Artichokes are a favorite vegetable to design beautiful arrangements in! Follow this step-by-step to create your own.

Photos by Joni Shimabukuro, Theresa Bear, Rebekah Johnson and Ron Weeks

Besides an artichoke you will need floral adhesive (cold glue) from Oasis Floral Products, a small cup (to fit inside the artichoke), a small piece of chicken wire, a plastic container to increase the base surface of the artichoke for stability and a bit of moss.

Carefully push the petals of the artichoke outward, until a cavity has been created – no need to cut any part out.

Add a bit of glue on the bottom of the small cup and push it down in the center of the artichoke; crush the piece of chicken wire and place it inside the cup (after cutting the cup to the correct height).

Cut the stem of the artichoke, as well as the plastic container about 1/2″ above the bottom. Glue the artichoke onto this base and glue some moss over the plastic container; this will give the artichoke much more stability.

Add water to the cup and design your arrangement with flowers and textures. If you like, you can also glue some textures over the moss.

I used some pansies and salvia from the garden, as well as some viburnum berries, maidenhair fern, pieris, seedpods of mina lobata, black peppers, seastar ferns,… and covered the moss at the base with seedpods of clematis

 

Here are a couple of other examples: