To Get Started - You will need a pair of pliers for bending wire and saving your hands, a pair of wire cutters for cutting stems, floral tape, wire, and arranging foam. Some foam is for fresh flowers (like Oasis Foam) -- this is NOT strong enough to hold silk flower arrangements. Floral tape is not like other tape, either; when you wrap a stem with it, you stretch the tape as you wrap the wire, and this causes the tape to stick to itself.

Seasonal containers are fun to use, and you can use an entire arrangement again so long as you store it away carefully. For Thanksgiving, consider a basket cornucopia -- it looks nice longer than the more traditional ceramic turkey. Find a nice straw hat for your arrangement, and you can remove the flowers and rearrange it to match the season.

Choosing Flowers - Flowers are in the craft stores EARLY. This means they are usually a holiday or season ahead. If you check out the stores now, you might find Fall flowers on clearance and Christmas flowers already stocked. Remember this if you like to make last minute arrangements. Stock up on some flowers appropriate to each season. Silk flowers are actually made of polyester, and you want to look for flowers with no frayed edges and realistic colors. Good quality flowers cost more, but also look more realistic.

Putting It All Together - Once you have everything you need, you are ready to arrange. Stick your flowers firmly into the foam. Use a hot glue gun to add ribbons or other decorations to the ribbons. If you need a longer stem, cut a piece of floral wire a little longer than the total desired length of the stem. Put the wire next to the stem and start wrapping floral tape around both the stem and the wire together to make the stem seem longer. Vary the heights of the flowers for a realistic, professional look. You can use wire to add other goodies as well, such as pine cones, and figurines.

Caring for your arrangements is EASY. Simply use a feather duster on a weekly basis, or try a hair dryer on its coolest setting for more stubborn dust -- but be sure not to get too close and overheat the flowers. There are also commercial spray cleaners available.