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Gateway Florist's fall arrangement is made up of artichokes, oranges, strawberries, grapes, kale, roses, lilies, stock, orchids, snaps, celosia, and montbretia.

Fabulous Fall Flower Arrangements
By Nadja Maril
Photos by Kimi Raspa

One of the ways to quickly dress up the house for company and the holidays is with flowers. A beautiful flower arrangement can distract the eye from stray crumbs on the carpet or smudges on the windowpanes.

Or maybe it's the other way around and beautiful flowers will inspire you to do a flurry of housecleaning.

"I want a flower arrangement I create to look so wonderful," says Julie Black, florist and owner of Black-Eyed Susan, "that you will want to immediately clean your house so there'll be no distractions to take your eyes away from the floral centerpiece." Her inspiration for this statement was a gift she received long ago-a handsome arrangement by a famous floral designer that had her scrambling to clear away clutter so as not to take away from the beauty of her newly received flowers.

Black-Eyed Susan Florist grouped red ginger, veronica, sedum, sunflowers, heather, viburnum, berries, hydrangea, miniature calla lilies, roses, rovers, solidago, monte casino, artificial grapes, and leaves together for a fall arrangement.

While we can't all be maestros at creating breathtaking arrangements, we thought we'd see what kind of loose arrangement we could create using fresh flowers purchased at a local market and some advice from the experts.

But why limit yourself to flowers? If you're creating a harvest arrangement for the holidays, why not include fruits and vegetables? "Think outside the box," suggests Nancy Thompson, owner of Gateway Florist. "If you're celebrating Thanksgiving, what about grapes, kale, or artichokes?"

Many times the selection of a unique container will greatly enhance the looks of the arrangement and be a source of inspiration, "Carve out a squash or pumpkin instead of using a typical throwaway vase," says Thompson.

"What about galvanized tin?" suggests Sandi Lathan of Sandi's Florist.

Blended together for this fall arrangement by Sandi's Flowers are fall colored lilies, oncidium orchids, mango mini calla lilies, mini sunflowers, Red pincushion proteas, Bells of Ireland, yellow and red peppers, sorghum, Italian ruscus (greenery), and seeded eucalyptus (greenery) in a rectangle vase with river rocks.

Certainly if you're short on time, a pot of mums set inside a basket is a quick fix for a centerpiece. But if you are looking to create something more unusual, Lathan recommends an arrangement with tropical flowers such as bird-of-paradise or fall-colored roses.

Traditionally, says Bill Dyott of Severna Flowers and Gifts, people think they must use mums. Asiatic lilies provide a lot of possibilities. They come in some great colors-gold, rust, and orange. Single flowers with a few pieces of greenery, groupings of flowers all in one color, and arrangements that include horizontal shapings are all new trends in flower designing.

Grouped together for a fall arrangement by Severna Park Florist, Inc., T/A Severna Flowers & Gifts, are orange Asiatic lilies, unique orange roses, wheat, pears, and hypericum berries set in small stone urns.

"People don't want things to look as if a florist did it," explains Black. "They want it to look more loose and natural."

Sunflowers, wheat, berries, millet-the possibilities go on and on. Too many colors may confuse the eye, so collect a color palette that complements your home and the setting where the arrangement will be placed.

Taking notes of all these suggestions, we made a visit to a local market to look at what flowers might be available for creating an arrangement using our newly acquired professional advice.

Using a gold-painted glass container, York Flowers arranged hydrangeas, an orange lily and amber calla lily, sapphire blue delphinium, purple lisianthis, rust leonidas roses, red hypernicum berries, amaranthus, sedum, accents of eucalyptus, solidago, lemon leaf gilded with gold, gold amaranthus, and jewels added with beads. Pears accent the arrangement as a symbol of the harvest season, and artichoke candleholders are painted in metallic colors. Floral designer Ellen Cox suggests adding metallic, iridescent accents to follow the trends for this fall while combining "old world" (pears) with the new (jewels, beads).

There were multitudes of colorful mums at the market, but remembering the advice of the florists we'd been interviewing, we looked for something different. My eye was attracted to the anthurium, Asiatic lilies, and a spray of roses in warm autumn colors. Then I saw the asclepias in rust, gold, and pale yellow. Their blossoms are reminiscent of berries. White calla lilies added an exotic touch.

To bring in the theme of the harvest I purchased a bunch of wheat at the craft store, along with rust- and gold-striped ribbon. The container is a galvanized tin pitcher with watertight plastic liner. A pitcher enables you to easily create an asymmetrical loose arrangement.

The ribbon, surrounding pieces of fruit, and floral arrangement say autumn harvest and Thanksgiving. But change the contents and accessories and this could easily be used for a variety of holidays and seasons.

Editor Nadja Maril spends more time writing than in the garden but she loves to arrange flowers.

How We Did It-One Step at a Time Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Step One: Assemble your materials: white calla lilies, rust Asiatic lilies, asclepias, three stems of anthurium, spray roses in the color Rumba, buckbeard wheat, ribbon, craft wire, scissors, and a galvanized tin pitcher with liner (Fig. 1) Step Two: Make a bow to wire to the container, using wire-edged ribbon and craft wire. (Fig. 2) & (Fig. 3) Using 30 inches of ribbon, create a double loop and twist the wire around the center tightly to secure. (Fig. 3) Cut an 18-inch length of ribbon for your ties, bend in half, and join it to the loops of the bow in the middle. (Fig.5) Placing it behind the double loops, use the wire to secure it in place by twisting the wire again. Use that same wire to attach the bow to the handle of the pitcher and cut any extra length of wire sticking out. (Fig. 6) Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Step Three: Trim and place your flowers. Start with the anthurium, cut at a slant on the base into three ascending lengths. (Fig.7) & (Fig. 8) Add the two stems of Asiatic lilies, shortened to two different lengths. (Fig. 9) & (Fig. 10) Your tallest flowers, they should rise no more than approximately 12 inches above the top of the container. Add four stems of asclepias and four stems of calla lilies trimmed to stand 4-6 inches shorter than the Asiatic lilies and anthurium. (Fig. 11) Strip the spray roses of their lower leaves and trim their bases so that they stand mid height between the lower and taller flowers. (Fig. 12) Add five pieces of wheat and arrange them so that they rise approximately 14-16 inches above the top of the container. Display your flowers on the table, serving counter, or sideboard with vibrant colored fruit-a honeybell orange, red pears, McIntosh apple, star fruit, and some stems of wheat to represent the bounty of the earth. (Fig. 13) Fig. 8 Fig. 9 Fig. 10 Fig. 11 Fig. 12 Fig. 13 A traditional autumn arrangement that uses fall flowers from the garden was made by What's Up? Annapolis reader Nancie Kennedy from Arnold. Using coleus, verbena, fresh basil, and mums set in a jelly glass, this small bouquet smells as good as it looks.