So many hydrangea varieties turn the most gorgeous pink and green tones in the fall, so they create a beautiful, organic look.
This year I was craving something a little different for the fall mantel, but didn’t want to spend any money on new decorations.
Thankfully, I have hundreds (if not thousands?) of hydrangea blooms at my disposal. Our fluffy limelight hydrangeas change to a beautiful light green with pink touches:
This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience.
I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links.
We have a few more bushes in the back as well. They are absolutely gorgeous!
When I started this process I almost made it way harder than it needed to be. Initially I figured having a base to stick the stems into would work best, so I picked up some of this hardware cloth from Tractor Supply:
My plan was to cut it down and then secure a long piece to the mantel using Command strips. I quickly realized that 1. the holes in the wire were too small for most of my stems and 2. it just wasn’t needed. Since our mantel is about ten inches deep, I could just lay the blooms on the mantel and pile them up.
To create this organic look, I started with the long panicle blooms for the base layer. I removed most of the leaves (they show their age before the blooms do) and cut the stems shorter so they would fit on the mantel:
As I moved up with the layers, I started adding in some of the fluffier, green hydrangea blooms — the contrast in color is lovely!:
Two things to consider when cutting your flowers:
- Thankfully most of our bugs are gone for the season, but I find cutting the flowers in the cooler evening temps helps. If you are worried about tiny visitors, you can use this easy method for ridding your blooms of any critters.
- There’s no special way to dry hydrangeas — usually I just put them in a vase with water and once it’s gone, they start drying out on their own. You don’t need to hang them or do anything specific. These were freshly cut and will dry out beautifully.
I made sure to take advantage of the long cone-shaped blooms and let those drape over the edge of the mantel:
I wanted this to be really full so as I was piling them onto each other, I left the stems long so I could tuck them into the ones below.
It turned out even prettier than I imagined…and for free!
Our tall fireplace needs a big statement on the mantel, and the fluffy hydrangeas worked perfectly:
I wanted to be able to see the brass tipping rail a bit, so I used the more delicate panicle cone-shaped blooms for this spot.
Because I kept the stems long, I could just tuck them here and there behind that brass railing. What a pretty but simple fall accent in our kitchen!:
The time it took to cut and remove the leaves was so worth it — take advantage of any flowering bushes in your yard that still look great this time of year! The possibilities are truly endless!
The pink panicle blooms tend to shed more than the others, but so far so good. If we don’t touch them they hold up beautifully! I’ve heard that spraying them with hair spray can help with any shedding too.
