How to Make Floral Fruit Arrangements

Soak floral foam in water overnight.

Cut floral foam to fit snugly in the bowl. Cut slices of floral foam to fill in any large gaps.

Select fruits and flowers to complement each other. For example, combine purple grapes, lilacs, hydrangeas, plums and blue and white hyacinths. Pair red grapes and strawberries with red heart-shaped anthurium, red ginger and birds of paradise. Combine kiwis, pineapple pieces and mandarin oranges with proteas, peonies and roses. Add cherries and skewers of blueberries to a bouquet of white roses.

Rinse the fruits gently in a colander. Avoid bruising the fruit.

Cut the flower stems and skewers at varying lengths so that some are 2 to 4 inches shorter than others. This helps to add dimension to the floral arrangement. Make the longest stems to more than twice the height of the container to keep the arrangement from becoming top-heavy.

Remove leaves from the lower half of the flower stems. Clip them off at the stem with the shears.

Slice the fruits, if desired. For example, slice kiwis in half to expose their decorative centers. Leave pomegranates and berries intact to reduce the risk of stains.

Dip banana, pear and apple in lemon juice to prevent discoloration.

Use small cookie cutters on fruit slices, such as pineapple and apple.

Create shish kabobs of fruit if the fruit is meant to be eaten. Alternate colors for an ornamental effect. Hold the fruit firmly between your fingers and push the sharp tip of the skewer carefully through the fruit. Skewer two blueberries, a strawberry, and then a pineapple star. Insert the sharp end of the skewer 1 inch into small fruits such as lemons or limes.

Insert stems of foliage around the outside of the floral foam. Angle the stems into the foam so that some of the foliage hangs down over the bowl.

Create a circle of shorter stemmed flowers above the foliage.

Place a showy flower with a long stem in the center of the fruit and flower arrangement. Push the stem firmly into the floral foam.

Add a circle of three of the largest flowers in the center of the arrangement around the center flower. Push the stems deeper into the foam so that the center flower remains the tallest.

Place medium sized and smaller flowers in a ring around the center ring of flowers for the fruit and flower arrangement.

Make another ring of flowers using flowers with shorter stems, creating a dome-shaped arrangement, with taller flowers in the center graduating down to shorter blooms at the edge of the bowl.

Place fruit skewers between flowers and follow the same pattern of adding taller skewers to the fruit and flower arrangement in the center and shorter skewers toward the edges of the bowl. Make the arrangement balanced by varying the placement of different colors and fruits, so that there is some of each kind of fruit showing on each side of the arrangement.

Add water with floral food to within an inch of the bowl edge.

Keep the arrangement in a cool location, refrigerator or cooler until it's time to put it in place.