Sunflowers are the most popular choice at this time of year because they're in season and grown locally, explains Kristin Ames, owner of Posy flower shop in North Vancouver.
Chrysanthemums are also a popular choice, but a variety of flowers are available in the autumn colour palette of yellow, orange, burgundy and brown, including roses.
Any flowers in those colours can add fall flare to a home.
"One of the things that I think is going to be trending for the holiday season this year is arrangements that are leaning more towards heavy use of foliage and more permanent items like branches, twigs, cones and seed pods, or ornaments if that suits your décor," says Ames.
These arrangements feature a large foliage base and the floral additions can be changed out.
"If you build a really interesting base of greenery and permanent items then you could actually change your flowers out each week or every 10 days, and if you wanted to change up the colour palette you would be able to do that," explains Ames.
The piece should last you for your whole holiday season if you take care of it properly and it gives you the flexibility to change up the colours, she adds. These types of arrangements also support the popular sustainability and reusing trends.
"You're investing in pieces that you're going to keep, that are quality, and you're not buying cheap, plastic containers that are going to get thrown away," says Ames. "So if you had mostly white décor you could have white flowers in it, and then if you wanted to move it to your dining room table for a big party or buffet piece and you had red linens you could change the flowers out to red."
Ames suggests looking in your backyard for fall foliage, such as evergreens, for your arrangements.
Most people who are doing floral design as a hobby don't recognize how much greenery needs to go into a professionally designed arrangement, and that's what gives the arrangement its structure and interest, she says.
The same idea of creating a simple, lasting floral display can be applied to smaller arrangements around your home, such as a piece for your entry hallway.
Ames notes that deciduous trees are losing their leaves at this time of year, so head out into your backyard and cut a couple of big branches, put them in a big glass vase on your front hall entry table and each week add two stems of lilies, or another favourite flower, and put a couple of inches of water on the bottom.
"You're going to have this beautiful, big, expensive-looking arrangement for really a couple of dollars a week."
Hostess gifts will soon be on shopping lists as the holiday season rolls in, but not all floral arrangements are suitable to present to a host.
"Try to avoid bringing loose, cut stems as a hostess gift," says Ames. "Often a hostess gift is going to be a small-budget item anyway and it can be difficult to arrange a small number of cut flowers."
She says it also puts pressure on the host to find a vase when they are busy preparing dinner and welcoming guests.
"I always recommend bringing something that is already made-up," she says. A fresh flower arrangement that is lready in a container, a really cute potted plant, or an orchid in a decorative container are better choices.
Unless you know the host's tastes, choose neutral colours for the container because you don't want your host to feel pressured to display a bold-coloured vase even if they hate the colour, notes Ames.
She also has some tips for helping flowers last longer.
1. Use the flower food and mix it as indicated on the package. It gives nutrients to the flowers that aren't open yet and helps them to open, and it also has biocide in it to kill the bacteria that grows naturally as flower stems sit in water.
"You know that murky look you get in your flowers sometimes? That's bacteria," says Ames, adding if you use the flower food properly it will keep the water fresher, which means that your flowers will last a lot longer; up to three to four days longer, minimum.
2. Change the water. It's not always possible depending on the arrangement, but Ames recommends changing the water at least once after three days.
3. Don't be afraid to cut your flowers to suit the size of your vase. Usually flowers in a vase are sticking up four or five inches from the rim, says Ames. "It will always, always, always look better if you cut your bouquet so that the flowers hit at the rim of the vase."
"You're going to have this beautiful, big, expensive-looking arrangement for really a couple of dollars a week." a
