4 ideas for making a Thanksgiving flower arrangement

Thanksgiving is about bringing family together to celebrate the autumn harvest bounty. Add a seasonal flare to your centrepiece with these floral arrangement tips.

If you want an unusual holiday vase, hollow out a pumpkin, insert a piece of floral foam, add some greenery around the edges and then tuck in fall blooms cut to different lengths.

• These could include sunflowers, cattails, carnations and daisies. Water the arrangement regularly and the flowers should keep for a week.

Squash is another part of the fall harvest that serves admirably as a vase for a centrepiece. Here's how to make it work:

• Cut it open, remove the seeds and stem and wipe it clean.
• Fill it with earth and then add flowers, perhaps moving from dark colours on the outside through to lighter hues in the centre.
• Asters, chrysanthemums, dahlias, irises, sea lavender, viburnum and zinnias are good flowers to consider for the job.

Fall wildflowers provide a last brave salute to the end of the summer season.

• Consider drying this free bounty for Thanksgiving floral decorations.
• Wildflowers include goldenrod, prunella, yarrow and evening primrose.
• Cut their stems to length, strip off the lower leaves to lessen moisture and the chance of mould, and then hang them upside-down in a dark, well-ventilated space to dry.

Nothing says abundance more than a cornucopia.

• You can buy a ready-made cornucopia basket from the store, or get a cone-shaped one from a craft outlet, which you can steam and bend to form the right shape.
• Place the cornucopia on a tray covered with fall leaves.
• Create a large backdrop of fruits and vegetables, including gourds and corn.
• Fill the basket with apples, artichokes and peppers to spill out of this horn of plenty.

Autumn is the time when the final flowers of the year bloom. Flowers are perfect complements to the festive occasion, adding their fall colours to the feast in centrepieces or in their own arrangements brought as host or hostess gifts.