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 Christmas centerpieces. A cornucopia flower arrangement can be used as a Thanksgiving dinner centerpiece, to grace your end table, or to decorate your home. A fresh flower arrangement in a cornucopia will enhance any Thanksgiving dinner. A cornucopia is also called a horn of plenty; therefore, you want the cornucopia to look generous by having lots of flowers, vegetables, and/or foliage.

Supplies you’ll need for a basic Thanksgiving flower arrangement in a cornucopia include; a cornucopia (wicker cornucopias can be found at most craft and flower shops), floral foam, a plastic liner or container to hold the floral foam, floral ribbon, wooden dowels with wire, pine cones, and artificial vegetable and pumpkin picks. You can also use real vegetables like corn and squash, just use a wooden toothpick or a firm wire and insert it into the vegetables to anchor them in the floral foam in your design. The following flowers and foliage will make a beautiful arrangement; St. John’s wort berries, oak leaves, dried wheat, galax leaves, cascara, nandina, seedless eucalyptus, cushion chrysanthemums, 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 to fit in the container you have chosen. To soak the floral foam, fill a large container with water mixed with flower preservative and place the floral foam on top. Allow the floral foam to sink under the water and absorb the water on its own. Pushing it down will cause air pockets to form making it difficult for your flowers and foliage to get water. Once the floral foam is wet, place 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 by first covering the floral foam with your green leaves and foliage. You may want to start with the oak leaves at the base of the cornucopia and have some stick out from the sides. Remember that cornucopia means “horn of plenty,” so you want it to look abundant. Once you have the vegetables in place and the floral foam covered, you are ready to start adding your vegetables. I would place them around the edges of the design. Once you have them in place, start adding the flowers to the design. You can group similar flowers or space them evenly around the design. Now would be a good time to add some pineapples throughout the arrangement. To anchor the pinecones, secure the wooden dowels with wire by wrapping the wire around the base of the design. Once the flowers and cones are in place, complete the design with some St. John’s Wort berries and perhaps some longer pieces of seedless eucalyptus.

A few tips for your fresh flower arrangement: make sure your container doesn’t dry out, you always want water in it, don’t place flowers in direct sunlight, they will last longer if you store them in a cool place. Also removing dead flowers will help the arrangement last longer.