DesignsandEvents: Halloween Flower Arranging Inspiration

Hi all! I have had a Pokeweed plant growing in my yard all summer. I know it is a weed, after all weed is in its name, but it filled an empty spot in my garden and I like the berries it produces in the fall. I thought the stems would be interesting to use in a flower arrangement. And, as I looked more and more at the Pokeweed plant I thought it would be great added into a Halloween flower arrangement. So, that is what I set out to do!

I headed out to Trader Joe's with the intention of going over to Wholefoods afterwards if I could not find as many interesting flowers I needed to make this arrangement that I had in mind. I found the following flowers at Trader Joes:

Pumpkin on a Stick

Trachelium Purple Flower

Purple Alstroemeria

Seeded Eucalyptus

I wanted one more color and thought red might be pretty. Wholefoods didn't have red roses so, I headed over to Shaw's grocery store where I purchased twelve roses for $6, not bad!

Red Roses

In my stash of supplies and stuff I found a plastic cauldron bowl and a fake spider web, minus the spider. I don't know where the spider went but, I liked the idea of the spider web being incorporated into the arrangement. It was supposed to be scary and Halloween-like :). (I am not all that scarily-minded, as it turns out, though. Hahaha!)

However, what really turned out to be ghoulish was working with the Pokeweed. Many of you probably already knew this about these plants but the berries stain everything! Once I discovered how terribly messy the berries were I quickly ran the stems holding the berries outdoors. My hands were stained, the countertop had berry stains all over it and the floor was stained, as well. So, my word of caution to you is to not try this at home! Thankfully, I was able to clean up all the stains. I hadn't gotten it on my clothes which I think might have been a different story.

Since I had purchased all those flowers and I really wanted to make an arrangement using the Pokeweed, I set everything outside and started designing anyway. Since my hands were stained and I had to be very careful, I didn't take photos along the designing way. I did get some of the finished product, however.

Here are some views of the spider web. I attached that to the oasis using a pipe cleaner. It worked very well.

In the photo below you can see the cauldron bowl. I thought it went along perfectly well with the idea I had for the arrangement. I do wish I had found a scary doo-dad to add to the mix :/

And, I have to say, I think the Pokeweed really made this arrangement, ...

as well as the Pumpkin on a Stick. I don't think that is the official name of it but, a friend of mine looked it up and she said that is what it is called. Sometimes things are just obvious I guess :).

When I was done making my Halloween floral arrangement I was set with the task as to what to do with it. I couldn't bring it in the house because the berries could fall off and stain all sorts of furniture, clothing or floors. And, I didn't want to leave it outside.

It ended up residing in my flower shed. It look nice there, especially with the "Halloween" sign behind it~

I continue to love the look of Pokeweed at this time of the year but, it is way too damaging to actually use in an arrangement as it turns out. Perhaps, next year I will think of a place to use it outside where it will be safer.

In the meantime, I had just enough flowers left over from Trader Joe's and Shaw's to make one more arrangement that I could actually bring into the house. By this time I was obsessed with the Pumpkin on a Stick and just had to have it displayed in the house.

This was how that arrangement turned out.