How to Make a Wildflower Centerpiece

Hi Friends!  I hope you all are enjoying your summer!  I have been happily tucked away at our ranch in Montana, where we spend three months every summer, enjoying the company of our friends and family. It is a wonderful and busy time of the year for us, but it often means my normal routines fall by the wayside.

One of those routines is my weekly trip to the flower mart. If you’ve followed me for any time, you know how much I love flowers and creating arrangements and centerpieces for my home.  I don’t have access to a flower mart here and the truth is I often don’t even have time to go in to town for flowers, so I have learned to forage.

This has turned out to be an amazing lesson in using what grows naturally around me to create beauty in my home.  I have learned to love foraging for flowers and greens…

One of the great joys I experience during our months at the ranch is watching the changing landscape and the bloom of the wildflowers. As each variety blooms, I imagine what I could create from the beautiful colors and shapes. I have learned that the flowers don’t have to be perfectly shaped or all the same height.  

In fact, the more natural they are the better.  I trek through the tall grass and gather them in my basket, knowing that they will work perfectly on my table, because they are local and natural.

I have tried to identify most of the varieties of wild flowers that grow in our meadows and woods, but the truth is, I see something new every year and am always stymied by a new type of bloom.  I know we have lupine, yarrow, geranium, daisies, clover and Queen Anne’s lace.  I also find delphinium and larkspur on wet years.

I also have identified several shrubs with small leaves that I love to use for greenery in my arrangements.  I was surprised to discover that I have everything I need growing around me and there is something much more satisfying about arranging flowers from foraged blooms rather than from market flowers.

It really only takes  about 10 minutes to put a centerpiece together.

I like the idea of using an atypical vessel for my wildflowers and this old tin coffee pot is one of my favorites. I always start with the greens to create a base for the blooms I have collected.  Once I get the base in place, I add whatever flower I have the most of…in this case, the beautiful purple lupine.

Next I add some accent flowers like the white yarrow and pink geranium.  Finally a few purple daisies with yellow centers and the arrangement is complete!  It’s as simple as that!  

After a short walk through the meadow and about 10 minutes of flower arranging, I have a lovely centerpiece for our dinner table.  It is not the perfectly balanced arrangement of roses and hydrangea, that I might have put together after a trip the flower mart, but I love it equally as much.  It represents what grows naturally in this environment and works perfectly on any table.

So tell me…what do you have growing around your home?  Do you ever forage for wild flowers or natural greens and bring them into your home?  If not, I hope this inspires you to take a look around and see what is available right in your back yard!

Have a joyful day friends!