Fall Floral Centerpieces from the Garden

“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the mind.” Luther Burbank

One of my favorite challenges is to create floral arrangements out of what is blooming in my garden, no matter the season.  Come fall, the selections are fewer but no less interesting.  I was hosting a large group recently and needed several floral arrangements to place throughout the house. I went foraging in my garden and this is what I was able to find to work with:

• persicaria ‘Red Dragon’, for its pretty purple and green foliage
• hydrangea, in various stages of colors from green to deep pinks
• astilbe in its post flowering seed stage
• a few yellow annual dahlias still blooming in a planter
• hardy begonias both for their delicate pink flowers and for their striking heart-shaped leaves
• sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, still in its green stage
• a single ‘Pierre-Auguste Renoir’ rose

I will show you half a dozen way I used different combinations of these flowers to create beautiful arrangements, all a bit different from one another.  Even when I didn’t think I had very much to work with and I was ready to run out to buy flowers, I managed to create seasonal centerpieces and hope to give you ideas to do the same.

For the bar area I created a tall arrangement in a birch bark container using astilbe, sedum, hydrangea, upside down begonia leaves and feather clusters in autumnal colors.  I started with a tight bundle of astilbe. I then wrapped sedum around their stems. Next came a crown of hydrangeas just beneath the sedum. I finished the arrangement with upside down begonia leaves for their striking pink color. I just gathered the flowers in hand and tied the stems together with an elastic band to keep the arrangement tight. I stuck the feathers in last. This is my favorite creation by far.  Doesn’t  it look like it came from a high end florist?

For a table centerpiece, I arranged hydrangeas, dahlias, persicaria, begonia flowers and astilbe fronds in an amber rectanglar vase.  A more romantic arrangement, totally different in feel than the nearby bar one yet complimentary with many of the same flowers and foliage reappearing.

On another table, I used a trio of stemmed amber wine glasses filled with hydrangeas, sedum and seeded astilbe,  each secured with an elastic band. Simple, classic and pretty in multiples, surrounded by candlelight votives.

On a cocktail table I used a contemporary clear glass vase and arranged hydrangia, begonias for both the flowers and the foliage this time, some astible  and trailing persicaria, secured by an elastic band.  I wrapped the stems in a lime green hosta leaf for a modern arangement and to conceal the elastic band.

In the kitchen, a tall urn was filled with dried hydrangeas.  A plaid ribbon, silk fall leaves and berries added decorative accents and more color to compliment the kitchen décor.  The dried hydrangeas will last for months.

On the dessert buffet table, I plopped a bunch of  hydrangeas in a pitcher for a charming but simple arrangement. 

And the single rose?  It graced the powder room in a bud vase.  A house filled with beautiful, seasonal flowers, at no cost:  priceless!  What’s blooming in your fall garden?

Need more inspiration?  Visit these posts from the archives:

1-  5 minute fall arrangement in a garden urn

2-  Beidermeier arrangement:  a tutorial using fall flowers

3-  Autumnal floral arrangement:  A late season gift from the garden

4-  Wine Crate Floral Arrangements  

5-  Drying Hydrangeas