Thanksgiving Centerpiece! How to make a Fresh Flower Arrangement

Centerpieces are in high demand during the Thanksgiving holiday. Any centerpiece will add to your Thanksgiving dinner table. A centerpiece made with fresh flowers is sure to delight all your Thanksgiving visitors. It can also serve as a great gift to the host or hostess of your Thanksgiving dinner. A wide variety of Thanksgiving centerpieces can be ordered online, or you can create your own. Here are the basic instructions you will need to make your own centerpiece.

The supplies needed include, plastic centerpiece tray, floral foam, two tapered candles, two candle cups, wired wooden pegs, small pumpkin picks (or two small squash that can be anchored with the wooden pegs), and pine cones. These supplies can be found at just about any craft and floral store or online. The foliage you will need includes; seeded eucalyptus, husk, nandina, galax, and dried oak leaves. The flowers are red and yellow roses, yellow and red spray roses, and orange and red cushion mums. For this design you will need about six total roses, 3 stems of spray roses, and three stems of cushion mums. You may also want to use hypericum berries.

While these are the flowers and foliage suggested for this design there are many other options available. Some different kinds of foliage would be; spiral eucalyptus, salal, boxwood, and myrtle. Other great flowers to use include, carnations (which last a long time), pixie carnations, daisy mums, spider mums, lilies, and alstroemeria. Some other filler flowers would be; waxflower, statice, solidage, and button mums.

First you will need to cut your floral foam to fit in the centerpiece tray. Next you will need to soak it in floral foam. After you have your wet floral foam in place and before you begin adding the foliage to the design, insert the candle cups in the middle of the floral foam and place the candles inside. Now add the foliage. You want all the floral foam to be covered before you begin putting in the flowers and accessories. Start with the oak leaves on the bottom, then the seeded eucalyptus, longer pieces of husk and then the galax leaves. You will want to cut off the small branches on your stems so they are the right size for the centerpiece. Don't be afraid to let the design get a little big.

Once the foliage is in place, you can begin to add the flowers. There are several different ways to arrange the flowers. Once is to spread similar flowers evenly around the design. Another way is to group similar flowers. I suggest a little of both. You can do the same thing with the different colors of the flowers. Now you can start adding the pine cones and the hypericum berries. In addition to the hypericum berries, the taller pieces of seeded eucalyptus are great for putting in the gaps left between the flowers, if there are any. Following these basic steps, you will have a beautiful Thanksgiving centerpiece in no time.