Create a Foraged Autumn Harvest Arrangement

My favorite season is pumpkin season and when the calendar page turns to September, I’m ready for harvest of pumpkins, leaves and apples! To make an easy autumn harvest arrangement, I started with a galvanized bucket I found at T.J. Maxx a few years ago.

In addition to Limelight hydrangeas cut from the garden, I foraged for some foliage free-for-the-clipping . . .Goldenrod, Chinese Chestnut pods, Crape Myrtles seed pods and Loropetalum, cut from the shrubs. Once you have all your greenery and flowers cut, you can assemble your arrangement in 10 minutes.

Limelight Hydrangeas have begun their fall metamorphosis and the blooms will continue to ‘pinken up’ and begin to deepen and burnish to a bronzy-hue.

Fall is a great time to plant shrubs in your garden! If you’re looking for an easy to grow, low maintenance shrub for your garden to plant this fall, that will provide beautiful cut and dried flowers too, see my Public Service Announcement:   Plant a Limelight Hydrangea. . .or Five.

Removing 3 – 4 inches of the outer wood of branches of leaves or woody stems with a vegetable peeler helps the stems ‘drink’ and stay fresh longer. I keep a vegetable peeler with my  flower arranging kit and supplies so I’m not dulling the blade of my kitchen vegetable peeler.

Goldenrod blooms along the roadside and in fields from August through October in North Carolina and is an important late-season source of nectar for pollinators. It’s blamed as the source of hay fever in late summer and early fall, when ragweed pollen is actually the culprit, in bloom at the same time.

Tip: When using an arrangement with fall grasses and goldenrod indoors, give them a spritz of hair spray to keep the grasses and tiny flower clusters from shedding.

I used my favorite flower arranging tool, chicken wire, to support the flower and foliage stems.

Chicken wire makes for easy and organic arranging using late season flowers, foliage, pods, berries and / or grasses, all gathered from the great outdoors. Chicken wire is also an eco-friendly alternative to wet floral foam when it comes to arranging flowers as it is reusable.

No flower arranging skills required with this arrangement, just let your materials ‘fill and spill’, tucking in clusters of pods or berries to add texture and interest. Our leaves don’t turn until November in North Carolina but branches of fall leaves would be a beautiful addition too.

Apples were added to the arrangement with bamboo skewers and then the bucket was placed in the center of a grapevine wreath, surrounded with a few harbingers of fall... pumpkins, Indian corn, leaves, apples and more seed pods. The only expense in creating the arrangement itself was the cost of the apples.

More photos and details at the blog link below!