In 2007, nearly 50 percent of Americans decorated their homes or yards for Halloween, according to the National Retail Federation’s Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions survey. The survey estimated total Halloween spending, including decorations, at around $5 billion last year.

Spooky Sheriff

Many serious Halloween acolytes add one or two major items of decoration to their collections every year. Larger pieces, especially those that feature movement, light or sound, can cost hundreds of dollars. But it’s possible to create a fresh, fun or even frightful atmosphere with a cost-effective, timeless decorating tool – cut flowers.

“It’s easy to take home decorating for Halloween a step beyond store-bought decorations by using flower arrangements,” says Jill Slater, flower designer for flowerpossibilities.com. “While simple, Halloween-themed floral creations can be enjoyed during the fall holiday season, fresh-cut flowers can be enjoyed in the home throughout the year.”

Flowers are especially versatile as Halloween decorations because they can be used to create fun or frightening effects. Whatever the atmosphere you plan to evoke, remember that color is key.

For scary effect, choose cut flowers in powerful colors like blood red, or ghostly white. Crimson roses, lightly laced with somber white genistra and presented in a creepily cracked urn can make a frightfully good — and eerily elegant — decoration for your grown-up Halloween display..

For fun arrangements, choose seasonal colors like golds, yellows, oranges and burnt umber. Accent seasonally hued floral arrangements with harvest-themed extras like dried corn husks, wheat stalks or gourds.

Flowerpossibilities.com offers several “recipes” for fun Halloween floral decorations, including:

Spooky Sheriff

Materials:

* One 6-inch round pumpkin (real or hollow artificial)
* Three stems protea
* Two stems orange gerbera daisies
* Two stems yellow gerbera daisies
* One stem yellow lily
* Three stems boxwood
* Three or four stems sword fern
* One red bandana
* One small cowboy hat
* One brick floral foam
* Floral clippers, scissors and knife
* Floral preservative/food

Directions:

1. Soak floral foam for at least 30 minutes in water treated with flower food/preservative.

2. Cut and scoop out pumpkin. With permanent marker, draw eyes and nose of Spooky Sheriff.

3. Cut the wet foam to fit and insert the floral foam into the pumpkin. Set the cowboy hat on top of the floral foam.

4. Cut flowers and foliage to approximately 4- to 6-inches in length. Begin inserting stems under the cowboy hat and into the exposed floral foam. Place the colorful yellow lily and yellow gerbera daisies front and center and position the dried wheat and orange gerbera daisies to one side. The protea and sword fern are used to fill spaces of the bright flowers.

5. Tie the bandana around the base of the pumpkin.

Floral Creepy Crawlers

Floral Creepy Crawlers
Materials:

* One decorative wire basket
* Two bricks floral foam
* One stem each: orange standard carnation and pin-cushion protea
* Colorful shredded bunny grass
* Two 2-inch clay pots
* Six Chenille Bump stems of pipe cleaner (available at craft stores)
* Four stick-on plastic eyes (available at craft stores)
* Glue gun and glue
* Halloween candy
* Floral clippers, scissors and knife
* Floral preservative/food

Directions:

1. Soak one brick of floral foam for at least 30 minutes in water treated with floral preservative/food.

2. Cut the floral foam that has been treated with floral preservative/food to fit the inside the clay pots

3. Cut the pin-cushion protea to about 2-inches in length and insert it into the center of soaked floral foam.

4. To make the spider legs, cut the pipe cleaners in half. Then shape them by wrapping around index finger. Insert the pipe cleaner legs into the floral foam surrounding the flower at spaced intervals. 6 legs are used for each spider.

5. Adhere eyes onto the flower using the glue gun.

6. Repeat steps two through five to create the orange standard carnation spider in the other clay pot.

7. Cut dry brick of floral foam to fit inside of the basket, and place securely inside to use to prop up accessories and your floral creations.

8. Cover dry floral foam with colorful bunny grass and set one Floral Creepy Crawler inside the basket and the other just outside.

9. Sprinkle Halloween candy throughout the bunny grass.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Founded in 1999, the Flower Promotion Organization is an alliance between United States and Colombian fresh-cut flower growers. Through multiple marketing channels, the FPO strives to increase awareness and education about flowers in the U.S.

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“The morning blahs, it turns out, is a real phenomenon, with positive moods — happiness, friendliness and warmth, for example — manifesting much later in the day,” says lead researcher Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D. “Interestingly, when we placed a small bouquet of flowers into their morning routines, people perked up.”

Participants of a behavioral study conducted by researchers at Harvard University Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital confirmed they feel least positive in the early hours but reported being happier and more energetic after looking at flowers first thing in the morning.

“What I find interesting is that by starting the day in a more positive mood, you are likely to transfer those happier feelings to others — it’s what is called mood contagion,” says Etcoff. “And, the kitchen is the place where families tend to gather in the morning — imagine how big a difference a better morning mood can make.”

According to Jill Slater, designer for flowerpossibilities.com, adding flowers throughout the home this season is simple. She suggests placing flowers in areas of the home such as the kitchen where they can be enjoyed by everyone first thing in the morning and all day long.

Here is a simple recipe by Jill Slater for creating a unique holiday bouquet to ease away the morning blahs and bring in holiday cheer.

Kitchen Spice

Materials:

* Filled spice jars and rack
* 2 stems of each of the following: red gerbera daisies, red roses and red standard carnations
* Floral clippers and flower food/preservative

Directions:
1. Empty eight of the spice jars.
2. Fill the jars with water that has been treated with flower food/preservative and place them randomly in the rack.
3. Cut the flowers to the height of the jars — the flower bloom should sit on the rim of the jar — insert flowers into jars.
4. Keep jars filled with water, adding water/flower food solution as needed.

For more information visit www.FlowerPossibilities.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Additional flower recipe

Circle of Joy

Materials:
* Rimmed cake plate approximately 10-inches in diameter. (A rim is important, as the cake plate is required to hold water.)
* 1 large red candle
* 5 to 6 stems red roses
* 5 to 6 stems red snap dragons
* 5 to 6 stems leather fern
* Floral clippers and flower food/preservative

Directions:
1. Fill the cake plate half full of water that has been treated with flower food/preservative.
2. Set the candle in the center of the cake plate.
3. Cut the flowers and foliage to about 6 inches in length and circle them around the candle making sure the stems are submerged in the water.

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