Garden Tablescape

How to create a beautifully curated coalescent composition

Floral design, photography and text by Holly Heider Chapple

Owner of Holly Chapple Flowers and Hope Flower Farm, Founder of Chapel Designers, Leesburg, Va.

Presented by Alexandra Farms

Working with such extraordinary blooms from Alexandra Farms, I let those flowers be my inspiration, anchor and starting point for this tablescape. I built the color palette around Alexandra Farms’ newest garden rose variety, ‘Princess Holly’s Hope’, a wonderfully full garden rose with soft peachy-hued centers and frilly creamy outer petals. To create a gradation of hues and flower forms and sizes, I also chose David Austin® Wedding Roses’ buttercream/ivory-colored ‘Bessie’ and buttery yellow, dusty apricot and zesty orange ‘Effie’, as well as sand/beige-hued ‘Sahara Sensation’ Deluxe Dutch garden roses. In addition, I wanted to showcase Alexandra Farms’ exquisite Dahlia and white Oxypetalum (Tweedia), and I supported them all with blooms from my flower farm. It was all about the colors, forms and textures of the flowers.

In addition to the flowers, styling a table involves attention to linens, place settings and more. I like to design tables and spaces in layers—layers upon layers of lovely—adding one element on top of another. I also like to design in varying levels and heights. I want the arrangements to look like they are undulating, with varying levels within each design, and then I replicate that wavy movement across the table with fluctuating levels of candles, bud vases and other accessories.

STEP BY STEP

Step 1

Sort vessels and accents—like bud vases, candles and candleholders, and so on—by height. Choose coordinating fabrics or elements that will create a harmonious look.

Step 2

Design the larger focal centerpieces first. Start by creating a base layer of botanicals in each container to help camouflage the mechanics and introduce a supporting color; I chose blue Hydrangea and berried and foliated blueberry branches.

Step 3

Next, arrange snapdragons—I chose peach and white—building gradually upward, to create additional dimension in the design. I also arranged some Dahlia blooms at this point, to fill open spaces.

Step 4

Arrange the focal flowers—garden roses and additional Dahlia—positioning them at varying heights and grouping some blooms by type and variety. At this stage, the design will look a bit stiff.

Step 5

Arrange the supporting flowers—spray garden roses, Iceland poppies, Oxypetalum/Tweedia and forget-me-nots—to fill open spaces and to add movement, supplemental texture and dimension, and a free spirit to the design.

Step 6

Arrange collections of the same flowers into several bud vases of varying heights, types and materials (I chose a variety of white ceramic and clear glass vessels). Place these between the focal centerpieces in the tablescape.

Step 7

Style the table, laying out a foundational layer of color (I chose a coral-colored tablecloth). For a long table such as this one, position the focal centerpieces roughly two to three feet apart, and then place bud vases and candles, in varying heights, between them, ensuring the table is lush and full. Create the place settings with stylistically coordinating place mats, plates, napkins, flatware and glassware.