Quick, easy and cheap: That's a favorite phrase for stressed holiday hosts.
Here's a decorating idea that combines seasonal flowers and foliage with a symbol for Thanksgiving Day, the pumpkin. In lieu of vase or bowl, minipumpkins were used in a variety of simple arrangements that could fit into your celebration.
Here's the best part: Each one can be made for less than $10 in under 10 minutes. You can bring the cost down even more by using flowers and foliage from your own garden.
Even if your garden isn't in bloom, it can yield several possibilities for foliage from trees and bushes. Some examples: bamboo, ferns, holly, pyracantha, orange or lemon leaves, maple, eucalyptus, cypress, juniper, cedar, fir, redwood or pine. Camellias - particularly the Christmas camellia (Camellia sasanqua) in bloom now - can provide both leaves and flowers. Ivy or grapevine can be wound around the pumpkin base with the stem tucked inside. For flowers, best bets are roses, mums and carnations - all plentiful and relatively inexpensive. Three hybrid tea roses or three large mums can be used to great effect. They also hold up well if arranged in advance.
For contrast, add a few sprigs of colorful seeds (pyracantha or nandina both work well), rosehips or smaller flowers such as baby's breath or mini pincushion mums.
For variety, we used different combinations to demonstrate some of the possibilities. Minipumpkins, usually at under $1 apiece, are still widely available at supermarkets, farmers markets and farm stands. The striped mini-pumpkin was the Lil' Pumpkemon variety.
The homegrown roses used were a newly introduced yellow floribunda, Shockwave (a 2008 release developed by Tom Carruth), surrounded by Rainbow Sunblaze and Fireworks, both miniatures. Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica) provided the foilage and bright-red seeds.
The bronze spider chrysanthemum is Symphony, a variety from King's Mums in Clements. Japanese maple leaves added to that Asian-inspired arrangement. The cushion and daisy-style mums ($3.33 a bunch from Safeway) were wrapped up with grapevine. More bamboo garnished the mini-carnations ($3.99 a bunch). These displays are relatively compact and easy to talk over if left on the table. The rose and spider mum arrangements stand under 10 inches tall. The cushion mums and carnations arrangements are under 14 inches tall. The pumpkins hold water, too, so you can assemble your arrangement as early as Wednesday night and they'll still look fresh for your Thursday banquet.
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