It's no secret that I love autumn blooms. Sadly, my blooms are lite this year due to the heavy rains; also known as "monsoon madness", coupled with surprising dry spells creating the little known event called "Drink or Die". But this tragic series of events does not end in true demise because...fresh cut flowers are sold at my grocery store. The kind that NEED to be on my dinning room table.

Without further ado, let me introduce you to my...drum roll please...simple centerpiece.

I'm going to walk you through the basic assembly of this cutie.

Here's what you need:

First you need to cut your foam to fit your container. This foam is pretty soft and pliable. A simple kitchen knife will do the job.

Make sure it's a snug fit so the weight of the flowers don't cause a shift. Once you have your foam tightly packed into the container you will need to wet it down. Oasis is spongelike and will suck up a lot of the water. However, it can take a while for it to fully absorb so don't hesitate to fill the container as if you were about to place cut flowers in just water. Some people (not me) even let the oasis soak for awhile (maybe 4 hours) to fully saturate the foam before inserting flower. I don't have that level of patience (actually, I don't have that level of forethought).

Next step, angle cut your flower stems and start sticking them into the foam for your chosen arrangement. I like to pick a focal point and build from there. In this arrangement the focus is the largest flower in my mix. As I worked my way around I found that foam around the edges of the container was showing more than I would like. To manage that I cut the very short stems on the "left over" "skinny weak stemmed" flowers to fill the open spaces. The broad leaves were good for covering this area too and offered a nice framing to the smaller rust colored mums.

Those little tiny stems don't always want to slip easily into the foam (maybe this would be easier if you let it soak first; I'll never know unless you tell me). To keep those soft stems from breaking, crushing, or bending I made a pilot hole using a stronger stem. Think of it as pre drilling.

My bouquet was a very simple grocery store bunch so my flower options were a bit limited. Because of that I mainly focused on the front of the arrangement. The table that this will sit on can be seen from the back but only if someone is making an effort to be there. This is not to say I want to leave it open, I'm just saying it wasn't necessary to buy a second or more elaborate bouquet for my purposes. I had an ample amount of those rust colored mums and that is what I used to fill in the back.

And there you have it. A sweet little (or large depending on your candy jar) celebration of autumn; Indiana's most spectacular season. Keep that Oasis wet with a little fresh water everyday and this arrangement could last you up to two weeks or longer; depending on the freshness of your flowers.

Fall Blooms Fun