Have some fun with your flowers this Halloween! Greet your guests with this devilishly good mix of fall flowers and fiery fun greenery.
The flower recipe for this witches cauldron is super simple and surprisingly very inexpensive. I was able to handpick the individual flowers from the original bouquet for about $30 at my local florist. But you could easily recreate this design using a grocery store mixed bouquet for even less.
The secret to this bubbling beauty is the fiery witches flames created from color-enhanced grevillea. If you can't find grevillea you could easily substitute some curly willow branches, dried oak leaves, or other spiky greens or grass. To achieve this hot orange hue apply thin layers of Design Master Color Tool in Tangerine.
Design Master is a great spray paint for use with fresh/dried flowers and can be found online and in craft stores. Check out their rainbow of colors at dmcolor.com
The Recipe:
4 gerber daisies
2 large daisy mums
1 stem kangaroo paw
2-3 stems feather celosia
2 stems solidago
2-3 large stems tinted grevillea
5 stems lemon leaf
For materials we used:
1 - 10" plastic cauldron
1 - 8" glass cylinder
1 - 10" square piece of chicken wire
Helpful tools also include floral shears and wire cutters
The recipe for this cauldron is easily changeable depending on the flowers available to you. We went with a sort of Dia de los Muertos color scheme here, adding a punch of fuschia to the bright yellow and orange gerber daisies. But get creative! Try dark burgundy roses or black callas for a dramatic look or keep it fun with traditional halloween black and orange.
Steps:
1) To begin, fit your inner container into the plastic cauldron. This keeps your design from leaking and also makes it easier to change the water.
2) Crumple your chicken wire square into a loose ball and place down into the inner container. It should be snug, but make sure its not crumpled so tightly you can't place your stems inside.
Chicken wire is a great mechanic to keep your designs free of flower foam. Best of all its reusable and you can find it at your local home store.
3) "Green" your cauldron to provide a nest for the flowers. Cut stems short enough so leaves lay flush with lip of cauldron, laying almost horizontal.
Using a lot of greenery here is a great way to save money on the overall arrangement. It creates volume and structure, so go nuts with your greens!
Now is a good time to place your "flames." Later, I cut the height of most of the flower stems to about 2x the height of the container. Since I wanted the flames to dance above them, I cut them to about 2.5x the height of the cauldron.
4) Start placing your large focal flowers into your nest of greenery and flames. We placed the majority of the blooms on one side of the cauldron because we were going to place it against a wall, but you can also design it to be viewed all the way around.
When placing large flowers, stagger their heights (some at lip of container, some at the top) and turn each to face a different way. Because this is a witches cauldron it's ok to be wild! A witch would never want a prim and proper arrangement.
5) Finish your design by adding in your filler flowers (celosia and solidago) wherever there seems to be a gap or where a pop of color is needed to break it up.
That's it! Pour yourself a glass of potion and gather your coven. Happy Halloween!
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