GARDEN FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS...

Make Free, Beautiful Floral Arrangements from clippings in your own yard or garden!

     Recently my daughter and I planned a garden tea party themed bridal shower that was held at my own house. I needed an inexpensive way to bring the garden theme to life. As everyone knows, floral arrangements are very expensive so about a month before the shower I started experimenting with clippings from my yard to see how they would hold up throughout a day or even over night. To my surprise, almost everything held up and looked good for at least a week or more! I was thrilled. Not only would I have the large floral arrangements that I wanted but they would be completely free.

Here is the first one I did using 4 wire hangers shaped into a circle. I used jute as a hanger.

All of the wreaths and swags have clippings from Gold Mound, Red Maple, Boxwood, and Cypress.  The only plant that I didn't have good luck with was Willow. It tends to wilt immediately after pruning. It's best to fill up a wheel barrow with water and soak all of your clippings for about 15 minutes to hydrate them and lightly mist them each day to keep them fresh.  I have also found that they look interesting after drying completely. The Red Maple will curl after a couple of days giving it a completely different look.

I wanted a chandelier look for the top of the tent and used a pine ladder on its side (also hung by jute twine, triple thick). I used the same plants as above but added in clippings from an Oak Tree. I had the bird house as we are going to use them as centerpieces for the wedding. The Oak prunings lasted a really long time! The entire arrangement was 7 feet long and really made a statement when you walked into the tent.

Above the dessert table, I made a 4 foot heart shaped wreath made out of variegated Cypress. For the base, my husband made a metal heart using poles from an old ping pong table. It was heavy and large so I wouldn't try to hang this many prunings from a wire base. We added tea cups/pots and the bride and grooms initials to the heart using wire.

A swag was also made on an old garden gate. I didn't use a wire base for this one. I just laid large clippings at the top of the gate in between the iron bars. (also pictured above)

If you would like to try this for your next party or event, I would recommend making a small wreath a couple of weeks before and seeing how long your clipping last and which type of clippings you like dried. This will tell you how long before your party/event that you can make them. It's also possible to dry out a wreath completely and just add fresh clippings to it right before the party!

Supplies needed:

• Cypress, Oak, Red Maple, Fountain Cherry, Boxwood, Gold Mound Clippings. Also try other clippings, be adventurous.
• Wire hangers or wood/metal for heavier arrangements.
• Water (for hydrating clippings)
• Wire and Jute Twine for hangers and for binding clippings together

THANKS FOR READING!

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