Having Fun with Flowers: Design Workshops, Special Event Florals
Holiday Floral Decor
In December, I hosted a floral design workshop for Milwaukee Art Museum Garden Club members. We created a holiday themed centerpiece using fresh roses and holly plus some foraged items from my garden. I preserved Limelight hydrangea blooms with a water/glycerin mixture and then spray painted them with a burgundy wine color. The pine cones are lightly painted copper and gold. Other items in this piece are lotus pods, grapevine balls, and small colored ornaments.
Using a base of natural greens, I added pine cones, dried rose hips,and eucalyptus from the garden along with some artificial berries, weather-proof ornaments and bows to make these wreaths. This year we had very few pine cones fall in the white pine stand of trees . . . next year I’ll be collecting as many as I can.
I love orange roses . . . the last opportunity to design with fall colors including sunflowers is around Thanksgiving. This is the last hurrah for orange roses and foraging in the yard and garden for rose hips, green plants and branches.
The Fantasy Christmas House is a fund raising event held each November in southern Wisconsin. The home is decorated for the holidays by local florists, designers, and vendors. It includes a Hall of Trees where decor and wreaths are donated for a raffle. I designed the Sunflower Tree that highlighted deep red sunflowers, pine cones topped by natural ribbon bows, bird nests and handmade bouquets of lotus pods and eucalyptus branches. The proceeds from this event benefitted the Ronald McDonald House.
Evergreens, seeded eucalyptus and rose hips add a rustic twist to this bird themed centerpiece.
Lots of evergreens add variety and longevity to these holiday centerpieces.
This canning jar becomes a floral container after decorating with chalk paint and a simple ribbon tie. The Halloween themed bird and pumpkin in a nest could also be added to a planter or floral arrangement as an accent.
Arrangements in the fall are full of colorful blooms of orange, gold, bronze and shades of red plus berries, twigs, pumpkins. Love this time of year . . .
This centerpiece uses green roses, cream berries and pine along with a holiday themed nesting bird as a focal point. The container is a vintage enamelware bowl.
This arrangement utilizes burlap materials to create a rustic theme.