November 2013 Newsletter

How-to Create a Succulent Pumpkin Planter

by Kit Wertz

We were inspired by a suc­cu­lent design­er from San Diego when cre­at­ing these beau­ti­ful pump­kin planters. These should last a few months as long as they are mist­ed twice a week with reg­u­lar tap water and kept in a cool spot. They would do well with a dose of dai­ly morn­ing sun, too! Enjoy this tuto­r­i­al and get your pump­kins now before they are all gone from the stores and pump­kin patch­es! Design by Flower Duet. Pho­to by: Kit Wertz

Pumpkin Succulent Planter Supplies

Large Fairy­tale Pump­kin — The flat top is easy to work with in this type of design. Tall nar­row pump­kins will offer more of a chal­lenge for the first-timer. (Pump­kin Beer is optional!)

Craft Glue — Use the spray glue to attach the moss to the pump­kin and the tacky glue to attach the suc­cu­lents to the moss. We pur­chased these glues at Michael’s Craft store.

Sphag­num Moss — When work­ing with this, it’s best to wear latex or nitrile dis­pos­able gloves. This moss has some­times been linked to a long-term skin infec­tion caused by a fun­gus found in the moss.

Cut­ters and Scis­sors — Cut­ters for the suc­cu­lent plants and scis­sors to trim moss.

Tray of Assort­ed Suc­cu­lent Plants — Two-inch pots are good can­di­dates for this design as well as cut­tings from larg­er plants like jade and aeo­ni­um. Also, be sure to have some trail­ing type of suc­cu­lent like sedum or bur­ro’s tail.

Steps to Make a Pumpkin Succulent Planter

Step 1: Attach Moss — Spray the glue onto the pump­kin top and attach the moss. Press down the moss to attach firmly.

Step 2: Trim Moss — Trim moss to make it neat and tidy. Your goal will be to cov­er all the moss with suc­cu­lents, so you don’t want any stray strands.


Step 3: Attach Glue to Suc­cu­lent — Use the gel tacky craft glue to attach the suc­cu­lent to the moss. Just do one suc­cu­lent at a time. Glue then place…glue then place. NOTE: The suc­cu­lents will attract water from their leaves and send out roots to the moss from the oth­er parts of their stems. It’s okay to cov­er the bot­tom of the stem with the glue.

Step 4: Build Design — Start at almost cen­ter with larg­er cut­tings and work your way out to the edges using small­er plants and cut­tings as you go. The glue will take about 30 min­utes to dry, so keep that in mind as you are work­ing. Also, don’t try to do this out­side on too cold of a day or the glue won’t set quickly.

Step 5: Add some Spilling Suc­cu­lents to Add Inter­est — Add some trail­ing suc­cu­lents to add inter­est to your design. Sedum is a good option.

Step 6: Fill in any Moss with Small Suc­cu­lents or Leaves — Make sure the suc­cu­lents are well-packed with­in the design. In about a week, the plants will start to shrink a bit so you want all the holes well cov­ered before this hap­pens. Use small­er stems of suc­cu­lents or the leaves of suc­cu­lent plants to fill holes.

Pumpkin Succulent Planter Care Tips

• Mist twice week­ly with plain tap water. Don’t overwater…pooling water on top of the pump­kin will cause it to decompose.
• For best results, keep out­side in a frost-free cool spot and give it a healthy dose morn­ing sun­light to keep plants healthy looking.
• Place pump­kin on a triv­et if out­side (will decom­pose if sit­ting right on top of con­crete) or on a plate or plat­ter inside to pre­vent any stain­ing if you are using for a centerpiece.
• When the arrange­ment has fad­ed or you are ready to start dec­o­rat­ing with a more win­ter theme, don’t throw the suc­cu­lents away. Instead care­ful­ly remove them from the pump­kin moss, remove any dead leaves and plant in some light cac­tus mix. Any roots that have shot out will grab onto the cac­tus mix and the suc­cu­lents should grow. Even sin­gle leaves will root and send out lit­tle off­shoots that will become mature plants.

Here are a few lit­tle ones I did using the mini white and mini zebra pump­kins. I used just the tips of some small suc­cu­lent blooms to make these. The Zebra pump­kin is about 4.5 inch­es tall by 5 inch­es wide and the white pump­kin is 4 inch­es tall by 4 inch­es wide. These lit­tle ones make great gifts.



Get more pump­kin suc­cu­lent planter ideas from Design for Seren­i­ty and more suc­cu­lent craft­ing ideas from Debra Lee Bald­win’s book Suc­cu­lents Sim­pli­fied: Grow­ing, Design­ing, and Craft­ing with 100 Easy-Care Vari­eties.

