Our editor Jen Reynolds was on CTV’s Your Morning showing how to make festive low-cost centrepieces from materials you already have or those that you can use and won’t go to waste. Check out this clip that shows the full demo and follow along with the simple instructions below.
How to make a fresh flower arrangement without foam
Boxwood is one of the prettiest greens and it’s perfect for using indoors during the whole winter season. And bonus: Many of us have it growing in our own gardens so we can give it a snip now and enjoy the branches indoors.
Find a glass vase that’s the shape and size that would work for your table. You may look for a low, round glass bowl, a modern, square vase or even a collection of smaller vases or mason jars that can be lined down the centre of your table.
Simply snip the ends of your boxwood and add them to the water. Don’t add too much water but check to make sure each cut is sitting in the fresh water.
Fill the vase so that every branch is standing up straight — now we have the base, and this could be the simple finished arrangement or you can add fresh flowers, dried flowers cones, nuts in shells, ornaments, berries and whatever comes to mind that you may have around the house.
The boxood is like fresh flower foam, and it will hold all of the blooms and baubles you add to it perfectly in place.
To maintain for weeks, make sure the water is topped up and change it if it gets smelly to too cloudy (this happens if there are a lot of leaves sitting in the water and decaying).
Don’t have boxwood? Yews and other evergreens work just as well.
How did Jen make the living arrangement with plants and flowers? Check out the instructions on our Instagram page here.
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Jennifer Reynolds, our previous Editor-in-Chief, is a long-time authority in gardening, do-it-yourself projects, urban sustainability, parenting, placemaking and community matters. Her features and columns have been published in Canadian Living, Canadian Family, Gardening Life, House & Home, Globe & Mail, National Post, Toronto Star & more. Plus, her designs and expertise have been featured on dozens of HGTV, W Network and CTV shows.
