Harvest Glow Centerpiece
Warm up your holiday table with a festive glow! In this Flower School How-To Video, Leanne creates a show-stopping Thanksgiving centerpiece using golden sunflowers, richly textured autumn blooms, and safe, battery-operated candles. Designed for the dining table, this foam-free arrangement is both beautiful and practical — no flame, no fuss, just cozy, candlelit style. Perfect for family gatherings, Friendsgiving, or fall events, this design will light up the season with gratitude and floral flair.
Video Transcription
The holiday season, it demands candles, rechargeable, remote, fresh flowers, and all our favorites. Let me show you how it's done.
For this design, I'm using two containers, both glass cylinders, a large and a small, wrapping it with angel vine to conceal the mechanics. So, using a single Uglu Strip, just placing it against the vessel, securing it, pulling it off, then taking the angel vine and securing it around, locking it together. Then, I can take the second vessel, turn it upside down into the center, and then using remote candles. I know, don't you love them? The battery-operated, rechargeable, remote. Oh, so grand, to give that glow and just easy. Turn them on, and you've got color. How grand is that?
With the mechanics in place, I added some water. It's pre-mixed with Flower Food. Just finishing it off. Then, I can add in the flowers. Hydrangea are a wonderful base, just cutting them down. You don't need them to be long, and just setting them in, and they begin a structure for the rest of the design. A bit of viburnum. The berries are so bright and bold. Cutting them apart, and then sliding them in place. You can see that contrast between the orange and the violet, and then repeat that all the way around. So you've got hydrangea, viburnum, and you know what? Maybe a little bit of nandina, going ahead and placing that as well, just to fill in the rest of the way around.
As we continue, adding in some sunflowers, getting that bright yellow, cutting them down, and letting them nestle over the top, bringing the color in, and a few dahlias and the vibrant orange, similar to the berries, but a different shape. Then, repeat that throughout to get a little bit of color all the way around.
For a final touch, the sanguisorba, it's a beautiful flower. Some call it great burnet, but breaking it down, smaller bits, and then letting it be a little taller, adding a touch of grace over the top of the design. You can see how it pulls that color from the dahlias and the berries on up. Adding a little bit of movement and softness to the arrangement, and it doesn't take a lot. Just a few stems, dotted around, letting them stay longer to add softness to the full design.
The recipe, I started with the beautiful Hydrangea, and I used three stems that had multiple heads, so I broke them apart. Then, I added the Viburnum, two stems, multiple heads, broken apart. Sunflowers, three stems. They add that pop of color. Then, the Dahlias, four stems to continue on that bright orange. Then, a bit of Nandina, just a stem cut apart, and a bit of Sanguisorba. Two stems, cut apart to add that little bit of lightness.
The harvest glow centerpiece, rechargeable candles. How cool is that? You'll see more wonderful opportunity for centerpieces for the holiday season on the website, flowerschool.com. If have questions, you can reach us through there, but now it's your turn. What are you going to create for your table and all your clients tables? Be sure to take lots of pictures, post it on social media, and #FloralDesignInstitute. That way, we all can see what you do as you do something you love.
