Floral Pumpkins|DIY

In this post I will be combining the two things I am obsessed with – Flowers and Pumpkins. Each year I create floral pumpkins for my business to sell to fellow Halloween fanatics like me and now I have my blog I thought why not share them with you! I will try to break this down step by step to make it as easy as possible!

CONDITION YOUR FLOWERS

As soon as you buy your flowers the first thing you should do is condition them. One you have removed them from the cellophane, you should remove any foliage that is below water level. If you keep foliage submerged underwater bacteria will be produced, resolving in flowers having a shorter life-span. Be prepared when buying roses as they may have little thorns prickled all up the stems. Once you have clean stems, cut them all on a 45 degree angle, then place them in some water (preferably with some flower food).

CUT AND SCOOP YOUR PUMPKIN

Just as if you were preparing a pumpkin to carve you need to make sure all the seeds are removed and size of your pumpkin determines how many flowers to include. So be cost effective – if you don’t want to spend much money on flowers then chose a smaller pumpkin.

PREPARE YOUR FLORAL FOAM

To keep your flowers fresh you will need some floral foam, you can buy this online, in some hobby craft shops or even at your local florist. I tend to use roughly half a block of foam. Cut the foam to the appropriate size, making sure you do not get any in your eyes (I can promise you it hurts tonnes haha). Then pop the foam into a bucket of water and allow it to submerge – do not push the foam under water as this won’t allow it to retain the water properly. Once you are happy all the foam is soaked in water, pop it in a floral tray and then place it in the pumpkin.

TIME TO MAKE IT PRETTY

I always like to go with an Autumnal theme so I always opt for flowers with an orange/yellow/pink palette. I have used a small pumpkin so the flowers I am using are Roses and Chrysanthemums. The Roses are my focal flower to start off I equally distribute them. To fill in the gaps, I have used Chrysanthemums – the closer you insert the stems to the base the less flower you will need so take that into account (depending on your budget).

Remember to always place the larger flowers in the centre and then the smaller flowers towards the outer edge. This means it is more pleasing to the eye and there is visual balance. Some people like to group their flowers together, which is a more contemporary style, whereas I prefer to opt for a more traditional style of equally placing the flowers around. At least 1-2 inches of the stem should be placed in the foam, but try not to keep pulling the flowers in and out of the foam.

Once all your flowers are in, hide any gaps with foliage and look from every angle to see if the flowers are all even!

I hope you guys liked this DIY, if you make it yourself make sure to tag me!