Cornucopias offer basketfuls of tradition

It is commonly called “The Horn of Plenty.” And while its roots lie in antiquity, the cornucopia, as a symbol of abundance and nourishment, has come in the U.S. to be closely associated with the uniquely American feast called Thanksgiving.

Placing a cornucopia basket in the center of your table makes a powerful and luscious statement, both visually and symbolically. Now, thanks to a new style of these traditional horn-shaped baskets, you can make an arrangement that not only is spilling out, but all but bursting forth with harvest plenty.

“The traditional cornucopia that we have used for years has always had a solid top and an opening you could drape materials out of. But now they’ve come out with open-top-style cornucopias so you can mound things out a lot easier,” said designer Gina Weaver of Sequoia Floral of Santa Rosa, a giant wholesale emporium that supplies both fresh and preserved floral materials and supplies to the trade and the public.

These new, open-topped cornucopias are the latest thing in Thanksgiving arrangements, she added, heavily featured at the big floral trade show in Atlanta this year.

“This open-top style is more free-flowing so you can create arrangements that mound out a lot easier,” she said. “Before, you could only come forward. Now you can build up and out. You can put in chunks of grapes, big pieces of fruit and tall stems coming out of the top.”

Sequoia carries two sizes, a 13-inch and a 16-inch, to accommodate both small and large centerpieces. Because it still has the overall shape and back that curls up to a point, it still looks like the traditional horn of plenty.

In making one for your own table, you can choose to do either fresh, or dried and preserved materials that will permit you to reuse the centerpiece for years to come.

Place it on a tablecloth of burlap for that rustic farm elegance that makes us think of bringing in the harvest. Always add a runner to dress it up and bring out the colors in the arrangement. To finish out the look, Weaver placed around it orange taper and votive candles and sprinkled over the table preserved oak leaves and small medallions of redwood, which are also a hot new accent look.

“It’s become a big hit to take a piece of wood and use it either as a charger on a table or using it for place settings to put your cups on,” Waver said. “It’s a really neat thing going back to nature.”

Weaver suggests assembling your fresh arrangement ideally several days before Thanksgiving (and no more than a week ahead) to give the tight flowers, like the Asiatic lilies she uses, time to open up by feast day. There are any number of autumnal items you can use to fill your horn of plenty. Wheat, cattail and wood branches like curly willow and millet give height and texture and are reminiscent of the fall landscape outside. Work in fruits like artichoke, pomegranate or pear. You’ll want both masses of flowers such as rovers, focal flowers like Asiatic lilies and filler flowers such as solid aster.

“What I like about the cornucopia is the meaning behind it,” Weaver said. “When you date back to Thanksgiving years and years ago, the reason it was started is because someone gave a gift to someone else. And it was the gift of food so they could have a plentiful feast. Doing a cornucopia almost replicates a feast, with fruits and vegetables along with flowers. It’s almost like having a feast inside your arrangement.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204.