Sugar glazed fruit centerpiece
Believe it or not, the grocery store is a great place to find fresh from the garden holiday decorating items.  I like to take fruit and greenery and create a sugar glazed arrangement.  It starts with a cake stand and a topiary form or a piece of oasis/floral foam that has been cut into a cone shape. 

Select product such as pears, apples, grapes, and citrus along with greenery cut from nature.  You can glaze them one of two ways.  The first is using old fashioned egg whites and the second is using spray adhesive.  Using a floral pick you can pierce the fruit and brush on the egg whites before dredging the fruit through sugar.  Allow the fruit to sit up to 24 hours before you use it.  With the spray adhesive the drying time is less so if you’re under a time crunch and have a well ventilated are then go for it, the process is much the same. 

Begin at the bottom of the topiary form and work your way to the top.  Fill in holes between large fruit with the sugar coated greenery and grapes.  Add some festive votive candles and you’ve got an elegant arrangement that can last up to 10 days. 

If you follow the egg white recipe keep in mind that when the fruit starts to go bad you can use it outdoors for the birds.  With the spray adhesive method you would need to toss the fruit.   

What you'll need

• 3 bags/clusters of red grapes
• 12 red pears
• 12 green apples
• 12 limes
• 12 lemons
• 12 kumquats
• Bundle of Douglas fir or other evergreen
• 1 x Footed glass cake plate
• 1 x 12” blocks of floral foam
• Floral clay
• Floral picks
• 2 cans spray adhesive  OR egg whites from 6 eggs
• Small bowl for egg whites
• Soft bristled pastry brush
• Waxed paper
• 1 large bag sugar
• 1 large bowl for sugar
• 15 or so LED tea lights
• Clear glass votive holders
• Knife for shaping floral foam

Directions

• Shape floral foam into cone shape and attach with floral clay to cake plate.
• Use floral picks to pierce larger items (such as pears, citrus, etc)
• Spray on the adhesive to the citrus and other fruit and dredge through sugar and coat fruit with cover
• The pick will serve as something to hold onto as well as a pick to insert into the floral foam
• he traditional way to sugar glaze fruit is to use egg whites and should you choose to use the egg white technique be aware that you have to allow 24 hours for the fruit and sugar to dry before adhering it to the floral foam.
• Randomly place fruit and bits of evergreen all coated in sugar to foam cone until full. 
• Expect this arrangement to last seven to 10 days.  A lovely accent is sparking votives.  A safety reminder is to use LED tea lights when mixing live and dried materials with candles.

Poinsettias
I love traditional holiday decorations such as greenery and pinecones but the king of the Christmas flowers has got to be the poinsettia.  It’s actually a tropical flower but it performs well in our winter houses because of the indoor temperature this time of year.  For a new twist on this old favorite mix poinsettias with Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’ which is a plant in the same family as poinsettia that has an almost waxy baby’s breath-like appearance.  When the holidays are over and you are tired of that poinsettia don’t throw out the Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’ because it mixes well with plants outdoors in the late spring and throughout the summer.  Just move it outside when the temperatures inside and outside are about the same. 

Now you’ve probably picked up at the store or received a poinsettia as a gift and if you have you know the stems can be brittle and break easily.  Don’t throw out broken poinsettia stems, use them as cut flowers.  Just cut the stem of the poinsettia and then seal the milky sap by running it through a flame for about 30-seconds.  Immediately put the cut flower into water.  I like to take an evergreen wreath and lay it on a dinner plate.  The cluster jars of water in the center and cut poinsettias to fill the jars.  Add in some green apples and votive candles and you have a long lasting and very out of the box centerpiece. 

What you'll need

• 2 x large poinsettias in full bloom
• 1 Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’
• Large container
• 1 x vase
• Pruners
• Candle (real one with open flame, this is used to seal the bottoms of the poinsettia stems)

Directions

• A new twist on the traditional poinsettia is to mix it with Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’.  You can take a large container and pot up the euphorbia and then take a nursery pot and put it where the poinsettia will go.  Drop in the poinsettia and after the holidays save the euphorbia container to use in the spring when you can just drop in another plant. 
• Another way to use poinsettias is as cut flowers. 
• Poinsettias secrete a milky sap and so you should burn the tip (for example in the flame of a candle) to seal the sap.  Then immediately put it into a vase hydrating the stem as high up as possible. 

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