Five Easy Pieces- Springtime Centerpieces For Your Easter Table

thegardendiaries

9 years ago

Just a few plants, curly willow, some eggs, and a bunny makes a simple centerpiece

Winter is still hanging on with a snow clumps still dotting the yard, but Easter is next week and the springtime ideas are blossoming. I need to get my focus on spring and slough off the dreary winter with fresh spring creations to spot around the house to raise my spirits.

Bunnies of course figure prominently. I have a small collection of them that I have accumulated over the years. Also, my curly willow is put to use on wreaths and nests and accents. Curly willow is the best tree I ever planted for usefulness. A tall slender tree sprouting wildly curling graceful branches, I harvest almost all of the branches for use in floral arrangements.

Cut curly willow branches covered in snow

I chop back my curly willow every spring with a chain saw

By the end of February, the branches have finished putting on all their yearly growth and are starting to sprout tiny leaves, and that is the best time to harvest. Chainsawing the large limbs off the tree, the branches lay on the ground to make it easy to cut off the nice curling stems. Pliable while still green, you can make all kinds of creations from the branches. Better than grapevine, it is easier to work with.

Curly willow is very pliable when still green

Starting a wreath or birds nest out of curly willow is easy; start with a circle that is fastened with bind wire

To make different shapes out of curly willow, just manipulate strands of the willow and use bark wire ( wire covered with a brown covering) to fasten it all together. The tendrils of the curly willow still pop out creating a rustic wild look. For a basket without a handle, you can create the handle out of curly willow by bunching branches together and binding it with the bark wire and shaping it into a curved handle very easily. Or you can create a bird’s nest of curly willow.

Bark covered bind wire is available at most craft stores

If you don’t have access to a curly willow tree, most florists and any vendor who sells flowers will have bunches for sale pretty inexpensively

1-Nest On Tripod

A curly willow nest is easy to make; it is simply a wreath with a bottom of bark-wire lattice with curly willow interwoven through the wire. Setting the nest on top of a tripod of knarly branches give it added interest. You could easily use this as an Easter table centerpiece as is. Add moss to the bottom, succulents, and a cute bunny to finish it off.

Create a tripod out of 3 sticks; here I used Rose canes

Make a curly willow wreath to set into the tripod

Gather supplies to put together your nest; fake eggs, moss, succulents, and a cute bunny

Tripod nest as a centerpiece with some dressed up bunnies and hydrangeas

2-Urn Centerpiece

There is nothing better than an urn as an elegant vehicle to display plants and animals. Adding a curly willow wreath at the base grounds the arrangement and shows off the accessories and plants that you decide to add.

In a footed urn, add soil, and place the curly willow wreath

Add your plants; here I used a pink dianthus and blue campanula; I decided the smaller succulents in the center weren’t standing out enough and changed it to:

A larger blue-green succulent, an Echeveria, in the center and a few branches of pussy willow

3-Long Table Arrangement

My base is a simple rectangular tray with moss

For the Easter dining table, it is nice to have something rectangular and low so that you can speak across the table. Start with a bed of soft moss, add some plants still in their root ball, and add some kiwi branches, pussy willow, and succulent cuttings.

Another variation of a centerpiece with a long container- blue campanula, pink dianthus, succulents, delft blue violas, and a bunny

4-Easter Basket

Using a square container covered with moss, I add oasis and a handle made out of curly willow

Continue adding filler flowers; here I used wax flower and green lemon leaves

Finish off with purple statice, green pom poms, pink daisies and a polka dot bow

Use as a centerpiece at your Easter table

Another Easter basket of fresh flowers-stock, tulips, hydrangeas, and a handle of pussy willow

5-Cluster Container

Cluster containers are simply three or more containers connected together to become one piece. I have several of these and this is one of my favorites. To get the same effect, you can group either identical or similar containers together in a cluster to act as one container. Placing short stems of lilies, daisies, purple statice, and wax flower makes a colorful easy arrangement. These cluster containers do the arranging for you! You could easily buy a bunch of assorted flowers at a big box store and throw them in one of these and you look like an accomplished floral arranger.

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