Easy Christmas Centerpieces
It's the extra details that can take a centerpiece from "good" pricing to "exclusive" or "premium" pricing. Many times that means a few extra stems of flowers or insertions of a few novelty items like Christmas balls, picks or pine cones.
It's easy to give boughten ornaments a wire stem so they can be inserted into flower arrangements. Start with a wire (about 21 gauge) that is easy to bend, but stiff enough to give a suitable stem that will hold the ornament up in an arrangement.
Start at the very top, right under the neck of the bulb and wrap florist tape tightly around the bulb and the bent wire.
Twist the florist tape down the wire, pulling and gently stretching it taut so that the tape clings to itself. You'll then have a nice long stem that can be snipped to the right length by wire cutters.
Use bulbs in sizes suitable for the size of the arrangement. Huge balls can quickly overwhelm a smaller mug or novelty container like this Christmas mug.
Insert a few in clusters or one or two slightly bigger balls in a couple places around the centerpiece.
I like clustering two or three balls together because I think it has a little more impact and draws the eye to the special effect.
Around the holidays you can usually always find artificial Christmas picks. Florists often cut one pick apart and wire the different elements separately into order to "bump up" the price of a specific arrangement.
