Autumn Flower Arrangements

With their dark good looks, wine-colored flowers, tiny grapes, and foliage from backyard shrubs can play a starring role on any table. For a foolproof bouquet, mix flowers and leaves of the same shade.

Here's how:

We used chocolate cosmos, burgundy pincushion flowers, coleus, purple kale, smokebush, and grapes. Cut the stems to varying lengths -- anywhere from 4 to 6 inches taller than the vase -- leaving the cosmos and pincushions longest. Angle the coleus, kale, and smokebush leaves around the perimeter of the vase, putting some on one side, rotating the container, then adding more to the other side until the vase is filled. Position a few taller stems of cosmos and pincushions at different heights in the middle, and tuck grapes at intervals throughout.

Tip: Before arranging, snip stems at a 45-degree angle and remove the leaves that fall below the waterline -- submerged foliage can rot.