Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, October 31, which means the whole thing gets a full weekend. The trick-or-treating runs later, the grown-up parties actually happen, and Sunday is for sleeping in and eating the leftover candy. Halloween flowers in Raleigh can be as simple as a pumpkin on the porch, but a Saturday Halloween means parties, and parties mean tables.
That dark end is where we are happiest this week. Black calla lilies, the deepest dahlias of the year, grasses gone the color of straw.
The dark palette
The best Halloween flowers look like they belong in a very good restaurant with the lights turned down. Black calla lilies, which are really a burgundy so deep it reads black in candlelight. Dahlias in the darkest reds of the year. Black Baccara roses, which open velvet dark and stay that way. Burgundy celosia with its crushed-velvet texture, plum carnations, and scabiosa pods standing up like little pincushions.
Then the texture. Dried grasses, bleached ruscus, dark foliage like smoke bush, lotus pods and a few branches with the leaves pulled off. Chinese lantern pods bring the one note of orange, and they look like paper lanterns someone forgot to light. One orange element against all that darkness is enough.
The trick is keeping the arrangement elegant. Dark flowers in a heavy black or pewter vessel, with a few stems reaching up and out and air between them, look expensive, and that is the arrangement that stays on the table long after the guests leave.
Halloween flowers in Raleigh for the party table
If you are hosting Saturday night, think about where people actually stand. The buffet or the kitchen island is where the night happens, so that is where the flowers go. Keep the main arrangement low and wide so the punch bowl and the platters fit around it, and put the one tall, dramatic piece on a side table or the entry console where nobody has to reach past it.
Candlelight is half the design. Black or deep red tapers in a line, votives tucked between the vessels, and the dark flowers do the rest. Moody colors look flat under bright overhead light and come alive the moment you dim it.
A real pumpkin makes a fine vessel if you do it right. Cut the top, scoop it out, and set a glass jar inside to hold the water, so the flowers drink from the jar and the pumpkin stays dry. It usually gets through the weekend without trouble. A cluster of dark dahlias and dried grasses spilling out of a deep orange pumpkin is the one place where more orange is welcome.
The porch, the host and the person who cannot stand Halloween
The front porch is the first thing trick-or-treaters and party guests see, and it is the easiest place to get Halloween right with flowers. A wreath of dried grasses and dark seed heads on the door. A planter at the step with dark foliage and a few stems of celosia. Pumpkins of different sizes grouped at the base. Leave off the skeletons and the whole thing carries straight through to Thanksgiving with nothing to take down.
For the host, a dark bouquet is a change from the bottle of wine, and it tends to be the thing people are still talking about on Monday. It is also one less errand for you on the day.
And then there is the friend who cannot stand Halloween. Every group has one. For that person, the opposite works: the brightest dahlias we have, coral and gold and hot pink, in a clear vase, delivered with a card that says nothing about the holiday at all. Flowers are a very good way to opt out of something politely.
Our shop's autumn arrangements run from the bright end to the moody end, and Designer's Choice is the way to say "dark, dramatic, surprise me" and let Anita pick what is best that morning.
Flowers that make it past the candy
Dark arrangements tend to age well if you give them a little help. Change the water every other day, cut a little off the stems each time, and keep the vase away from the fruit bowl and the heat vents. Dahlias drink a lot, so top them up. Dried grasses and pods need nothing at all, which is why so many of these arrangements are half fresh and half dried. Pull the fresh stems when they tire and the dried half carries on.
If you want something that outlasts the costumes, a deep purple phalaenopsis orchid is as moody as any Halloween flower and can stay in bloom for weeks. Have a look at our orchids and succulents for the darker ones.
Sunday morning
By Sunday the clocks have gone back an hour, the costumes are on the floor and the candy bowl is down to the ones nobody wanted. The flowers held up better than you did. Swap the black tapers for cream, move the pumpkin to the dining table, and you are halfway to Thanksgiving. We wrote a separate post about Thanksgiving centerpieces in Raleigh if you want to plan the second half of the season while the first half is still on the counter.
The autumn arrangements are in the shop, and if you would like to see the kind of dark, moody work we mean, the gallery has a few.
Have a good Halloween, and save us a peanut butter cup.