A view from my old yard in Alexandria, Virginia in early October 🥹– I miss it dearly
Bright orange Fall leaves, eucalyptus, and dried wheat are quintessential additions to floral designs and are a tried and true, “on the nose” way to bring a bit of Fall to any design. But there is SO much more in Fall colors and textures to be explored. I’d love to share my tips with you for how I stay inspired in building compelling color stories and designs.
Notice the Subtleties
Foraging is one of the best ways to find the subtleties in changing seasons but it is not always accessible to all designers. However, simply observing small changes to the tree outside your window, the way the leaves are dying off your favorite perennials, or even the humble roadside median. Color inspiration is everywhere and is my go to inspiration for how colors blend and shift in any changing season. If you can’t physically forage, use that inspiration to find commercially grown foliages to build palettes off of.
Oftentimes, nurseries and garden centers have deep end of season sales. This is a great time to stock up on plants to cut beautiful leaves or woody stems from and if you have access, plant those good deals in the ground to reap future bounty!
A mix of foraged greens and cutting from plants. Beech tree, nandina, honeysuckle, fern, heuchera, and wild grasses pictured.
It’s easy to envy what other areas have in various seasons but as a military spouse, I have lived in all of the time zones across the country and I have truly found that there are beautiful shifts no matter where you live. Here in Virginia, many of my go-tos are liquidambar, oak, laurel, nandina, maple, and copper beech as well as my all time favorite, abelia. Most of these can be sourced through wholesalers but if your wholesaler focuses on only the hardy, retail focused options, it may be worth trying to forage or ship in unique seasonal foliages from Mayesh Wholesale.
If your wholesaler can’t access what you’re looking for, reach out to flower farmers and even tree farms! There are farms that grow trees for landscaping, and unless they’re being planted, they’re sitting at a farm, developing leaves that could be harvested for you! And of course Fall flowers tend to last the longest when they are grown locally. You can read more about how to hunt down local flowers here. If you need flower inspiration, check out all my favorite flowers of fall here.
Choose Foliage of Different Colors
It is really easy to reach for our tried and true foliages that make sense for many designs. However, being a classically trained designer, I would often rely on the same colors and textures I always used, especially in foliages. But using the same greenery over and over, led to my design work feeling stagnant and overly safe. I noticed that I often only used foliages that were mostly green. In leaning into color theory, I realized my color palettes were affected by the greenery choices more than I realized. Foliage is a KEY part of a design and is not a neutral component but rather makes or breaks a design. It is just as important to a palette as any other element!
In my course, Color Theory Confidence, I dedicate an entire section to this concept because “greenery” comes in every hue in the color wheel. So, I built an entire guide to all my favorite foliages organized BY COLOR to make it super easy to find some inspiration when building a palette or recipe!
So, let’s explore some examples of how foliage can make all the difference!
Here are some examples of my go to autumnal touches, I usually reach for plums, reds, browns, golds, and rusts. Here are some of my favorites.
Want my complete “Greenery By Color” guide? Get it now as a FREE bonus product when you purchase Color Theory Confidence.
Go Beyond Leaves
If you are six weeks into the wedding season, and you’re feeling creative burnout. You inevitably have found yourself using the same products over… and over… and over again.
Let me help you think outside the flower box: try grasses, herbs, pods, berries, and vines! These components can be overlooked in the search for “foliage,” but they can really pack the seasonal color and texture punch you’re looking for in your designs.
As autumn arrives, it’s the perfect time to embrace the season’s rich textures and colors in your floral designs. By exploring local foliage, expanding your palettes, beyond the usual greens, and incorporating unique elements like grasses and berries, you can really level up your arrangements for fall wedding season.