5 Autumnal Ideas for Dried Seed Pods in Floral Arrangements

Massachusetts floral designer Karin Lidbeck-Brent is always searching for interesting things to use in her arrangements. To add a unique, non-blooming touch, she likes to collect seed pods from garden, meadow, and roadside plants each fall. "We pass attractive pods every day but tend to look for pretty flowers and not so much for brown and dried things," she says.

Seed pods may not be a traditional choice for fall floral arrangements, but they can be just as striking as colorful zinnias or mums. Rather than bright colors, seed pods can liven up your fall decor with their intriguing shapes and textures and sometimes even scents and sounds.

When gathering seed pods for a floral arrangement anywhere other than your own garden, always get permission first from the property owner. Some plants can be prickly, so grab your gardening gloves and clippers. And if you end up collecting too much of a beautiful thing, save nature's bounty until next year. Place excess pods in plastic storage bags or a big box until you need them. Lidbeck-Brent stores her extras so she'll have a handy supply at the ready whenever an arrangement calls for a striking shape or texture.

Use these quick and easy designs as inspiration for gorgeous fall centerpieces of your own that feature seed pods and warm autumn colors.

1. Bell Jar and Pumpkin Display

Take inspiration directly from one of fall's most iconic plants—gourds! A round pumpkin for the base and a glass bell jar ($52, Target) on top mimics a gourd's natural shape. Combine sphagnum moss ($6, The Home Depot) and a variety of seed pods under the jar for an enchanting fall centerpiece.

• Start with a tall bell jar and a pumpkin wider than the bottom of the jar. Outline the jar's base on the top of the pumpkin using a marker. Use a knife to cut around the outline. Remove the pumpkin's lid and scoop out the seeds.
• Fill the pumpkin with potting mix and top with moss. Lidbeck-Brent uses fresh moss she finds in her garden but dried moss works well, too.
• Choose several attractive seed pods and insert their stems through the moss into the potting mix at different heights. If some pod stems are too short, you can wire them to wooden sticks. Shown here are seed pods of lupine, common milkweed, hibiscus, and money plant (Lunaria annua), which produces seeds enclosed in translucent silvery discs.

2. Log Centerpiece

Time to go foraging! Use a log or pieces of bark from the woods to help show off rustic moss, ferns, and dried seed pods for a flower arrangement perfect during fall. Or, if finding a log where you live is tricky, you could also head to a craft store to pick up a log look-a-like. While you're at it, add some unique pods to your cart, such as dried lotus pods ($8, Michaels) or mahogany pods on sticks ($4, Hobby Lobby).

• Scrape the rotted parts from the log or bark, and shake out the debris. Lidbeck-Brent's trough is about 3 inches deep in some areas, less in others. Wipe inside the log until clean using an old rag, and leave it in the sun for a day or two to dry.
• Fill the log with potting soil.
• Set a few miniature plants in the soil-filled trough. Lidbeck-Brent used begonias and small ferns for their attractive leaves.
• Dig some moss outdoors with a flat spade or buy it from a crafts store. Cut a few pieces to cover the exposed soil.
• Insert a variety of pods into the soil around your plants. For this design, Lidbeck-Brent uses mintolla balls and lotus, mahogany, and badam pods, available online or at crafts stores.

3. Sunflowers, Hydrangeas, and Pods

Even without their bright petals, the huge seed heads of sunflowers are beautiful when featured in a fall arrangement with acorns, leaves, and dark brown seed pods. Because dried flowers and pods don't need a vase full of water to keep their good looks, you can fill up a clear container with acorns ($13, Crate and Barrel) instead to help hold each stem in place.

• Fill a vase with acorns (gathered or store-bought).
• Insert dried sunflower seed heads around the rim and dried hydrangea flowers behind them to give the bottom of the bouquet a visually balanced look.
• Add taller stems of different pods, keeping the arrangement sparse and loose so their individual silhouettes stand out.
• Lidbeck-Brent contrasted the solid forms of the sunflowers with the black pods of Baptisia, long thin okra pods, yucca, oak leaves, a dark red sumac plume, an evening primrose seed stalk, Scabiosa, and hibiscus pods.

4. Seedpod Wreath

A plain grapevine wreath ($9, Walmart) quickly transforms into a more welcoming fall door decoration with a few dried seed pods, fall leaves, and berries. Lindbeck-Brent used a variety of seed pods and plants to create her wreath, but you could also choose just a few favorites to mix together for a similar look.

• Cut or break the band binding the stems tightly together in a grapevine wreath.
• Pull the circular vines of the wreath apart slightly to add more dimension and create slots for inserting stems and pods.
• Rewire the wreath loosely to stabilize it, and make a wire loop hanger on the back.
• Tuck the seedpod stems into the slots, grouping pods of each species together. In this wreath, Lindbeck-Brent uses green, teardrop-shape milkweed pods, some leaves and red-winged seedpods from a Japanese maple, tallow berries from the crafts store, scarlet oak foliage, a lotus pod, evening primrose stalks, jimsonweed, and seed pods from a honey locust tree.

5. Pumpkin with Chinese Lanterns and Milkweed Pods

Using a pumpkin as a planter, you can fill it up with succulents, mums, or, in this case, a few simple stems of seed pods. Fiery Chinese lantern stems are especially striking against a light orange or even yellow pumpkin, but feel free to use any pods you want.

• Cut an opening in the top of a pumpkin (a Cinderella-type pumpkin is shown here).
• Scoop out seeds and any loose pulp. Use the hollow pumpkin like a vase, but do not add water.
• Arrange milkweed and Chinese lantern stems in the container, packing them tight to hold them in place.

Leave fresh flowers for the spring and summer, and embrace seed pods for your fall decor this year. Depending on the occasion, their autumnal colors and fun shapes are perfect for wreaths, dried flower arrangements, and stunning centerpieces.