Create your own Thanksgiving table centerpiece
Step-by-Step Instructions
Do you host Thanksgiving dinner or do you head to someone else’s house?
Either way, I can help you create a festive floral arrangement worthy of center stage!
Adorn your own table with beautiful blooms, or be the guest who brought the most beautiful hostess gift…
Supplies needed:
Sugar pie pumpkin
Wide mouth pint-sized jar
Foraged greens (I used salal, huckleberry and wild rose hips)
2-3 bunches of flowers in complementary colors (I used purple alstroemeria and dark crimson chrysanthemums)
Several selections of “interest and texture” – (I used 3 craspedia balls, 3 dianthus greenery stems; and 3 lotus seed pods)
Decide your focal colors. I built my arrangement based on the hues you see in my tablecloth.
Buy local flowers if possible! November is close to the end of flower season here in western Washington, but you may find local farms who still have fresh dahlias or chrysanthemums. Another option is shopping a local flower farm for everlasting bouquets (dried flowers). If your local farms do not have fresh or everlasting blooms available, then just try to buy US-grown blooms from local sales outlets.
Upon arriving home, immediately give your fresh flowers some love. Fill a large vase or bucket with water plus a flower food packet. Cut 1” off every stem, cutting the bottom on an angle. Strip off any leaves that fall below the water level, as leaves under water will disperse bacteria, will decompose, and thereby shorten the vase life of your arrangement. Set all flowers and greenery into water to hydrate and rest while you prep your workspace, gather supplies and carve your pumpkin.
Cut off the pumpkin top, a circle just large enough to slide the mason jar inside, but not much extra space. Remove pumpkin innards.
Spray the inside of the pumpkin with a bleach/water solution. This will help keep the pumpkin from molding as fast, especially because your pumpkin will be indoors in warm temperatures.
Add fresh water mixed with flower food into the jar, about ¾ full.
Now the fun starts!
To create balance and symmetry, always work in odd numbers…3, 5, 7. To keep things simple and because the jar is only about a 4” diameter, I will mostly be using 3 of everything, and arranging them in a triangular shape in the jar. Also – as you create this arrangement, strip any leaves that fall below the water line.
1) Large greenery. Add the salal to the jar, leaning stems tripod-style against each other and against the jar edges. As you add more stems during subsequent steps, the arrangement will stay put because of purposeful placement and the triangular symmetry of the stems under water. Clip any odd leaves or any small shoots that stick out at undesirable angles.
2) Add the focal flowers: chrysanthemums and alstroemeria. The key is to give some “breathing room” around the blooms – don’t jam too many flowers in! You can always add a couple more at the end if you see empty spaces.
3) Since the dianthus greens and lotus pods are big and wide, I will add these next.
4) While the huckleberry is a green, and I could have added this as step 2, I’m using these as “spikes of interest” so I chose to add them near the end of the arrangement. I want these to stick up to give some height, but do keep height/balance ratio in mind when adding. You may need to take these in and out and snip the bottom until you reach desired height. I chose to use 5 huckleberry branches.
5) Add craspedia and rose hips.*
*Here is real life: these rose hips just didn’t work. I added them and the arrangement then felt “off” so I removed them. Don’t be afraid to experiment, stand back with a critical eye, adjust, delete, and try again. Have fun and trust your own eye to direct you! (If Aunt Sue critiques, hand her another piece of pie and keep enjoying the arrangement you made. You did it!!!)
6) Set mason jar arrangement into cleaned, sprayed pumpkin and enjoy a beautiful tablescape!
