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Carlos Mota’s last-minute Easter flower arrangement

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Aspiring flower arrangers, get psyched. Carlos Mota, editor at large for Elle Decor, has a book called ‘Flower Cheap and Chic’ coming out in May and the arrangements are easy, smart, and look fantastic. We’ll take a look at Mota’s book closer to its publication date, but in the meantime, I asked if he could offer a simple and creative flower arrangement for an Easter brunch.

Working with the egg theme, he suggested the arrangement of orchids in ostrich eggs to the right. The materials cost about $50 -- more than my normal flower budget, but I’d be willing to splurge for a holiday.

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Here’s how he did it:

  1. Buy one or two ostrich eggs, carefully cut them to take the top off. Remove the egg and clean the shell with soap and water. (Carlos bought his at Whole Foods, but I’ve heard they can be very difficult to cut. You can buy pre-cleaned half ostrich shells for $9 here. Duck or goose eggs could work too.)
  2. Choose a small orchid and put it in the shell, keeping it in place with moss. Mota says a simple English garden rose would also be pretty; just cut the stem the same height as the egg and put the stem in a flower water tube if you like.

In the picture above Mota set the ostrich eggs in a bed of grass. Another idea would be to place them in a nest of moss.

‘It looks so beautiful and it’s a conversation piece.’ Guests, he said, will surely ask, ‘Where did you get those two huge eggs?’

-- Deborah Netburn

Become a fan: Join our Facebook pages for home design and California gardening. Photo from ‘Flowers Cheap & Chic’ / Clarkson Potter

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