I am excited to welcome my favorite season! You too? Embrace all things fall. The flavors of your favorite drinks and food, the scent of a crisp autumn breeze and the beautiful changing color palette of nature. Today I’m sharing a French Country Apple Orchard Arrangement – easy and a beautiful way to welcome fall!
WELCOME TO MONDAY MORNING BLOOMS
Today Pam, Mary and I are welcoming our friend Jennifer of Celebrating Everyday Life back to join us. We’re celebrating fall and back-to-school time by using apples in our floral designs. I hope you will leave here inspired to create something beautiful for yourself at home as we all look forward with great anticipation to fall.
French Country Apple Orchard Arrangement
As a little girl growing up in Europe, my aunts and uncles had the sweetest weekend cottages in a large forested area owned by my family. It was glorious! There were so many paths to explore, an outdoor pool {frogs, fish, insects, non-chlorine but we loved it} a tennis court, even an orchard. Every late summer – early fall we’d go pick apples, and my aunts made delicious apple galettes.
This easy arrangement brings the orchard right into your home and it couldn’t be easier to make. With apple picking season in full swing and fall just days away, it’s the perfect time to celebrate the season with a beautiful French Country Apple Orchard Arrangement.
Apples are so good for this “in-between” season, it’s still technically summer but I’m pretty sure that we’re all longing for fall. This charming French Country Apple Orchard Arrangement is perfect for this late summer-early fall season that we’re in right now.
Think of your produce aisle as a flower department extension this fall, it will give you so many more possibilities. The more fruit you use instead of flowers, the more budget friendly your total cost of your arrangement will be. When using really heavy apples, I usually use a scrunch of chicken wire inside my container to support wooden skewers that you will stick the apples on. For these smaller apples, I used floral tape to tape off a grid on my antique container.
You can use regular wood skewers that you use for the BBQ, the pointed end will go into your apples and the blunt end into the spaces in the chicken wire.
The apples take the place of big costly flowers so you can get away with far fewer blooms to create a show stopping arrangement.
This arrangement doesn’t even have flowers! I filled an antique French preserving pot with hypericum berries in both green and red, seeded eucalyptus, and cuttings from our variegated Weigela bushes in the back garden. A few of the branches were cream only and I cut them off, they add a note of wildness to the arrangement.
These antique French plates are always a favorite find, with the birds and flowers they are a delight in any season. Layered over larger English red transfer printed plates they make a pretty pair.
The colors are so beautiful!
I set this table in our kitchen, you see the sun streaming in through the windows. {My heart may say fall but my outdoor temperature is still summer.} In case you are wondering, that tallest branch of berries is faux. I know. But I couldn’t find anything I loved with a little height…so I cheated Mother Nature a little. {it’s ok…she’s not insulted.}
The antique grain sack with a red striped detail serves as a runner.
The napkins are Belgian Linen in a neutral color, they have a casual edge which I love and bring so much texture to any setting.
The French Country pottery container was placed on an antique heart wooden board. I try to be careful when using antique linens or textiles on the table by placing floral arrangments on a platter or some other kind of ‘protecting’ surface so just in case the water spills, it won’t be totally terrible. And placing the arrangements on something also adds a little height.
The antique French cutting board is the perfect size for adding to a table setting. This one has lots and lots of wear and patina, it’s really old and quite beautiful. When we serve a really simple cheeseboard during drinks {usually still in the garden at this time of year} I often move it to the table for dinner as guests sometimes still want to nibble on the brie.
I found this French deep bowl that goes along with the plates. It isn’t perfect, but despite a rim chip and a hairline, it still has so much beauty to add to the table. I mean, it has birds!
This French Country Apple Orchard Arrangement works for so many occasions. Back to School Celebration, {gather your mama friends for drinks and an easy dinner because..thank goodness…the kids are back in school!} Harvest Dinner, Wine Club Dinner, Fall luncheon, any thing and everything!
For an easy fall dinner, I suggest a simple cheese board, a great soup, salad, French baguettes and herb butter, and an apple galette!
FrenchGardenHouse Meatball Soup
My Favorite Chicken Curry Soup {fixes everything}
Celebrate Fall with a French Country Apple Orchard Arrangement
I hope you celebrate the fall season with your own version of an apple orchard arrangement. You can encircle a potted plant with a ring of small apples too, if greens and berried stems aren’t something you have. Gather your family and friends to enjoy good company and conversation, delicious food, and lot and lots of laughter!
Jennifer at Celebrating Everyday Life
and me, Lidy at FrenchGardenHouse.
Thank you dear friends for your visits and the comments that you leave, I cherish each one.