Fall Floral Arrangement Ideas

Containers

• Choose a rustic-looking container like a hand-thrown earthenware garden pot to set the tone for a fall arrangement. Baskets, wooden boxes, galvanized buckets, miniature wheelbarrows, and even carved pumpkins make great containers. Be sure to line your container with a pot liner or cellophane if it isn't watertight. A glass vase will work well for a more formal arrangement.

Flowers and Grasses

• Fill your container with a combination of tall wheat sheaves and fresh or dried grasses. Then add an assortment of flowers in colors such as orange, deep red, purple and yellow. Sunflowers, Pele mums, oriental lilies and roses are just a few of the flowers you can find in deep autumn colors. Some stores carry flowers and foliage that are dyed dramatic hues, for a touch of excitement.
  Begin at the base of your design with two or three larger flowers as a focal point. Then work your way up and around with an assortment of smaller flowers or sprays, and finish with longer flowers like calla lilies or "red hot pokers" at the top and sides. Insert some accent flowers such as Chinese lanterns, liatris or hypericum wherever needed. Birch branches, dried flowers and dried eucalyptus also blend well into a fall design.

Finishing Touches

• Consider incorporating fruits and vegetables into your design. Ornamental peppers, apples, pomegranates, berries, nuts, miniature dried corn, garlic, decorative squashes, pumpkins or eggplant can be wired into an arrangement to add interest. You can also cluster some outside the arrangement next to the container. And of course, fall leaves and pine cones are always at home in a fall floral arrangement. Check a craft supply store for other fall themed accessories like scarecrow picks, faux leaves, and raffia.
  If you're using a transparent vase, complete the look with fresh cranberries. Fill the vase a little over halfway with them before adding water.

Candy Corn

• Another fun look for a glass vase is to use candy corn. You can do this two ways. One is to use two cylinder vases of the same height. One should be smaller in diameter so it can fit inside the larger one with about 3/4 inch of space all around. Then fill the space with candy corn and add water to the smaller vase, allowing enough room for the water level to rise when flowers are added without spilling over into the candy.
  Or you can just use one vase and double line it with decorative cellophane, letting 3 or 4 inches of it peek out over the edge of the vase. Fill the candy in between the vase and the cellophane, then fold the excess cellophane over the outside of the vase and tie some curling ribbon around it to hold it in place. Then fill the center with water and carefully add your flowers.