So, get ready! After filling Easter baskets and planning the ultimate egg hunt, you'll want to create a festive protea centerpiece of your own. And springtime offers the most abundant array of proteaceae like Leucospermum, Leucadendron, Banksia, Isopogon, Protea and textural Grevillea flowers + foliage. Some of my favorite designs don't require fancy containers, utilizing a galvanized bucket, wicker basket, ceramic bowl or wooden box will suffice when you have such eye-catching blooms to showcase. And you can use your centerpiece as inspiration for your table settings and other floral arrangements on display around your home.
The best part? Proteas make great ‘leftovers’ as they will last for weeks after the celebration, and many will dry beautifully... so they can be enjoyed for years. To fully round out your Easter decor, get inspired by these arrangements.
Some of my favorite Easter design ideas don't require a fancy vase— utilizing a clear glass container works just fine, especially when you add a whimsical touch by including some fresh produce or sweet treats from your local market or grocery store. These extra touches bring in a fresh element of color, texture and shape, and they’re often the recipe needed to transform designs from beautiful to festive, eye-catching and unique.
No matter how you pay homage to spring, these simple Easter arrangements will give you plenty of inspiration for your own holiday display.
This centerpiece plays up the vivid colors of heirloom carrots. You'll need them with their stems still attached and a clear vase to show off the roots. Pair the carrots with yellow and orange pincushions, leucadendron, and lush green foliage. Wash the carrots thoroughly (but don't peel them) so that the water in the vase stays clear.
Create a fresh spring bouquet by bundling asparagus stalks around a vase full of proteas and ranunculus.
Bring fresh fruit to your table with this dazzling centerpiece of protea, tulips and kumquats. Place a clear drinking glass or thin vase into the center of a large-mouth vase and stack the kumquats around the glass.
Celebrate the sweetness of spring with an Easter centerpiece that features seasonal proteas, boronia and leafy greens. Fill a large glass container with jellybeans, insert a small vase in the center, add water and your flowers.
I’m equally excited to show flower lovers and gardeners how you can create stunning works of art with proteas. During this month’s California Garden Club (CGCI) Floral Design Forum, I had the opportunity to immerse their members in the beauty of designing with proteas. I created six seasonal arrangements using an array of proteas, plus some eucalyptus foliage, fruited branches, and Australian wildflowers along with a few bunches of ranunculus and anemone from our local farmer’s market. I love demonstrating how beautiful proteas are when displayed alone or mixed with more traditional florals.
Enjoy the photos I took - it was a fun and inspiring forum!
This simple hand-tied bouquet is a lovely mix of proteas, berzelia, waxflower and eucalyptus foliage.
Mixing fruit branches into designs is alway a hit. The kumquats in this arrangement added texture and a pop of color. The ranunculus provide a delicate spring feel, and the proteas take the design to the next level.
A foam wreath frame is the base of this peach hued candle centerpiece with pincushions, ranunculus, calycina, Grevillea, Leucadendron, berzelia and eucalyptus.
My version of a floral Easter basket filled with plenty of colorful proteas, eucalyptus, calycina and blue anemone plus a grapevine handle to top it off.
Door décor provides a ‘cheery welcome’ especially during spring holidays. The grapevine frame is lined with moss and a piece of floral foam. Camellia leaves surround the base and proteas, eucalyptus + peach blossoms adorn the basket.
Art in a French galvanized container. Overflowing with plenty of proteas, berzelia and eucalyptus… simple yet stunning!
This amazing family of flowers and foliage represents beauty, which is fitting for their exotic and unique appearance. When placed next to other beautiful flowers, proteas will stand out in any arrangement. Each flower's presence is perceived as a symbol of elegance, individuality, courage, and resilience.
Let our seasonal bounty of proteas inspire and entice to enhance your holiday arrangements.
For glorious color turn to Leucospermum or pincushions, like Brandi dela Cruz with its vibrant, textural bloom (almost six inches in diameter) and the showy golden-yellow and orange hues. Leucospermum put all their art into the colors of their flowers as well as the flowing shape of each curving component. These fanciful blooms atop sturdy stems create colorful focal points when displayed in floral designs.
Protea come in a variety of sizes and colors, with Pink Duke being one of our spring favorites. This lovely cultivar produces large, rose-pink blooms with a light pink central dome and white feathery tips. It has the soft green leaves of the P. magnifica and the clear velvety, pink flower of the P. Trish Compacta.
Grevillea Misty Pink, similar to Leucospermum in texture but long instead of round. These pink and cream lollipop-like protea are also called Bush Toothbrush, Spiderman and fittingly named Bush Lollies. They’re what we call ‘fun flowers’ because they add so much animation and color when mixed in centerpieces.
Leucadendron Pom Pom in stunning hues of cream and maroon. As with all Leucadendron, the emphasis is placed on the beauty of the foliage and leaves. The colorful petals of the Leucadendron are called bracts or modified leaves, and the true flower is the cone nestled among their bracts.
Topiaries date back to ancient Egypt, when rows of date palm were force-cut into shapes of cones. They returned in medieval times as a way of training fruit plants, and then again during the Italian Renaissance. In the 15th century, the Dutch became intrigued with creating topiary that resembled animals while the French preferred creating topiary into geometric shapes. Topiaries have continued to evolve, they’re not only restricted to formal landscaping structures, some are crafted from potted plants, like ivy or rosemary.
Designing a topiary no longer requires that you adhere to live plants, floral topiaries have become quite popular as well. Crating a floral topiary is a simple way to bring a touch of nature indoors. All you need are the flowers and foliage of your choice, floral foam, as well as a tree branch (or stick) and container to act as the support and showcase for your design. For my first topiary, I gathered Serruria, Leucadendron, Phylica, Berzelia, Calycina and waxflower.
As the spring season’s floral options transitioned from soft mute colors to more vibrant hues, I mixed Leucospermum, Isopogon, Leucadendron and sprigs of lavender and Jasmine Vine.
Many of the botanicals I gathered for these toparies will retain their structural design and to some extent their color long after they’re vase-life. Simply put… they don’t die, they dry… Beautifully!
If there is ever a season for arranging your own centerpieces, it is spring. You can embellish a beautiful table by gathering stems of seasonal flowers and displaying them in a pretty container. Creating a festive setting for Easter is simple when you have the pick of some of spring's most vibrant blooms, like Protea, Leucospermum, Leucadendron, Grevillea, plus lush, textural greens. Your centerpiece can act as inspiration for your table settings and other floral arrangements on display in your home.
Some of our favorite centerpiece ideas don't require you to go out and buy a new container — utilizing a galvanized bucket, clear glass vase, moss filled basket or even a colorful flower box will help you create an eye-catching arrangement. Spring centerpieces call for fabulous blooms, which means you can feel good about using simple elements to style your seasonal centerpiece including moss, branches, and just about any other flowers and foliage you can forage from your garden.
