How to create a beautiful fall arrangement

When creating a fall floral arrangement, using tree branches from your backyard invokes an authentic autumn setting. Follow these steps to make a beautiful harvest arrangement using branches: 

1. Cut down a few small branches from your yard, mixing jewel tones--oranges and reds--for variety. Branches from an oak tree are a good choice if you happen to have one. 
2. You'll need a tall urn or container that has a wide opening to give the branches room to spread out.
3. Cut the branches on a sharp diagonal, making a wide cut so water can draw up the branch.
4. Try to find branches with berries, but don't let them and the leaves get into the water. Berries and leaves will put bacteria into the water and end up rotting.
5. You want a nice, tall balanced arrangement, so walk around it and even it out as needed. One mistake in creating large arrangements is to make the branches stand straight up, like at a salute. You want it to be more voluptuous: it's the harvest time after all.
6. When you add your flowers, place all of one kind, then all of another kind next. Use a primary flower with a nice curve in it like the French tulip. Marigolds are nice to fill in the extra space.

I'm Rebecca Cole for howdini and we are going to now make a beautiful harvest table. I always think that the best way to start is to go out into the backyard, if you're lucky enough to have a backyard with a nice big oak tree, and cut down some beautiful branches. I love, you know, all the fall colors, oranges, reds, what I call the jewel tones. They are very hot right now, so that's good.

I found this great vase that is really going to hold a nice amount of flowers, because it's narrow at the bottom but it flares out. That is what you really want when you are going to make a tall arrangement — it's very difficult if the top of the tall vase is narrow because it is then really hard to get it to spread out. So this is really going to help.

So we take a branch from our backyard and make a nice big cut. Cut up a little bit there, too, so that you have more water able to get into the woody stem. Whatever's going in the water should not be a leaf, so if there are little leaves that are sticking out of the bottom, just chop those off.

OK, now I am going to use the vase to sort of help me anchor the branches. This is going to be too tall. I don't want to get too crazy with it. So now I am just going to cut it down, and even though there are branches at the bottom, I can cut those off. I am going to now put in some of the berries. I also love the look of berries. This is when, you know, the berries form on a lot of the shrubs. Make sure you are going at some nice angles there. I want some right here, right in the front, which means I am really going to cut off a nice amount of them. The berries also should not be in water.

Because all of these little things that stay in water put bacteria into the water. Then it will rot the stems of the rest of the arrangement and your arrangement won't last nearly as long, which is not good after all that nice hard work. Here is one with a really nice curve, which I really want to take advantage of. I am going to put that at an edge so that we can use that curve. See how much more dramatic it is if you let them come out to the edges. Big mistake we make usually when we first start making large arrangements is that they all sort of stand straight up, like at a salute. And you really want it to be much more voluptuous, you know: It's the harvest time. And so, a nice flower to use during the harvest time would be anything that has a nice curve in it like a French tulip.

So now my tulips are done. And because I spent so much money on my tulips, I wanted to find a less expensive flower; so we've got these marigolds. Now that isn't doing me any good because there is no bud left on it so I'm taking that off. So after all that, this is what I am left with. But how incredibly bright and colorful looking it is; and it's really going to add some nice impact to my arrangement.

OK, so you just keep working the arrangement until it is totally done and you might not need some of the flowers that you thought you would need, although that's really pretty. What I like in a big arrangement is to have a variety of flowers all one color but different shapes and sizes so these little bells really add a nice fall. Beautiful.

OK, so now I want to look at it from the front. Oh yes. Now I like it off balance, but this was maybe a little too off-balance. So I am going to cut this. Let me show you where I am going to cut it, though. This is just sticking out a little too much for me. I think I need to cut it down. But you don't want to see the little cut of the stem, so I need to cut it down far enough that I am going to hide it behind some of these other flowers.

Forget trying to take it out at this point because you will ruin your whole arrangement. So we will just make a little snip. Very nice. And actually, we could probably use that. I hate to waste it, right there, because that little tulip is feeling all alone. Gorgeous. All right, now let's set the table. I'm Rebecca Coles for howdini.