Everyone knows pumpkins make fun lanterns for Halloween, but did you know pumpkins also make great containers for autumn flowers. Pumpkins look gorgeous with rich shades of autumn flowers. I’ll tell you how to make your own autumnal pumpkin arrangement in a few simple steps. Before you get started you need to gather a few bits and bobs; a few fresh flowers in autumnal tones, some foliage, a block of floral foam and a few pieces of cellophane. You can get most of your equipment from a florist shop; if you’ve got a garden have a look for any autumnal foliage you can forage to go in your arrangement.
Before you buy your pumpkin think about how big you want your arrangement to be, as your finished arrangement will be three times the height of the pumpkin. So if you have a tiny space to display your arrangement in don’t buy a monster pumpkin.
To start slice the top off the pumpkin and scoop the flesh out. Soak your floral foam in a bucket of water. While your foam is soaking fill the bottom half of your pumpkin with scrunched up cellophane. Cut a large piece of cellophane and place your oasis on it’s end in the centre of the cellophane. Place the oasis and cellophane in the pumpkin, cut the oasis off about two inches above the top of the pumpkin and chop the leftover piece into two wedges, these can be pushed either side of the oasis in your pumpkin to make it fit snugly. Trim off any excess cellophane.
You can now start putting your foliage and flowers into the oasis. I used a mixed bunch of autumn flowers and a few berries and twigs from my garden. Add the foliage first to make the outline for your desire shape and then follow that shape with your flowers. If you’ve got any lovely autumn coloured leaves in your garden add them to your design. When you’ve added all your flowers, check for any gaps where you can see the oasis and add some more foliage at those places.
