An Easy and Beautiful Door Swag

This door decoration, by floral artist Becky Baxter, is meant to be simple, using caged floral foam to support the arrangement.  Click on the images below to see larger portions of the design.

The small apples, lemons and brussel sprouts are all attached to wooden picks before beginning. The foliage can be anything found in your garden, as long as the stems chosen have a variety of shapes, sizes and colors.  Variegated foliage picks up the yellow of the lemons.

Cut stems at an angle and submerge in tepid water for several hours before arranging. Wash larger leaves to remove any dust.  Fruit can be shined with a little vegetable oil on a paper towel.

Photos by Sister Moore, Atlanta, GA
Used courtesy of Becky Baxter, Baxter Designs

Gather your tools ahead of time. The Floral Cage can be reused later by replacing the foam. Soak the foam thoroughly by floating in water until it sinks. Then hang it up somewhere where it can drain until it stops dripping. When it is ready, lay it down flat and start by placing larger foliage around the sides. Seek visual balance in placement of stems. When you have established a green perimeter and filled the sides of the cage, start placing smaller pieces of foliage in the front, working toward the center.

Attach pine cones to wired picks and add some around the edges by inserting the picks in the foam. Using two bamboo cocktail skewers, placed a half inch or so apart, impale fruit and arrange in front, among the greens. If the fruit is too heavy, insert an 18 gauge wire through the fruit and twist around the back, being careful not to let the wire cut into the fruit. Insert the twisted wires into the foam or attach to the cage.

Carefully remove any damaged leaves from the brussel sprouts, trim any brown from the base, and fold back a few outer leaves. Impale on a single skewer and add to arrangement. In Becky's example, both holly leaves and holly berries were used to enhance the design.

Gather your tools before you begin.

• OASIS^® FLORACAGE Holder
• Floral foam if reusing an empty cage
• 18 gauge straight wires
• wired picks
• cocktail skewers

Becky made use of yellow holly berries and variegated aucuba to coordinate with the yellow lemons and pick up some of the color of the apples as well.

Lady Apples - These smaller apples are great for arranging, but not always easy to find.