Say goodbye to summer peonies and hello to fall’s favorite orange daisies, cushions and carnations. Just in time for Halloween, create a rustic fall bouquet with for your spooky holiday decor. Like our previous DIY floral arrangement videos, nurturing a green thumb is all about practice and detail. Our head florist, Hernando Salazar shows us how easy it is to create one huge seasonal bouquet. Choose a wicked chic vase and get ready to fall in love with these fall florals.
Flowers in this Arrangement
- orange cushions
- orange daisies
- green mini carnations
- green roses
- green balls
- molucell
Step 1: Gather your materials
Gather your flowers, pruning scissors, watering pale, twist tie and flower food. In this video, our head florist will use: Orange cushions, orange daisies, green mini carnations, green roses, Green balls and Molucella to form one huge bouquet for a brass flower planter. If it’s easier for you, count out your stems to ensure you have enough flowers to make a large bouquet for the large planter or vase you’ve chosen for your rustic fall bouquet. A large bouquet generally contains 50 plus stems.
Step 2: Remove extra leaves and flower buds
Start with the orange cushions and remove each leaf off of each stem, starting from the stop of the flower bud to the bottom of the stem. For this arrangement, Hernando goes through each stem and removes extra leaves as well as small stems attached on other stems to elongate each stem for more uniformity in the final arrangement. Daisies are wildflowers, so some stems may have multiple stems attached to it.
Step 3: Remove extra petals from the green roses
Once the daisies and cushions stems are clean, prune the petals of green roses. Start from the top of the stem and drag your hand down the stem to quickly remove the quill-like leaves.
Step 4: Start Arranging Your Daisies, Then Green Roses and Carnations
Take each orange daisy and spiral them together using the spiral technique–use your writing hand to pick up one daisy and arrange each stem into your free hand. Relax and hold your free hand open to receive what your right hand is offering. As you add each stem to your hand, rotate the bouquet in your hand periodically for an even bouquet. Once all the daisies are in your hand, add in the 3 stems of green roses and 3 stems of carnations using the same spiral technique. Be attentive to detail and make sure each flower is positioned at the same level. Don’t worry if the the stems aren’t even; they will be cut evenly in Step 8.
Step 5: Add in the Bells of Ireland
At this step, your bouquet of 10-12 stems will start to look full of fall’s colors courtesy of all the orange and white colors situated perfectly next to each other. Add in a few stems of green balls (also known as mini trees), while still using the spiral technique. Pro tip: Make sure the stems are at least next to each other to ensure that each flower is grouped in your position of choice- of course this depends on the color of flower being arranged. Then add the green Molucella (also known as the bells of Ireland because of their curvy shape) to the other side of the bouquet. Separate Molucellas from the green balls for balance. Arrange the Molucellas about three inches above the rest of your bouquet, as these plants are known to grow tall and delicate! Add extra daisies for more volume in the bouquet if the green plants seem to overpower your fall color scheme.
Step 6: Hold your creation together
The most important part about creating an arrangement is tying it all together with a plastic twist tye. Make it tight so that your flowers stay put. Use a rubber band or a black or brown hair tye as alternative ways to seal in your beautiful creation.
Step 7: A Fall Ready Rustic Brass Vase
Once you’ve spiralled all your beautiful flowers into the perfect arrangement, set it aside for a moment to focus on your vase preparations. This is your base and it should be given equal attention. In this video, Hernando is using a medium size brass garden pale as a vase. Clever and super chic. This is the perfect accessory that says fall. Pour in a few cups of water. Then use your pruning scissors to cut open your flower powder food. It’s best that you carefully cut open the food because tearing may just make a big mess! Pour in all the flower food until the water becomes cloudy.
Step 8: Trim the Stems and Enjoy
Cut your bouquet to the height that best fits well with your vase. In this video, about three inches are taken off of each stem so that the bouquet fits perfectly around the rim of the brass pale. Pick a spot near your pumpkins to compliment your halloween decorations and enjoy!