Cabbage Vase Centerpiece DIY for St. Patrick's Day
5 Materials
$20
1 Hour
Medium
Instead of serving up corned beef with your cabbage for St. Patrick's Day, use a cabbage as a vase for flowers for a centerpiece!
I like to think 'outside the vase' for flowers! Using a cabbage as a vase adds a little nod to tradition of serving cabbage for St. Patrick's Day and makes an affordable, organic vase for flowers.
After purchasing a head of cabbage, I started with some wet floral foam. You can find it on the floral aisle of the craft store. I found a 2-pack of small round wet floral blocks at Dollar Tree, or you can cut your floral brick with a knife the size you need.
Use the “float soak” method and place the floral foam on the top of a solution of fresh water and/or floral preservative. Let the floral foam gradually absorb the water until it’s fully saturated. Plunging the floral foam in the water traps air bubbles and will prohibit the transfer of water from the foam to the flower stems.
You can use any large head of cabbage for your floral centerpiece. I chose a savoy cabbage, with its dark veining texture and color. Trim the bottom of your cabbage so it sits level. Remove the wilted leaves and save any loose outer leaves that aren’t wilted. I used floral pins (also known as greening pins) to reattach the outer leaves to the cabbage.
Instead of hollowing out the cabbage and filling it with the floral foam, I attached the wet floral to the top of the cabbage with floral picks using the same technique with my blooming pumpkin. It easier than hollowing out the dense center of the cabbage and there’s no risk of cutting yourself with your knife.
Here's a photo of the head of cabbage with the green wire floral picks and leaves reattached with the floral pins. Build your flower arrangement on your floral foam and then place it on the floral picks on top of your head of cabbage.
Take a look at your arrangement once it's finished and see if it needs any additional flowers or greenery and that your floral foam is concealed once it's in place on top of your cabbage.
I used green and white flowers from my Irish Blessings table, a combination of Alstroemeria, Mums, Daisies, Stock and Green Trick Dianthus, the texture reminiscent of Irish moss.
Choose flowers that are fresh and long lasting to get the maximum life out of your arrangement. With the exception of the Stock, all these flowers will last a week. Use a spray bottle filled with water to mist your flowers and the cabbage occasionally and keep your arrangement some place cool (like a garage or porch) until you're ready to place it on the table. Alternatively, you can lift the arrangement off the floral pins and place it in a shallow dish of water to soak and refresh the flowers. Keep your arrangement away from heat vents and direct sunlight for long lasting flowers.
Resources for this project:
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Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Comments
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3 of 21 comments
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So pretty.
Thank you for posting.
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It's not about the cost it's about wasting food...of which our nation is notoriously guilty of. I grow my own food in a community garden. We don't waste anything. One cabbage can help give a family a nutritious meal. I gave my opinion. I did not resort to name calling.
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TRUE, but at least it is compostable with the flowers.
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Do you still want to do a soaker method if using all artificial flowers?
How you pin the cabbage to the plate
How you pin the cabbage to the plate