Dried Floral Pumpkins:
A Natural Choice for Boo-tanical Fall Decor

This fall I discovered Flower Fridays at Fishers Flower Farm, a small local farm. I’d seen their colorful flowers featured in my friend Lisa’s photographs for a while, but had never experienced them for myself until I pre-ordered flowers for a Friday pickup this September. The flowers were so beautiful! I arranged them into a vase to take to my mom, who absolutely raved about them. The fall colors were so lovely and long-lasting; she enjoyed them for over a week.

The following week I saw DIY mini floral pumpkin kits were being offered for Flower Friday along with their usual seasonal bouquets so I reserved a flower bouquet for myself plus two pumpkin kits to make pumpkins with dried flowers for my mom and me.

On Friday I made sure to pick up my order not long after the pickup window opened because strong winds and rain were forecast from the remnants of Hurricane Helene and I didn’t want to be caught out in bad weather. Order pickup at the farm is super fast and easy. You pull through a circular drive and collect your ordered quantity of items, selecting from the available bouquets and pumpkins. I decided to choose the white mini pumpkins because they have always been my favorite – and I figured they’d make a nice, neutral background. Each pumpkin came with a sealed square box of natural dried florals. I couldn’t wait to get home and peek inside! Once I did, I was amazed how many flowers were packed into each small box. I soon realized as I started decorating my pumpkins that there were enough flowers included to decorate up to four pumpkins. I decided four would look perfect on my fall mantel, but I also wanted to make a set of two pumpkins for my mom, so I saved flowers from the bouquet I’d just bought to dry so I’d have enough flowers for six pumpkins total. I also saved my last Gerbera daisy from my patio to use. The flowers took a little over a week to dry, so I made four of the pumpkins right away, and completed the other two later. I bought a third mini white pumpkin at my favorite local farm stand to get pumpkins, 62nd Street Maket. The three orange pumpkins I decorated are from Meijer. They had some beautiful little blemish-free pie pumpkins this year that were the perfect size to complement the smaller white pumpkins.

These little pumpkins were so fast and easy to make! I was afraid using a hot glue gun might spoil the pumpkins, so instead I used super sticky double sided tape and glue dots from my card making supplies to adhere the florals. There is no wrong way to place the florals. I looked at the sample photos on the Fishers Flower Farm website for inspiration, then just started gluing flowers around the stem, alternating sizes, colors and types of flowers. It was such a quick and easy rainy day activity, and so relaxing! I really hope they offer these kits next year too! I may try to save some of the flowers from these pumpkins to reuse next year. And next summer I may have to save some of the blooms from my garden to use for pumpkin decorating. I know we have to get through winter first, but I already can’t wait for spring to buy more beautiful flowers from Fishers Flower Farm.

My dried floral pumpkins anchor both ends of my mantel. I used a lot of mushrooms and pumpkins in my decor this year, and the pumpkins I made lend the perfect natural touch to my fall mantel display.