Holiday Centerpiece With Birch Bark, Foliage, Fruit, and Flowers

Here is an impressive but easy centerpiece for the holidays or any day. For mantel or table,  the size and height are easily varied. Use any combination of foliage, fruit, and flowers. Make a mess and it will still be beautiful. It’s an anything-goes thing.

Birch bark or any ol’ hollowed out log will work. The former is available at crafts stores and floral supply shops online. The latter you sweet talk someone into the woods for.

Don’t take that the wrong way.

This is the smaller version we did last year for the children’s table. 

Moss for the base is also available at crafts stores and floral supply shops. The fruit and foliage you can be creative with and use what is available in your area. Autumn leaves and apples. Dried seed pods and hydrangeas. Persimmons, pomegranates, pears, apples, bunches of grapes, squash, eggplant, cabbages. Even kale–hell they put it in everything else.

You may want to do the arrangement on a tray or piece of plastic, something to protect your table.

Then insert any low-profile containers into the bark, and let the bark curl around it. The containers don’t matter.

I found I needed oasis, so I put that into the containers, having soaked it in water for several hours before hand. Oasis, btw, is a dense foam that absorbs water so you can stick flowers and foliage into it. The plant material stays put and hydrated.

Here you can see the oasis in the containers and the beginnings of the sticking-in. I used oak foliage from the trees on the ranch. You can use anything, really. Okay not “anything,” like old tennis shoes or something, but stuff in your yard, along the roadside, in the woods,   in your neighbor’s yard…

I did not say that. That is trespassing is what that is. You would never do that… during the day…

For the “grown-ups’ table” we had a slightly larger rendition, this one with pomegranates, apples, berries, roses, oak and olive foliage.

Be sure to cover the ends. And you know my motto, do as much as you think you need, then do a little bit more. You want the look of abundance!

Another good thing about these is that they are low, so everybody can see everybody.

If you’d like to borrow my watercolor place cards of shotgun-toting turkeys, click here.

And to see the previous post of Thanksgiving decorating at Rancho La Zaca, click here.

Oh, and if you have any questions, lmk, I am happy to help you.

Y’all have a great Thanksgiving and we’ll be back soon. I am so grateful for you, my readers, and all you have given me. Wow, thank you.