Don received an email from Trina Quadrio, who lives at Floreat in Western Australia. Trina purchased a large urn and plinth for the entrance hall of her home. However, once the urn was in position, it didn’t have the impact that Trina had imagined. She asked Don if he thought the problem could be solved by planting something in the urn, or turning it into a water feature. Don decided that there was not enough light in the entry for living plants, so artificial flowers were the way to go.
Artificial flowers have been around for years, but in the past they always seemed to look tacky and usually ended up just collecting dust. The good news is that modern fake flowers and fruit are absolutely fantastic, and almost impossible to tell from the real thing without a very close inspection.
How it was done:
1. Don purchased an identical urn and set it up in a foyer area on a wider, more appropriate pedestal (Trina’s plinth looked too narrow and unstable).
2. Dry florist foam was glued into the bowl of the urn to keep the arrangement stable.
3. Grey pebbles were used to dress the florist foam. (Tip: dried moss can be used instead of pebbles, but add the moss after the arrangement is complete.)
4. Don started poking deciduous magnolia branches into the oasis, as the ‘bones’ of the arrangement. He then added evergreen magnolia flowers, red apple branches and green apple branches. Finally, evergreen magnolia foliage was used as infill. (Tip: Don’t crowd arrangements. It’s better to stay with one or two different types of flowers with added greenery.)
5. Having demonstrated how to do the arrangement, Don packed up all the artificial flowers and sent them to Trina, so she could arrange them in her urn.
Further information
We used a Villa Doria urn (about $500) on a Bacchus pedestal (about $350).
Florist foam brick (dry) costs about $3.60.
The artificial flowers Don used cost about $14 – $24 per stem from Stoneleigh Gallery Pty Ltd. Phone (02) 9360 9108 for your nearest local stockist.