How to Make a Vegetable Flower Arrangement

Flower arrangements have often been a mainstay for celebrations such as weddings. But the real show-stealers are arrangements that not only include flowers, but the bright, earthy vegetables one can find at their local grocery or farmers market. Through combining like or complementary colors, and getting your hands on some funky vases, a basket-full of fresh produce can be turned into lovely centerpieces. This article will discuss making vegetable flower arrangements for your special event.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Fresh, colorful vegetables in unique shapes such as asparagus spears, raddishes, carrots, cabbage and kale leaves, brussel sprouts,and peppers
• Flowers in coordinating colors to the vegetables in use
• A clear vase
• Colorful feathers (optional) in reds, browns, and blacks

1. Decide upon your color scheme. Matching colors (e.g. yellow sunflowers and yellow peppers) look pretty, but contrasting colors look equally as gorgeous (e.g. pink roses and green asparagus spears).

2. Once you have decided upon your color scheme, it's time to find flowers and vegetables that match. For example, if you want a purple color scheme, consider pairing dark purple iris flowers with purple and dark green kale leaves (try Peacock or Dinosaur Kale) and dark red beet greens (try Bull's Blood Beets). To make your bouqet stand out more, add dark brown, black, or dark green feathers as accents. For contrasting colors, follow the rule of trying to find flowers and vegetables that match your colors.

3. Take a clear vase and place your assortment of vegetable spears, leaves, and flowers within it. Don't fill it with water yet, move on to the next step!

4. Decide how you would like to fill your vase. This is one of the easiest ways to incorporate vegetables into a floral arrangement. For instance, fill a vase with a bunch of de-stemmed radishes, so that they look like large red marbles at the bottom of the vase. This would look lovely with bright, red and white flowers. You could also slice cucumbers into long strips, and line the vase with them so that you can see the seeds and detail of the cucumber. This would go well with light yellow and orange flowers mixed with asparagus spears. And, with the aforementioned purple arrangement, try filling a vase with pink or purple baby beets.

5. Carefully fill your vase with the bottom vegetable accents, surrounding the stems of your flower/vegetable bundle. Then, add water, and enjoy your beautiful vegetable flower arrangement!

Tips & Warnings

• Local Farmers Markets are some of the best places to find unique vegetables and flowers. Scope the market out a week before your event to get inspired. Try to buy vegetables and flowers as close to your event as possible for ultimate freshness...perhaps the morning of the event even.
• Consider using wooden skewers to add highlights of color throughout your bouqet. For example, take de-stemmed radishs, stick skewers in them, and arrange them throughout a bouqet of white flowers. They will look like little red balls and be totally adorable!
• Check out craft stores for colorful feather accents.
• Thriftstores usually have a wide selection of vases at affordable prices.
• All vegetables are edible, but some flowers are not (e.g poisonous). Keep this in mind if you want to create an arrangement where guests can eat off of it.