How to Make a Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Steps

1. 1. Soak the Foam and Set the Container

   Soak two blocks of fresh floral foam in water until they sink, then set them into a long low container. A trough like this is built to disappear - by the time the arrangement is finished you will not see it at all.

   Tip: Let the foam sink on its own rather than pushing it under. Forced foam traps dry pockets in the middle, and a stem that lands in one will not drink.

   

2. 2. Lay in the Pumpkins and Gourds

   Rest the pumpkins and gourds into the container over the foam, spacing them along its length. The bulkiest things go in first.

   Tip: Odd numbers and different sizes look better than a matched row. Put the biggest one off-centre rather than dead middle.

   

3. 3. Cut and Tuck the Foliage

   Cut your foliage stems with snips and push them into the foam, leaving them long and loose so they spill over the ends and the front edge of the container. This is the layer that makes the arrangement look like it grew rather than like it was assembled.

   Tip: Cut stems on an angle. More surface area for fresh stems to drink, and an angled tip slides into dense foam instead of crumbling it.

   

4. 4. Add the Dried Materials

   Work in the dried elements next - pampas grass, dried hydrangea, seed heads, anything with texture and height. These carry the arrangement above the rim and give it a silhouette.

   Tip: Dried stems are brittle. Make the hole in the foam with a bare skewer first, then slide the stem in, rather than driving the stem itself through.

   

5. 5. Place the Sunflowers

   Cut the sunflower stems long, leaving about three flowers on each, and tuck them into the foam exactly as though they were fresh. Sunflowers are the largest bloom in this design, so where they land sets the shape of everything else.

   Tip: Turn each flower head to face slightly outward and down. A sunflower staring straight up reads as stuck in rather than grown there.

   

6. 6. Tuck in the Autumn Leaves

   Push maple and autumn leaves in among the flowers, filling the awkward gaps that a flower head cannot reach. The leaves are what make the whole thing read as fall rather than just yellow.

   Tip: Slide a few leaves low and deep, right down near the container rim. Depth is what stops an arrangement looking flat from the front.

   

7. 7. Add the Fresh Roses and Water the Foam

   Cut the red roses fairly short and push them deep into the soaked foam. Once they are in, top the container up with water.

   Tip: Short stems on the fresh flowers is deliberate - it sets them below the sunflowers and the pampas, so the eye travels down into the arrangement instead of skating across the top.

   

8. 8. Scatter the Yellow Daisies

   Work the yellow daisies through the middle of the arrangement, scattering rather than clustering them. You want the colour repeating along the whole length of the trough.

   Tip: Stand back after every few stems. Colour balance is nearly impossible to judge from directly above the container.

   

9. 9. Finish with Spray Roses

   Add the orange spray roses last, using them to pull the colour of the pumpkins up into the flowers, then fill any last gaps. Check it from the ends as well as the front.

   Tip: Keep a few stems back. Something always wilts or shifts overnight and it is easier to patch one gap than to re-cut a whole new stem on the day.