Question
I bought some beautiful fall silk flowers at Hobby Lobby and I put them in a vase and I just can't get them to look right.  
Can you give any tips on how to arrange them.  what goes in first or how high or short I should cut them, or how high from the vase they should be?  I put light blue marbles in the vase to make it look like water. Please help me I want my house to look festive for Thanksgiving.

Thank You so much.
Cathy

Answer
Hi, Cathy!

Ideally, the tallest flowers should be two to three times as tall as the vase you're using.  That will depend on the size of the vase.  The larger the vase, the taller the flowers should stand.  Otherwise, you're going to draw attention to the vase rather than the flowers.

Arranging silk flowers is much like arranging fresh ones.  You should start with some short greenery around the top of the vase to hold taller flowers in place as you add them.  

I'm not sure which look you're going for - loose and airy, or rich and dense.  If you're going for loose and airy, it's best to use flowers in odds.  I start around the base of the vase, using an odd amount of the same flower in even spaces.  Then the next layer toward the middle will be a bit taller, and the same flowers will fall sort of in between the first layer.  Reduce the number of flowers you use each layer until the arrangement is pleasingly rounded on top.  Then fill in with accent flowers.  With this type of fall arrangement, I always recommend to use some wheat, cat-o-nine tails, or some curly willow tips, my favorite, to trail off from the top of the arrangement.

If you're looking for rich and dense, then I recommend grouping in similar colors and textures.  When colors are grouped, it has a much larger visual impact than if they are peppered throughout the arrangement.  So grouping is perfect for making a bold statement.  I'd also use larger flowers for this, such as clusters of hydrangea, sunflowers, large mums, and roses.  With this type of arrangement, you'll stay away from too many fillers.  They'll just cause a messy appearance.

When I'm using large flowers like these, I make a basic circle around the bottom beginning the color-grouping, then put a tall flower in the middle.  And then I fill in between with groupings of flowers.  Depending on your personal preference, you can make the groups very defined, or you can sort of fade from one color group to the next by mixing a couple of flowers with the neighboring color.

Whichever type of arrangement you choose, try to use various heights and depths.  The general idea is that the center flowers should be the tallest, the outermost flowers should be the shortest.  This is a good rule to make the basic frame of your arrangement by.  However, if you follow this to the T, you're going to end up with a blah arrangement that isn't very interesting to the eye.  So once you have your foundation flowers in place, make sure to stick a few flowers a little deeper than the ones surrounding it, and a few just slightly raised from the rest.  This will keep the viewer's eye moving and really draw them into the arrangement.