Fall Florals

Flower arranging is not my strong suit, but I love having fresh flowers at home, and not my strong suit rarely stops me (see also: reupholstery and painting). I’m a fan of Vogue Flower Market on Boulevard here in Richmond, which tends to have a nice seasonal selection and a very patient staff. They offer words of encouragement as I wander around the store, random stems in hand, asking “What’s that? Does this look OK? What about that?” to anyone who will listen.

For fall, I like a lot of greenery and darker colors. And as an amateur, I find it easiest to stick to one side of the color wheel. For this arrangement, I stuck with deep pink, purple, and a few pops of white.

​To start, I used a giant handful of seeded eucalyptus for a base. It has a great scent, a pretty muted green color, and I love how it spills over the vase. Next up is the bright color, which in this case is the fuchsia amaranth (Is that amaranth? I think it’s amaranth? Guys, I’m really not great at florals). In addition to the great deep color, I liked that it curled around and followed the seeded eucalyptus. At this point in the arrangement I should add that it’s a good idea to keep rotating your vase as you go, to make sure it looks good from all sides and that you don’t have any weird bald spots. Moving on, we have a few stems of white stock. I wanted something delicate and white in there, and stock is what they had. And last but not least, thistle. Thistle just seems like a good fall bouquet addition, and it has a sort of silvery hue to it that looks nice with the silvery green eucalyptus.

And that’s our arrangement. What are your go to flowers this time of year? Any combinations that you love together? Is anyone lucky enough to be able to make bouquets straight from their garden? Because if so, I’m jealous.