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Fresh Ideas for Holiday Floral Arrangements
by Lillieanne Chase
(NAPSI)
 If you're looking for a way to spruce up your home with fresh fall flowers, try thinking outside of the vase and using this rule of thumb: If it can hold water, it can hold flowers.
That means you don't have to run out and buy vases or other items to hold your flowers. Instead, just take a look around the house or yard for inspiration. You can hold flowers in favorite collectibles (think china animals, sugar bowls, etc.), pitchers or even in hollowed-out fruit.
In fact, any watertight container will do. Here's a short list to get your creative ideas going and to help you add flowers to every room of your home:
• Old watering cans, enamelware pitchers, cast-iron kettles, antique coal hods and teapots make great bases for doorstep arrangements, country kitchens or baths.
• A row of champagne glasses with a large blossom in each makes any dinner an elegant occasion. Soda bottles, wine bottles, mason jars or colored glass bottles are great for a more casual affair and are also attractive clustered on a coffee table.
• Use bowls and shallow dishes for floating flower heads.
• Don't let your creativity stop with the container. You can add decorative elements to any arrangement—again by looking around your own house and yard. Be sure each element can tolerate water—or use it to surround the arrangement. Anything you collect or have on hand, including ceramics, pottery, glass, stones, twigs, leaves, acorns, shells and more, can add a personalized element to your floral arrangement.
There are as many fall flower-decorating possibilities as there are flowers.
Incidentally, a new study says what the flower children of the '60s never doubted: flowers make you feel at peace.
A behavioral research study conducted by Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, reveals that people feel more compassionate toward others, have less worry and anxiety, and feel less depressed when fresh-cut flowers are present in the home.
So how can you take advantage of flower power?
• Participants in the study reported the greatest mood-boosting effects when fresh-cut flowers were placed in common areas of the home.
• The kitchen table is a great place to display flowers, because it's where people often gather together.
• For an easy, elegant table decoration, set a series of alternating crystal vases on a fabric runner. Place fresh flowers in each of the vases and surround them with greenery.
• Float two or three blooms, such as open roses or gerbera daisies, in a favorite glass bowl.
• A flower bouquet can also perk up personal spaces, such as bathrooms and bedrooms.
• Choose soothing colors, such as blues and greens, to create a tranquil feeling, or bright reds and oranges for a more sensual arrangement. Yellows and peaches are nurturing and pinks and lavenders are romantic.
For more tips, visit www.flowerpossibilities.com.
(Note: The beautiful flower arrangement pictured at the top of the page was designed by noted floral designer Betty Brown for one of the dinner tables at the MassHort Society’s “Honorary Medals Gala,” which was held at Elm Bank in Wellesley on October 12, 2006. Graciously presented to yours truly to take home by Carolyn Weston (MassHort’s Director of Flower Show and Special Events), the arrangement lasted for more than two weeks on our kitchen table. ~ Hilda M. Morrill, editor)
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