Guest Post: The Vintique Object

We are continuing the week of "Fall Fun" with my friend Camille from The Vintique Object.  Camille has an amazing talent for making things look beautiful! She has such and eye.  Take notes today because this would be helpful for a Thanksgiving centerpiece.

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As a trained floral designer, I am super excited to be able to share some of the "tricks-of-the-trade" with readers from My Many Moments.  Those of you who know Heather are well aware that she is a fan of flowers and greenery indoors.  She has inspired me to put more plants in my own home, and what a difference it has made!

I'm going to show you how to create this fall-inspired bouquet.  I'm calling it transitional because it uses some colors (and fruit) that are summery and others that tend more toward a harvest feel.  Perfect for this time of year.

Materials used from bottom left corner clockwise are:  wide canna leaf, wild fennel which has gone to seed, and 5-6 pineapple sage cuttings --all from my yard.  I used a low cylindrical glass vase filled 3/4 way with water, a bouquet of rusty orange mums, a bouquet of wine colored dahlias, some wooden skewers, gardening shears, a sharp knife, 4-5 tangerines, and 4-5 black figs.

Step 1

 

Spread newspaper on your work surface for easy clean-up.  Put the wide canna leaf into the vase.  To see how, click here.  Then arrange your greenery so that it falls over the edge of the vase on all sides.  This provides a framework to help hold other stems in place. 

   Step 2

I decided to add the mums next because they are more abundant and smaller than the dahlias. Here are three stems of mums dissected (see below) and plunked in so that the stems criss-cross.

   You are going for a sort of umbrella shape working from the bottom up.  This is about five stems worth.

 

 Don't just cut the bottom of the stem and and plunk into the vase.  To get the most out of your mums, dissect them by first cutting the smaller side flowers off -- those that run down the main stem.  Remove all the foliage.  I turned the above single stem of mums into this:

The lowest bunch of three is the top of the original stem.  Now the lower side flowers don't get lost in the vase and I have the look of twice as many because I did this.

Step 3

Now it's time to add the dahlias.  Dahlias can have very heavy heads so the mums and foliage already placed in the vase will provide support to hold them up.  Again, remove all side stems and foliage. 

Continue to make that umbrellas shape over the vase.  It need not be perfect as you'll keep adding more flowers.  Turn the vase as you work to spread the dahlias around.  Be sure to get one near the center of the top.

Step 4

Next add something seed-y looking for a fall feel.  I thought this wild fennel fit the bill.  See how the overall shape is beginning to look umbrella-like from the top?

Step 5

Now fill in any holes with tangerines and figs (small apples, pears, rose hips, kumquats, grapes, etc. would work too.)  Simply pierce with a skewer and, if you need to, clip with your pruners.

Rotate your vase.  Pull out and reclip any stems that are too long.  Tug on any flowers hiding too deep within the arrangement.  Pull out and add more foliage around the vase to make it look more even.

Thanks for having me, Heather!  I enjoyed this great excuse to go out and buy some flowers! 

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Wow! I love the use of fruit in the arrangement! Camille, you make it look so easy.  As soon as I get home I'm heading to pick up some flowers to try this myself.