“I grew up watching both my grandmothers and mother arranging flowers and enjoying the garden. I think working with flowers comes naturally to me,” says Kakhi Huffaker Wakefield of Chattanooga. “And after I did a workshop with Laura Dowling at FlowerSchool New York, I was bitten by the floral bug and never looked back!”
Entry Hall
Percy the poodle waits by the entry table to greet holiday visitors. Find a list of materials and Kakhi’s step-by-step tutorial for this festive floral arrangement.
Sideboard
A pair of lush arrangements fill antique sterling silver drinking horns on a sideboard festooned with decorative Christmas trees.
Materials
- Green grapes
- Cedar
- ‘Wild Eclair’ green spray roses
- ‘Green Lemonade’ roses
- Double ranunculus
- Green parrot tulips
- Star of Bethlehem
- Veronica
- Green hypericum berry
- Variegated Italian pittosporum
- Aucuba
Centerpiece
For a gorgeously over-the-top centerpiece, Kakhi used a tureen in Herend’s Chinese Bouquet pattern.
Materials
- Green grapes
- Amaryllis
- Mix of greenery (curly pine, cypress, gold-tipped cedar, magnolia, aucuba, galax leaves)
- Poinsettia
- Ornamental kale
- Bells of Ireland
- Snapdragons
- Veronica
- Viburnum
- Spray roses
- ‘Green Lemonade’ roses
- Green parrot tulips
- Double ranunculus
- Queen Anne’s lace
- Lisianthus
- Green eryngium
- ‘Winterbells’ hellebores
Place Setting
When planning her floral concept for a Christmas at home, Kakhi took a cue from the green and white palette of Herend’s Chinese Bouquet china, a family favorite. She accented each place card/bud vase with a tiny bunch of cypress.
See Kakhi’s step-by-step tutorial for a floral arrangement inspired by the china pattern.
Produced by Alice Welsh Doyle | Photography by David Hillegas | Floral design by Kakhi Huffaker Wakefield of K Wakefield Designs, kwakefielddesigns.com
This story appears in Flower magazine’s Nov/Dec 2020 issue. Subscribe to the magazine or sign up for our free e-newsletter.