enough moss around the base of the stems to cover the styrofoam . Be careful to not break the more delicate branches.  Use floral pins to secure the moss.

Next, I added some real mini pumpkins in the base of the arrangements.

I decided to not add a wreath because I think the biggest mistake some people make in holiday decorating is not knowing when to stop .  I also like keeping the black door unadorned.  I think it “grounds” the look.

Happy Fall Y’all !