'Autumn is full of admiration and amazement'

Florist Willy Pardijs of Vrij Geschikt loves every season, but autumn is her favorite when it comes to the many beautiful materials to work with. She works from the rural Wichmond in the Achterhoek. ‘If you look around carefully in late summer and autumn, you will see so many beautiful materials in nature that it is sometimes difficult to choose what you want to use.’

'Autumn also has something magical, the early morning, the mist that slowly rises and the beautiful warm autumn light that slowly makes its entrance and shows the beautiful colors of nature.'

‘I mainly get my inspiration from nature and I also like to work from my feeling, not thinking but doing. Nature, it provides admiration and wonder. The leaves on the trees get the most beautiful colors and flowers and plants often get the most beautiful fruits and seed pods.

Mushroom hat

This autumn bouquet is inspired by the cap of a mushroom. 'A free interpretation, admittedly.' A frame made of welding rods, subsequently wrapped with Oasis Rustic Wire, serves as the base. The flowers – Gloriosa, Kniphofia, Crocosmia, and tendrils of Rosa 'Smeralda' – are woven through the frame, with some flowers incorporated inside the frame. This creates depth in the bouquet. The stems are deliberately left long so that the whole looks like a kind of mushroom.

Playful

In a beautifully mossy piece of cork, holes have been drilled in which Craspedia has been inserted, increasing in length. Various materials that dry nicely have been glued onto the cork: seed pods of Eucalyptus ‘Bellgum’, rose hips, and prepared oak leaves. To give the whole of this longer-lasting arrangement on cork a playful character, grasses have been clamped between the glued materials.

Autumn basket

A half hollow polystyrene ball is covered on the outside with birch bark and on the inside with terracotta-colored clay. An Oasis ball filled with chrysanthemums is placed in the bowl shape. Materials that dry nicely, such as Rudbeckia, rosehip, Viburnum berries, and Scabiosa stellata, are then glued to the edge of the bowl.

Indian summer

Dried sunflower stems of various lengths are glued around an Oasis wreath. These stems are a harbinger of autumn. The whole is covered with orange candle wax. Various flowers are inserted into the floral foam wreath, including Dianthus ‘Green Trick’, nutans (Leucospermum cordifolium), Dahlia, Freesia, Tillandsia, Heliopsis, Stipa grasses, Crocosmia and Begonia leaf. Glass test tubes have been placed in some sunflower stems, in which flowers have also been placed. The Indian summer color scheme emphasizes the autumn period.

Layered Bulbs

A stack of nuts and polystyrene balls in various sizes is glued onto an iron pin. The polystyrene balls are coated with terracotta-colored clay. Bromelia plants are placed in some of the nuts. Glass vials are clamped in the remaining openings, in which Dahlia flowers and spotted leaves of Begonia maculata are inserted. The conscious choice was made for one type of flower with a round shape. To reinforce the design of the arrangement, the round shapes are reflected in all materials used. As a finishing touch, seed pods of Eucalyptus ‘Bellgum’ and mossy twigs are glued between the round shapes.