Wedding Flower Journal: Pinks, Peaches and Creams Wedding

by Flower Duet

Here’s a love­ly wed­ding from this fall on a windy day at Black Gold Golf Club in Yor­ba Lin­da. When the San­ta Ana winds come through Los Ange­les, it’s a bit of a chal­lenge get­ting flower petals to sit down on a wed­ding aisle out­side. We tried a new trick for this wed­ding that kept the major­i­ty of petals down for the cer­e­mo­ny. Enjoy this pho­to essay fea­tur­ing peach­es and cream ros­es along with Cym­bid­i­um orchids.

Arch Decor: Fea­tured Coral, Peach and Cream Ros­es, Hon­ey col­ored Hyper­icum Berries, Leather Fern and Peachy Spray Roses.



Aisle Decor: Fea­tured Hang­ing glass vas­es from the chairs on the aisle and petals on either side of the fab­ric run­ner. For windy days when petals need to be down on the aisle well before the cer­e­mo­ny (for pho­tos, etc.) instead of leav­ing the petals with the wed­ding coor­di­na­tor to remem­ber to put down, here’s a nifty trick. Wet down the petals with clean water before lay­ing them on the aisle. We dunked all the petals for this wed­ding into water and then put them down on the aisle. They stayed put dur­ing some pret­ty hefty winds.



Recep­tion Decor: This bride want­ed to fea­ture Cym­bid­i­um orchids inside three vas­es of var­i­ous heights. Each vase had a float­ing can­dle and we added votives to the table. The cake also fea­tured just a few orchids on top as per the bride’s request.

Hanukkah Floral Design Ideas

Hanukkah begins on Thanks­giv­ing Day this year so we want­ed to fea­ture a few flo­ral ideas for every­one who cel­e­brates Hanukkah. The col­ors for Hanukkah are white and cobalt blue so we had fun with a sil­ver vase accent­ed with a blue satin rib­bon so it looks like a present. Then we added white Alstroe­me­ria and green Ker­mit mums to the low com­pact design. A few of these on a long table would make a great table design. Add blue can­dles and nap­kins to com­plete the look.




A win­ter white table top with sil­ver vas­es, mer­cury glass can­dle­sticks and sil­ver charg­er plates can be eas­i­ly trans­formed into a Hanukkah table with the addi­tion of blue vas­es, blue mar­bles, and blue nap­kins. Don’t for­get the blue min­er­al water, too!

Place­card idea

Add a flag inside this small sil­ver mer­cury glass votive can­dle hold­er flo­ral design for an indi­vid­ual place card set­ting. It also can be a favor that the guest takes home.

Book Recommendation

Flower Duet just held a sold out tables cape flo­ral design class in Octo­ber and we are still inspired to learn more about the art of the table top. This mon­th’s book rec­om­men­da­tion, Sim­ple Stun­ning Par­ties at Home: Recipes, Ideas, and Inspi­ra­tions for Cre­ative Enter­tain­ing, does just that with tips on how to cre­ate the per­fect ambi­ence for guests at the din­ner table. There are a lot of books on table­top design for enter­tain­ing, but this one seems to strike the best chord to the flower arranger who also hap­pens to enjoy host­ing lun­cheons and din­ner par­ties.
About the author: Karen Bussen is an enter­tain­ing expert and the author of the pop­u­lar “Sim­ple Stun­ning” series of enter­tain­ing books (Stew­art, Tabori & Chang). Karen cre­ates one-of-a-kind cel­e­bra­tions for lumi­nary hosts and A‑listers in the worlds of busi­ness, media, and society.

From her web­site: “A quin­tu­ple-threat expert in food, wine, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, flow­ers and design, Karen believes a tru­ly great par­ty is filled with unique, well-cho­sen details and inim­itable per­son­al touch­es. Her mantra of “less waste, more taste” has struck a chord with brides and home hosts who love to enter­tain sim­ply and beau­ti­ful­ly.” Learn more at the authors web­site karenbussen.com and order the book Sim­ple Stun­ning Par­ties at Home from Amazon.com.

Floral Design Tool: Craft Glue

As we dis­cussed in this mon­th’s “How-to Make a Suc­cu­lent Pump­kin Planter” arti­cle, we sug­gest­ed that you use two kinds of Craft Glue. There are many types of craft glue but we liked the clear Gel and spray because they clean up eas­i­ly with water. When they dry, the glue is clear and flex­i­ble. Even though the glue man­u­fac­tur­er does not dis­cuss using its craft glue on moss, pump­kins or suc­cu­lent stems, we find that it works per­fect­ly well on these sur­faces. Oth­er uses for this type of glue include:

• All Craft Surfaces
• Ceramics/Plaster
• Home Dec­o­rat­ing
• Jew­el­ry
• Kids Crafts
• Leather & Suede
• Paper
• Plastic/Vinyl/Plexiglass
• Scrap book­ing
• Sty­ro­foam
• Wood

Pur­chase from Amazon.com or at your local craft store:

Aleene’s All Pur­pose Tacky Adhe­sive Spray

Aleene’s Clear Gel Tacky Glue