Thursday, December 4, 2008

Basic Blooms

I like having flowers around the house but don’t like to fuss over them a whole lot. I don’t have a budget for anything from the florist, either, so I thought this month would be a good time to come up with some cheap and easy ideas for flower arrangements.

For the centerpiece above, I lined a basket with heavy plastic and transplanted two sixpacks of bedding plants from the nursery. If bedding plants aren’t available, a few small flowering plants would also work. Then I bought a dozen roses from the grocery store, cut four of them short, and placed them in water tubes to tuck into the dirt among the plants – three in one corner and one in the opposite. A little basket filler around the edge hides the plastic liner. Another plus about this one – it’s long-lasting.


Now – what to do with the other eight roses? I put them in a plain glass cylinder vase, and slid some pretty leaves from the yard and a few river rocks into the water around the edge of the glass. A few large leaves from the garden at the mouth of the vase filled the arrangement out a little. Of course it could be done in holiday colors, with pine or cedar branches for a more wintry look.

The best part – I ended up with two arrangements for under $20.

10 comments:

Stacy Nyikos said...

Neat idea. Thanks for posting it!

Kimbra Kasch said...

Love those ideas. I cut holly - from my yard - and some cedar branches. I stuffed them into some green gardeners foam and stuff a candle in the middle. Then I sat it on a large Christmas platter. I was being really cheap but when my brother came over - one who usually doesn't notice such things, he said "that's really pretty." :)

Rena Jones said...

These turned out beautiful, Adrienne. And for under $20 too, wow! I'm always blown away by how much floral arrangements cost when I send them to my mom. They are so expensive. Nice work!

Anonymous said...

Fresh flowers are always so pretty. Those arrangements are quite nice.

PJ Hoover said...

OMG, you are such an artist!
Seriously, these are great!

Suzanne Casamento said...

Nice! My mom was a florist for 20 years. She used to bring home bundles of buds and our house always smelled so flower fresh. I miss that. Your post brought back some nice thoughts and good ideas!

Brenda said...

What wonderful floral arrangements! I wish I had that kind of talent...

C.R. Evers said...

gorgeous! I love 'em!

LW said...

Wonderful, both look so pretty.
I really like your idea of plants mixed with cut flowers.


I use to do a lot of flower arranging, I love having fresh flowers in the house.
I did all of my daughter’s flowers for her wedding accept her bouquet.
What was I thinking, she had an outdoor wedding and wanted lots of flowers.
I did it but it was so much work…

Louise

Adrienne said...

Kim - That sounds so pretty! My mom always decorated with lots of holly. I wish I had some around here!

Rena - I know, it makes me sad that I can't send flowers more often. They are such a nice gift.

Suzanne - How nice she could bring her work home ;) I worked as a floral designer and miss being around flowers all the time, but not the stress!

Louise - That is a ton of work - not just the arranging but setting it up. I'll bet they were beautiful, though!

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone. I'm hoping to find time to make some more Christmasy things this month...