Simply floral for autumn

Have you ever noticed how the homes featured in those aspirational magazines all have gorgeous arrangements billowing out of vases on every table? They appear so effortlessly integrated into the landscape of a room you’d think they germinated right into that Swarovski crystal vase on the grand piano.

But let’s face it. Just like there’s a Photoshop Fairy to airbrush the pores and wrinkles out of a movie star’s face, there’s a professional stylist to dress up her home when Architectural Digest comes to call.

Flower arranging takes skill, an artistic eye and an investment of both time and money. If you can manage to select from a bewildering array of twiggy, leafy, wispy, colorful things at the floral supply store, you’re still inevitably faced with that moment of truth when you have to confront that empty vase.

Instead of agonizing over assembling a pleasing combination of color, texture and proportion, take a shortcut often followed by the pros. Go for a no-arranging arrangement.

There are many plants, both green and dried, that don’t need a crowd to look good. They’re attractive enough to stand alone in a vase. Think Audrey Hepburn dazzling in nothing more than a pair of simple black slacks and a cashmere sweater.

“Sometimes less is more. The eye doesn’t get so lost,” Jill Henry of City 205 Flowers in Santa Rosa says of the elegantly unadorned look. “Instead of having 10 different colors you can focus on just one color or one flower. To me that says more. And whether there are 12 of them or three of them in a container, you can see each of them.”

Autumn is an especially rich time for this fast, low cost, flub-proof form of decorating. With a few sprigs in a vase you can quickly dress your home for Thanksgiving company in less time than it takes to dress a turkey.

Among Henry’s no-fail favorites? Hydrangeas. And at this time of year you see them in green with burgundy.

“They’re just so big they don’t need anything else,” she explains. “Cut five to six of them and stick them in a vase and leave them there. You don’t need anything else in there and that arrangement can sit there for weeks and months. It will just dry itself in the vase.”

For something more vertical try broom corn. Similar to a cornstalk, it has a pleasing, feathery top.

“You can put a cluster of them together or just one single stalk looks nice,” says Gina Weaver, manager of Sequoia Floral in Santa Rosa and a member of the advisory board for the Floral Design program at Santa Rosa Junior College.

Broom corn can come in stalks as short as 2 to 3 feet or as tall as 7 feet. Because of their size they can fill up space on a porch and at $5 a bundle, you can’t beat them for big-bang-for-your-buck value. Right now they’re fresh, said Weaver, and you might want to put them in water. But if you like the dry rustic look, you can let them dry out.

To bring some fall color indoors there is pumpkin-on-a-stick. This is a woody stalk with cute-as-a-button miniature pumpkins radiating up. Pop them alone in a tall vase with a little water and they’ll look good for up to two weeks. For some more formal drama simply add a few fresh orange Asiatic lilies, Weaver suggests.

One favorite trick among designers is curly willow. In bunches, their barren, twisting branches can stand like sculpture in a pottery vase in your entryway. For an ultra-simple dress-up, add cattails at the base or a cluster of leucodendrum, a tropical looking flower with burgundy tips.

Weaver suggests wheat can also serve as a lovely accent in autumn. Cut and tied in feathery bundles with ribbon, they create a nice impact laid in a series down a Thanksgiving table.

“The fresh ones come in green. But we also carry dried ones in orange and burgundy, a natural shade, and black,” Weaver says.

While the minimalist approach to arranging may seem like cheating, simple looks can come across as surprisingly well thought-out.

“When you go into larger hotels and more exclusive areas they tend to have more impact arrangements with one style of design and one type of material. Simple can be classy,” says Weaver. “It’s understated elegance.”

Annie Van Maaren of the Evermay Garden Center in Petaluma sometimes adorns a holiday table with small potting plants — still in the container. This is a great way to economize. Rather than tossing a spent arrangement after the celebration, you can take the plant outside, put it in the ground and enjoy it for a long time.

Van Maaren says huchera, with its beautiful, showy leaves, is nice this time of year. ‘Amber Waves’ is made for autumn, with its golden fall foliage, ‘Creme brulee’ is also a nice harvest season choice, she says, when mixed with burgundy shades of huchera and tucked into a cornucopia.

Another outdoor plant that likes warm environments so it won’t mind visiting your house during fall is Alternanthera, commonly called Joseph’s Coat. ‘Gails Choice’ is a good autumn selection with flat, oval leaves in a deep burgundy bordering on purple.

“You could set it on a mantlepiece with greenery around it,” she says. “Anything with a red leaf really appeals to me this time of year.”

Bonnie Z of Dragonfly Farm in Healdsburg, also appreciates the occasional single stalk look in a vase.

“You can really see the shape and the color and the way the light plays through it,” she says. “The beauty of this time of year is that a lot of things have lost their leaves and they’re still gorgeous.”

Many stand-alone things, she explains, can be found in your own landscape. Oak branches massed in a low wide container can be pretty, particularly scarlet oaks. Liquidambar placed against a window or a wall in a basket or a heavy earthen container will also catch the eye. Wild grasses and flaxes can be harvested and placed in a vase. Rose hips still in abundance in autumn make a delicate note in a shallow bowl or wood trough, Bonnie says.

And don’t overlook fall fruit. Persimmons massed in a glass bowl make a splash of color on a small table or console. Do the same with red pomegranates and your impossibly quick homemade decoration will carry through until Christmas.