Autumn Florals - Turn, Turn, Turn

New England finally feels like fall! The trees are slowly turning to shades of burgundy, burnt orange, bronze and yellow, creating stunning scenery for walks outdoors. We’re excited to bundle up in warm sweaters and get outside to enjoy the beautiful foliage colors around us.

Just like leaves change colors with the seasons, so do the flowers in our shop. Flowering seasonally is the French way and has always been important to us at Les Fleurs; it allows us to do our part to support local flower farmers and avoid importing from abroad.

With that in mind, we’re going to teach you how to create a flower arrangement like no other - with an autumn palette of florals and foliage, designed in a unique container: a pumpkin! It’s a fun new interpretation of seasonal pumpkin carving designs!

So, get your tools ready and be creative!

Step 1 - Pumpkin Selection

The first step is to find the perfect pumpkin. Come see our selection at the shop or visit a local farm to find one that catches your eye.

Here are some of our favorite New England spots:

• Carlson Orchard Farm - Harvard, MA

• Wilson Farm - Lexington, MA

• The Farmer’s Daughter - South Kingston, RI

• Smolak Farm - North Andover, MA

• Cider Hill - Amesbury, MA

Pro tip: When selecting a pumpkin, consider its color, size and shape, depending on your design preferences and how large you want your arrangement to be.

Step 2 - Pumpkin Carving

Next, choose a vase or any container to hold water that will fit inside the pumpkin. Cut the top of the pumpkin and remove the seeds. Carve out the inside of the pumpkin, making enough space to fit the container.

Step 3 - Vase Prep

Once your container is nestled into the pumpkin, prep some coated chicken wire to create a grid for the flowers. If you don’t have chicken wire, no worries! You can make a grid directly at the top of the vase with floral tape, creating sections to help the flowers stand. Don’t forget to add water!

Step 4- Start with the Leaves

Forage some leaves in your backyard, or stop by the shop to grab some greens... or shall we say reds? In addition to the foliage that we foraged from our local trees, we used the following in our arrangement:

• copper beach leaves

• spirea

Step 5- Bring in the Flowers

Once you’ve created a base with the leaves, start adding in some seasonal flowers.

In our arrangement we used:

• 3 blueberry roses

• 5 cappuccino roses

• 3 deep wine spray roses

• 5 deep pink and orange dahlias

• 5 chocolate cosmos

• 3 orange asclepias

• 3 burgundy ranunculus

• 3 rose hips

• 3 coneflower echinacea

To create height with linear flowers, we added:

• burgundy amaranthus

• deep pink astilbe

To play with contrast, notice how we mixed the deep pink of the astilbe with more muted pinks and oranges.

Et voilà!

If you choose to recreate this pumpkin arrangement, don’t hesitate to share your creation and tag us on social media.

Happy fall!

xoxo,
Sandra

Photo Credits: Kindra Clineff