Rather than building a huge display, simply “say it with flowers” on a much smaller basis. And there’s no need to focus only on the traditional holiday hues. Play around with color by combining pink-blushed Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Tall Double Rose’, dusty miller, and leucadendron. Add a spray of pepperberries and some pine, and this presentation says holiday in a different shade of pale.
Never before could you find tulips and ranunculus for wintertime bouquets, and these new elements bring a whole new look to the palette. Feel free to bring them into your design with a cold season spin. Margo coupled white-and-red streaked ‘Carnival de Nice’ tulips with cherry red ranunculus and then softened the combo with dusty miller.
‘Tis the season to haul out the holly. It’s time to add holiday centerpieces to our tables and mantels.Fear that you will fumble when making arrangements? Margo Pullman of Pullman Design Company, based in West Newbury, specializes in helping you juggle cut flowers and all that goes with them with ease. Not only does she compose arrangements for all sorts of events, but she leads classes to help wannabes and reluctant floral artists hone their skills. Here are some of her compositions for the season.
Burnish nature with some sparkle and you have the holidays all sewn up. This long, lean tray centerpiece is composed of preserved and faux ingredients for an extended performance. Cinnamon sticks are wrapped with wire and nestled into a bed of copper-finished magnolia leaves and dried brunia to go the long haul.
Height elevates drama, giving an arrangement instant importance even within the muted spectrum of green and white. Layered greens build up the base and create an arrangement destined to last for weeks. Sprigs of Lindera citriodora reach up toward the ceiling. And an ornament gives extra sparkle within the glass goblet, creating just the suspension of reality you might expect in a wonderland.
Give everyone at the table a tiny bouquet and the feast becomes more personal (plus guests need not “talk around” tall flowers). White and silver always work together, especially when you team berries such as hypericum and seeded eucalyptus with roses, leucadendron “cones,” a white rosebud, and dusty miller.
What better way to play off a feast than adding food to an arrangement? Cabbage florets and artichokes “add depth” while also pointing out the parrot green in spider mums against fiery orange amaryllis and asclepias blossoms. Brussels sprouts would be equally apropos for a mouth-watering arrangement.
Raise up the arrangement and everyone at a table can easily communicate around a centerpiece. Margo uses glass cylinders to create up/down arrangements with moss and lichen at the base anchoring foliage and flowers inserted into moistened floral foam balanced on top. No need to repeat the same elements in top and bottom.
Whether you are thinking Thanksgiving or going for December parties, fire tones add brilliance to the holidays. Sink just a few cymbidium orchids amid some chrysanthemums in pittosporum leaves, and your simmering arrangement will read from a distance across the room.
Pullman Design Company
112 Moulton St., West Newbury, 978-548-8660
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