Day 13~ Fall Floral Wreath for your door

Making a Fall Wreath for the door.

What a welcome site it is to have a wreath on the front door, or any door for that matter. Nothing quite says that you are ready for visiting than flowers and foliage and a fresh brewed pot of coffee.

Fall flowers can be most any color, however, the traditional oranges, yellows and deep reds are thought of first. However, in recent years, deep purples and blues are used a lot. I love purple in arrangements, and have grown to like a deep or dusty turquoise in them as well. Royal blue is a color that is nice, and fits right in any arrangement, makes it pop with color.

I conducted a class on Fall arrangements that used a light yellow, not bright, but a pale, buttery yellow. The whole class thought I was crazy until they saw the colors together, and said, yes... that looks Fall!  So don't think that an oddball color that you have on hand won't work.

The colors of fall are varied, muted, vibrant, pale, and everywhere in between. Go crazy, add something you love, change the same old into something extraordinary.  Give odd color combinations a try., you might find a new favorite!

I'm using the basic orange, yellow, rust, purple, green and adding turquoise. I love turquoise, and I have a lot in my house. Varying shades, varying hues. I love them all. Never thought I'd use them in floral arrangements, but wow, they can make it pop out and come alive!

18" Grape Vine Wreath

This is an 18" grapevine wreath, I decided that I wanted the smoothest side to the back, I don't mind the front being a bit uneven, it will be covered over. Always measure your door, if it is larger than mine, you could use a larger wreath, but I think my door is pretty standard. 18" seems to fit just perfectly. If you would rather go smaller, that is great! There are 12" wreaths that make up really nice and don't use as many flowers!

22 gauge floral wire and heavy duty cutters

22gauge florist wire, cut in 3" lengths. You can leave it a bit longer if you think you might have a problem with twisting it, but if you use a pair of needle nose pliers, you should have no problem with even the shortest wire.


Various floral stems, I am using 3 large purple, three sunflowers, and three large red (not matching but all the same color) and one... yes, one large orange (this was an oddball that I had leftover, so I threw it in here). When choosing the focal flowers, the ones that will stand out the most, keep them in odd numbers (3, 5, 7, 9) since those numbers are pleasant to the eye. There are 7 stems of various fall foliage bunches, and 4 bunches of smaller fall colored floral stems. These are purple, orange and yellow.  There is also an organza and glitter butterfly on a clip. I chose a rust color... I thought it went well with the rusty colors of some of the leaves.
I am starting out with the turquoise in a garland of smaller roses.
I don't mind the placement too much of the garland, it is going to be in the background, and will not show more than the color of the flowers.  Use a length of  florist wire, shaped in a U, to tie the garland down every 3-5 inches so it will stay in place.

Start with one bunch of leaves, cutting the stems to 5 or 6 inches in length, weaving the stems into the wreath.  Add one focal flower(I think it looks nice to make small bundles of flowers and add them, like little posies, they look fuller this way)

weaving the stems into the wreath next to the leaves,  tie the focal flower to the wreath about an inch from the head, so that it will not shift.

If you are using this wreath, do NOT use hot glue for this step. Temperatures on a porch, especially if you have a glass outer door, can melt the glue. Even in Fall. Maybe your climate is cooler in the Fall than mine, but living in different places, I know that there are higher temps in the doorway than most people understand. This is why I weave the stems instead of gluing.

Continue around the wreath, placing the focal flowers evenly around the wreath circumference.
Make sure to use the wire to tie the stems in place, even after weaving, you don't want them to fall out. 
You can add a clip on or stem of butterflies or a bird, fruit, pumpkins, or even a skeleton. 
I don't add ribbon but you can, if you have a fun or pretty type of ribbon, by all means, add that!

Finished wreath with added butterfly