Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year for fresh flowers. There are so many beautiful fall colored flowers available to enjoy. Thanksgiving is also a popular time for holiday centerpieces. A flower arrangement in a cornucopia can be used as a table centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner, used to embellish your side serving table, or to decorate your home. A fresh flower arrangement in a cornucopia will enhance any Thanksgiving dinner party. A cornucopia is also called a horn of plenty; therefore, you want the cornucopia to look bountiful by having lots of flowers, vegetables and/or foliage.

The supplies you will need for a basic Thanksgiving flower arrangement in a cornucopia include; a cornucopia (wicker cornucopias can be found at most craft and floral stores), floral foam, a plastic liner or container to hold the floral foam, floral tape, wired wooden pegs, pine cones, and artificial veggie and squash picks. You could also use real veggies like corn and squash, just use a wooden pick or firm wire and insert it into the veggies in order to anchor them in the floral foam in your design. The following flowers and foliage will make a beautiful arrangement; hypericum berries, oak leaves, dried wheat, galax leaves, husk, nandina, seeded eucalyptus, cushion mums, spray roses, and roses. While I have given you these suggestions, there are many more flowers and foliage available that will make a beautiful fall or Thanksgiving arrangement.

The first step is to anchor your container in the cornucopia. You can use clay, wire, or floral tape to do this. The second step is to prepare the floral foam. First cut the foam so it will fit in the container you have chosen. To soak floral foam, fill a large container with water that has flower preservative mixed in and set your floral foam on top. Allow the floral foam to sink under the water and absorb the water on its own. If you push it under, air pockets will form which will make it harder for your flowers and foliage to get water. Once your floral foam is wet, set it in the container or plastic liner. You may want to secure the foam in the container with a piece of floral tape.

Begin the arrangement first by covering the floral foam with your greens and foliage. You may want to start with the oak leaves at the base of the cornucopia, and have some sticking out of the sides. Remember cornucopia means “horn of plenty” so you want it to look plentiful. Once you have the greens in place and the floral foam covered you are ready to begin adding your vegetables. I would place them around the edges of the design. Once you have those in place, begin to add the flowers to the design. You can group similar flowers together, or space them evenly around the design. Now would be a good time to add a few pine cones throughout the arrangement. To anchor the pine cones, attach the wired wooden pegs by wrapping the wire around the base of the design. Once the flowers and pine cones are in place, fill in the design with the some hypericum berries and maybe some longer pieces of seeded eucalyptus.

Some tips for your fresh flower arrangement: make sure your container does not dry out, you always want water in it, do not place the flowers directly in the sunlight, they will last longer if you keep it in a cool place. Also removing dead flowers will help the arrangement to last longer.
If you would like to watch a step by step video of this and other flower arrangements, visit http://www.FreshFlowerIdeas.com/ or http://www.FreshFlowerIdeas.net/

Here, you will also find more suggestions for flowers to use for fall and Thanksgiving fresh flower arrangements. If you do not have time to make your own Thanksgiving centerpiece, order them online by clicking on the links above.