Petals & Roots: Capture the Warmth and Beauty of the Season With an Autumn-Inspired Flower Arrangement
Embrace a fall palette with this cozy floral design
It's easy to be swayed into thinking summertime is peak flower season and once it's over the cutting garden has nothing left to give. But I love the flowers of autumn just as much, if not more, for their rich, moody colours and those wonderfully warm, cosy shades that feel so right for the season.
And there are still plenty of beautiful flowers to be found, from deep, burgundy dahlias and fading hydrangeas to rusty black-eyes Susans, and late-season ornamental grasses. I love bringing these colours indoors in fall. It feels more relaxed and gathered than a summer bouquet, with plenty of soft texture and movement.
In this weekend's episode of Petals & Roots, which you can watch below, I show you how to create an easy fall flower arrangement with some of my favorite fall blooms, and the ideal colors to make it feel perfectly of the season.
What You Need for an Autumnal Vase Arrangement
- A selection of seasonal flowers in shades of mustard, rust, burgundy, orange and yellow, and in a mix of textures and shapes.
- For any woodier stems, berries and foliage, a pair of shears such as these Fiskars snips from Amazon are useful.
- Sharp, clean floristry scissors are great for softer stems; I highly recommend these floral scissors from Walmart
- A large ceramic vase to tone mine with your flowers. I love this hand blown candy swirl glass vase I found at Anthropologie.
Tips on Creating Your Fall Floral Arrangement
Fall flowers should be warm and fiery and remind you of a deep sunset. The varieties I use to create my arrangement all tone together to create this soft, cozy vibe.
I start with a pale burgundy, almost coffee colored lisianthus (Eustoma), and one of the things I tend to do with this is cut off the smaller green flower buds to allow the larger bloom to shine on its own.
Then I add rich, burgundy tassel flower, Amaranthus caudatus, also known as love-lies-bleeding, and I droop this over the sides of the vase. You can grow amaranth in a green shade, and it also comes in a fabulous rust, which is perfect for an autumnal arrangement.
Once you have a base you can start to have fun adding lots of medium-sized blooms in different textures. First, I added some cactus and ball dahlias in a deep plum shade, followed by several different varieties of black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) in yellow, orange and rust tones.
Make sure to layer your stems at different heights, so that each one has enough space to be seen and move a little in the design.
Once you have your shape and most of your larger stems in place, it's time to add the more delicate finishing touches.
I used phlox, chocolate cosmos and a few airy ornamental grasses to dance above all my other stems and trail down the side of the vase.
Other Flowers and Stems Perfect for a Fall Arrangement
Here are a few more of my favorite fall flowers, that would also work in an arrangement such as this:
Japanese anemones: These are lovely for adding a softer, more delicate feel to a fall vase. Their simple flowers and slender stems bring movement and an almost weightless quality to an arrangement, particularly when mixed with fuller dahlias or late-season roses.
Sedum: I love using sedum for its muted, earthy colours. As the flowers mature, many varieties deepen into shades of rose, copper and rusty red, which work beautifully in fall arrangements.
Hydrangea: I always think hydrangeas are particularly beautiful at this time of year, when their flowers begin to fade and take on those lovely antique shades. Depending on the variety, the blooms can shift through dusty pink, sage green, mauve and burgundy. They’re beautiful fresh, but you can also let them dry naturally for a longer-lasting display.
Bracken: For me, foliage is just as important as the flowers in a seasonal arrangement. Bracken has such a delicate shape, and as it turns coppery brown it brings warmth and a wonderfully wild feel to a vase.
Poppy seedheads: Don't overlook the beauty of spent flowers. Poppy seedheads have such wonderful sculptural shapes, and their natural, muted tones make them an interesting addition to a fall vase.
What to Shop
Petals & Roots is a weekly video series fronted by me, Rachel Bull, Head of Gardens at Homes & Gardens. Every weekend on social, I share my seasonal gardening and flower arranging expertise and advice.
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