By Vicki Spencer, Master Gardener
I am a collector and come from a family of collectors. For as long as I can remember, when I take a walk outside — through a forest or along a beach — I start collecting. In the fall, when I stroll around my neighborhood or through the local park, I pick up beautiful leaves, different seeds and unusually shaped branches. When I get home, I empty my pockets, purse or backpack and wonder what I’m doing with my bounty. Sometimes the items will sit on a bookshelf or the kitchen counter for a day or two and then end up in the trash. Other times, they are just too beautiful to throw out and I start thinking of DIY holiday centerpieces to save them.
DIY Holiday Centerpieces
It used to be that I would turn to magazine photos collected throughout the year for ideas. Now that I have the internet, I have a wealth of ideas right at my fingertips.
For Thanksgiving centerpieces, I usually choose a color scheme of traditional fall colors — orange, red, yellow and gold — but there are many modern palettes you can choose for the holiday season.
The Essentials
An example of a simple fall arrangement begins with an earth-toned basket. First, scatter brown nuts and autumn-colored kitchen vegetables around the bottom of the basket. Squash, shallots, onions and any nuts in shells provide a good foundation. Then sprinkle a few of the autumn leaves you gathered on top of the nuts and vegetables.
For a little added color, cut the stems off some of your garden mums (spider, pompom, anemone and thistle mums provide interest with their varied petal shapes) and arrange the mums in clusters for a dramatic effect.
If you don’t have mums in your garden, pick up a small bouquet at your grocery store. This type of arrangement mimics the randomness of leaves and seeds that fall on the forest floor, and you don’t require a degree in creative design to produce a lovely effect.
If you have time to plan ahead, collect your favorite flowers when they are in full bloom during the summer and dry them for arrangements in the fall. Pick the flowers in the morning or evening when they are at their best.
To retain the color of the flowers, remove them from sunlight as soon as they are cut and hang them upside down, individually or in a bouquet.
Some flowers retain color better than others, and white flowers often turn brown. You just need to experiment to see which colors you like the best.
I tie the flowers together with a piece of twine wrapped around the stems and use the twine to hang them from a closet rod.
Flowers with hearty stalks are the best for dried bouquets because they won’t droop when you arrange them right side up. Some good examples are hydrangeas, baby’s breath, marigolds, zinnias, goldenrod and yarrow. Larger flowers like peonies and hydrangeas dry best if you tie them up separately rather than in a bunch.
More Ideas for Your Centerpieces
You can also dry decorative seed heads collected from your garden in the fall. Beautiful seeds, grasses, branches with berries and wildflowers can be found along roadsides or in vacant lots.
I found that the basement or a little-used closet with good circulation works best for drying flowers.
It takes two to three weeks for the flowers to dry completely. When they are dry, spray them with hair spray for protection. You can also microwave flowers to dry them, but this takes practice because the drying time varies by microwave oven and flower. (And never leave the microwave unattended when drying flowers.)
There are many ways to arrange your flowers. Put them in glass containers with beans or nuts in the base to keep them upright, or arrange in a special vase just as you would arrange fresh flowers.
The important thing is to remember to pick your flowers and dry them when they are at their peak, then you can enjoy your garden throughout the winter.
Gardener Vicki Spencer has an eclectic background in conservation, water, natural resources and more.