Thanksgiving Floral Centerpiece

Video Transcription 

Welcome to the flowerschool.com video library. I'm Leanne Kesler, director of the Floral Design Institute, and today I want to share with you a wonderful, contemporary Thanksgiving centerpiece.

I started gathering by going shopping online at florabundance.com, and perused their website. I can go by color, by season, by flower, all the different ways to search. First one that I found, the Heart of Gold rose. It is such a gorgeous mustard color. Absolutely perfect. I started there and then I thought, how do I update this for Thanksgiving now? Copper banksia, lovely. And then thinking rose gold and then going back to the tradition of a chrysanthemum, the intensity of ninebark and preserved beech giving me great color contrast.

 Working in the oblong vessel makes it easy to design oblong. The mechanics, simply floral foam taped into place, pre-soaked with flower food. 

Using the foliages, the preserved beech to begin the form, bringing it out to the ends and you can see the color contrast gives it a little variation from the very beginning. Opposite end out the back. And then also breaking the line of the container in the front. Everything radiating to a central binding point then repeating that with the ninebark, getting a little more intense color out to the sides, even up through the center, always to the central binding point. 

Using the roses to create the body of the design, making sure that they're inserted well so that they'll drink. Then facing forward, some towards the top. And then of course bringing them around to the back because a centerpiece doesn't truly have a back. It's front, sides, everywhere. Then bringing in the chrysanthemums and using them more towards the center to help establish the focal emphasis. 

As I continue flowering, I add more roses coming out to the ends, carrying the eye long ways and then also guiding it back up into the arrangement. Then it can be good to work on a turntable so that you can look at it from all sides, adding flowers in, filling, keeping it full, luxurious and balanced.

 As I finish, bringing in the banksia. It's very woody so sometimes it's better to go ahead and break it and then place it in, letting the foliage come out a bit. Opposite side. And the foliage itself is so beautiful so going back and adding that to get a little bit of contrast but grouping with the bloom so that it makes sense. Then tucking in the sedum, more of the rose gold and then spinning and looking and balancing from side to side. 

The recipe, everything came from the florabundance.com website and I started with 12 of those Heart of Gold roses, long lasting and fabulous. Then five of the copper banksia, five sedum, three of the peachy coral chrysanthemums, then I broke apart two stems of the ninebark and two stems of the preserved beech. 

Being a florist today is such fun. Centerpieces can be done in so many different styles. The classic oval, on trend again. You'll find more creative inspiration on our website, flowerschool.com. Do you have questions? You can reach us through there or give us a call at (503) 223-8089. Now it's your turn, what are you going to create for your table centerpiece? Be sure to take a picture, post it on social media and #floraldesigninstitute, that way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.