5 Minute Floral Arrangements

Happy Monday before Thanksgiving! Wow, I can’t believe it is already here. So much to do and so little time. I’m fortunate because in my family, the menu for Thursday’s feast is pretty much the same year to year…

• Frank’s Brined Turkey
• Smitty’s Baby Back Ribs
• Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
• Apple & Sausage Stuffing
• Succotash Soup with homemade salt & pepper croutons (for recipe, click here)
• Jacque’s Cauliflower Au Gratin (for recipe, click here)
• Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta
• Pies, meatballs, soft rolls…

I’ve got 20 people coming for Thanksgiving dinner and, over the next few days, I will make several trips to the grocery store and begin to prepare my house for the feast.

One of the things that I love to have in my house for special occasions is fresh flowers. In days past, I have taken advantage of all the beautiful bouquets of flowers readily available. We find that Whole Foods in particular always have bundles and bundles of great options. And if you want, you can just transfer these flowers into an old tall vase and be done….

But I’d like to show you just how easy it is to make impressive floral arrangements in less than 5 minutes each. Arrangements that are beautiful, uniquely your own and can easily be used as part of a tablescape, around your home, or be given as a special gift for wherever you are going this holiday season.

After a short stop to whole foods, I decided on four bunches of florals to use in my arrangements; yellow roses; a mixed bouquet with roses, gerber daisy, greens & cranberries; and for filler yellow solidago and cabbage rosettes.

I decided to use clear square vases of varying heights… the tallest being only 7 inches. These arrangements will go on my dining table and its important to keep arrangements low enough to allow easy conversation.

After filling the vases with water (and mixing in the floral food that typically comes with each bouquet) let the cutting begin. The mistake that I have made in the past is trying to make a science of arrangements… cutting each stem precisely one by one. Way too much overthinking going on there! The great thing about flowers is that they are naturally beautiful. You can’t really mess up an arrangement.

Instead, use a good pair of cutting shears and cut the whole bunch at the same time to the approximate length of the vessel that you are using. By cutting them at the same time, your flowers will actually flow into each other better once you start arranging.

Voila! You are ready to begin. Start by arranging a small bundle of flowers in your hand, placing the larger flowers near the outer edges. You can then add a few more flowers that you really want to feature. In this case, the beautiful spice colored roses.

A couple stems of our colorful yellow solidago were added to create some texture, height and to help fill in the gaps. The contrast in color between our filler and roses set the arrangement off beautifully. Before moving on simply make sure the flowers spread in all directions.

Next, we are going to do a small arrangement featuring my yellow roses. Using the smallest square glass vessel, four roses create the base.

From our mixed bouquet of flowers, we used some additional greens and other yellow florals to fill in the gaps in and around our four larger roses. So simple and beautiful.

Not all of us have smaller glass containers on hand, but all of us have pieces in our homes that can be used for arrangements. I happen to have on hand a small mercury bowl that makes an ideal table centerpiece.

Since I had bought quite a few roses, these again are going to build the base of my centerpiece. Again, cut your flowers to the general height of the vessel that you are using.

The roses are placed so they surround the edges of the vessel. We then used the remaining bundle of flowers and greens on hand to fill in the middle of the arrangement. Pay attention to height and shape by arranging taller stems toward the middle.

If you need more stability, you can also use a moist floral foam in the bottom of your shallow containers.

Well, I may not be quite ready to have a houseful of people… but I am inspired by the beautiful florals that will be featured on my table.

From all of us at K. Renee, we would like to wish you a warm, safe & delicious Thanksgiving! We give thanks to all of you for sharing your time and lives with us.

We will be open on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. If you want to escape the holiday rush and instead enjoy the warmth and wonder of our home and clothing store, we’d love to see you. And yes, we will have some special offers for you as well (click here) for more details.