The unofficial theme for the Easter I created these topiaries might as well have been “Church Clean-Out,” because everything I used to make them came from a huge church-wide cleaning and organizing event held during Lent. The inspiration came from the balls of plastic foliage that could stand in for the pruned topiary tops. These along with the flower pots, eggs, and floral foam probably all originated at Dollarama, which is the Canadian version of America’s Dollar General. If you can’t find these round balls of artificial greenery, another option would be to use a styrofoam or floral foam ball and hot glue artificial flowers or moss to the foam ball. Floral wire could also work, but I would reserve it for accent flowers rather than trying to achieve full coverage of the ball. The stems of the topiary were simply discarded cuttings from my neighbor’s yardwork cut to the right length, but a more polished look could be accomplished by cutting and spray painting a dowel rod.
Begin assembling the topiaries by weighting down the flowerpots with a layer of gravel in the base of the pot. I found plenty of marble chips during the church clean-out and those worked well for this too. Cut the floral foam to fit the pot and fill in around it with additional gravel or marble chips to add more weight and hold it in place. I then inserted the stick which served as the trunk of my topiary, secured it with a little tape, and covered all of this with a layer of floral moss. The greenery of the topiary needed no alteration and simply perched on the top of the stick with a ribbon to keep it level. When I’ve created similar topiaries using a styrofoam ball covered in artificial flowers, I’ve attached the ball onto the dowel first and then glued the flowers onto it. In this way the flowerpot and dowel create a natural stand that you can rotate while you glue. As a finishing touch I added a few Easter eggs at the base of the topiary.
We used these topiaries to decorate the church foyer which can be a neglected space when it comes to decor. I think to set the mood of the service, whether it be Easter, Good Friday, Pentecost or Christmas, it’s important to give some visual cues about the service to the congregation before they actually enter the worship space. It’s another way to help prepare hearts and minds to worship. These little topiaries would also be a fun and easy way to decorate at home for Easter. Take away the Easter eggs and you have a decoration that would, with its emphasis on greenery and growth, work as a decoration for Ordinary Time too.
