Tricks

I'm not so sure if this was a successful composition or not. 

I'd hoped to have more "oomph" in it or at least something to create weight in the center of this arrangement to better anchor it, but I ran out of ideas.  Maybe a chunky tuft of that funky fiber optic plant would have been nice stuffed in the mouth of the vase like a brushy Elizabethan collar.  It might have added to its sinister element (which suits the season).

Elements:

• Art glass vase
• Potato Vine
• Lycamachia
• Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina)
• Decorative gourds

I love fresh flowers and plants.  The simple beauty and awesome symetry of vegetables and fruit astound me (more on that in subsequent posts), but there are times when fudging it just plain makes sense -- like in the fall and winter when excellent fakes abound.  This takes arrangement (although feebly) takes advantage of tricks:

1. The potato vine, when pulled from its happy spot in the garden tends to get all floppy so it's hard to imagine how it will eventually settle.  We know it will rally, so to help it along I gently wire it to a stake.  This forms the only vertical element.
2. The "gourds" ain't real.  Nope.  You probably could tell by the photo, but maybe you didn't.  Did you?  Funny story: Recently my sisters and I were pondering how to prune a potted palm to "harvest" some fronds for an arrangement, pawing through the thing to select the fronds we wanted when, after a good 5 minutes of deliberation, we realized the plant wasn't real.  It was plastic. Really.  We did that. 

You can also fudge it a good deal for the holidays...but you probably figured that out already.  I routinely mix fresh and fake.  Again, more to come on that subject.

Update:
Sprouts:  Brussels sprouts were a minor player in my two last arrangements.  I wondered how they would hold up.  Report is in, they look fresh as the first day.  I briefly mused about cutting the tops off the sprouts to mimic ranunculus but thought they might discolor.  Something to explore.