Best Way to Create the Autumn Table Centre with Flowers

This table centre makes use of autumn harvest produce and hedgerow material. You can make it from whatever you can find locally, by combining a few large vegetables and fruits (artichokes, sweetcorn, gourds and pomegranates) with smaller fruiting and berrying shrubs.

Use a block of pre-soaked wet oasis to form the basic structure into which pyracantha berries, rose­hips and artichoke heads are inserted. This provides the basic frame, then the rest of the ingredients are loosely piled around it. There are no formal instructions for making this kind of arrangement, except that you first need to create a base and then put a layer of larger fruits and vegetables at the bottom to make a tough platform onto which the other ingredients are piled. The overall shape should be a very rough pyramid, and it should look nat­ural and slightly asymmetrical rather than appearing rigidly contrived.

You can make the arrangement in the kitchen, and carry it through to the table, to prevent the dining table becoming scratched or stained.

1. Place a block of pre-soaked wet oasis on a large platter, about 18in (45cm) long and half as wide. Insert four sprigs of golden crab apples into each end of the block to form the basic structure, allowing the crab apples to spill over the sides of the tray.

2. Arrange the gourds around the block of oasis, and insert some of the rose hip sprigs into it to flesh out the structure. Lay the sprigs of flowering currant foliage in between the gourds and the rose hips. The artichoke heads can be pushed into the oasis to form the second tier.

3. Continue to add the artichoke heads to form the upper level, as well as the cobs of sweetcorn and blue corn, angled sideways. Allow the dried white leaves of the sweetcorn to show, as this provides a good colour contrast with the dark berries and fruits.

4. Add the sprigs of sloe and pyracantha berries to provide colour contrast, first removing most of their green leaves. Add the pomegranates in any gaps, to balance the shapes and colours, and continue to add foliage, hips and berries to fill in the overall shape.

Alternative Autumn Table Centre

This alternative autumn table centre, arranged on a raised glass cake stand, is suitable for a small table and is a decorative way to display fruit for dessert.

Around table could have a smaller fruit and flower centre­piece, arranged on a cake stand – in this case a glass one. Again, a block of oasis provides the central core, into which the hydrangea heads are inserted. Hydrangea dries exceptionally well and provides year-round decorative floral material.