Now that it's officially fall, it's time to truss up your home and your front porch with some spooky and fun Halloween decorations.
One of the best ways to do this is with incredible exotic flowers that are inherently spooky in their natural blooms. Florists may not often use these flowers because they are so exotic, but it's easy enough to order the blooms yourself and make the spooky DIY flower arrangement of your dreams.
Here are 9 exotic flowers that are perfect for Halloween and some DIY suggestions to employ them to their spookiest effect.
Glow in the Dark Roses
Looking to make a bouquet that looks traditional by day but has some Halloween magic by night? Look no further than Glow in the Dark roses, a speciality white rose treated with a chemical that makes it become an eerie, glowing flower once the sun goes down and the lights go off.
If you want a really fun DIY project, consider making a non-traditional jack'o'lantern. Carve out a pumpkin and arrange a beautiful bouquet in it, so that by day it looks like a perfect fall arrangement -- and at night, it turns into a spooky Halloween decoration.
Doll's Eye/White Baneberry
The Doll's Eye plant is so eerie, you could use it by itself in a tall vase or as an accent in a more typical bouquet to add some Halloween flavor. Featuring blood red stems and white berries that resemble a doll's eye down to a little black iris, the flower is nothing short of unsettling.
If you want to go the extra mile, consider weaving it into the sprigs of a broomstick to create a witchy design or lean into the eyeball effect and arrange it around or in an oversized blood-shot eye. The white and red also make a nice accent for an arrangement coming out of a Halloween skull.
Bleeding Tooth Fungus
Just the name sounds disgusting and appropriately scary, right? The bleeding tooth fungus is a white fungus that resembles a mushroom, but seeps a blood red pigmented juice that looks disturbingly like coagulated blood. Normally we would find this stomach turning, but it's a perfect flower for Halloween.
If you are wanting to make a zombie-tastic display, this is the bloom for you. Buy a crystal or glass skull that you can fill with the flower, making it look like it's full of bloody brains. Or go even more simple and find a vase that resembles a brain and make sure it's overflowing with this bloody fungus. There are a ton of options for using this creepy flower in a unique way.
The Bat Orchid
Bats are a Halloween favorite -- their creepy appearance, nocturnal habits, and association with vampires make them a perfect fit for the holiday. Decorate with the bat orchid -- a nearly all-black flower whose long tendrils make it resemble the flying creature. Their flat base makes them a great flower for wreath-building -- make a Halloween wreath featuring a plastic bat or fake crow and use these flowers as an accent to make it an extra spooky decoration for your front door. Or create a more flight-focused arrangement and use these to accent the fake bats you craft.
Star Flower
Want a bouquet that looks as monstrous as Frankenstein? Look no further than using the star flower in your arrangements. The flower looks like it's from another planet with its naked, skinless looking appearance. Be warned though -- it tends to give off a rotting meat smell as a means of attracting insects for its food, so you will definitely want to keep it outside when you're decorating.
Given its more carnivorous nature, you might want to create a flower display that capitalizes on the idea of man-eating plans. Build a giant venus fly trap and decorate with the real star flowers.
Porcupine Tomato
You don't need to do much with this plant to make it say “Keep Out.†If you're building a menacing haunted house, this spiked plant says “don't mess with me†loud and clear. You should only use cuttings and never plant it in your actual garden because it's extremely poisonous and invasive (along the same lines, don't put it anywhere near where children or family pets can reach it). This plant is a little more mean and scary than it is whimsical and fun.
Devil's Claw
This plant features seed pods with large hook-like protrusions that resemble dead crabs when they fall to the ground. Use them as an accent in a spooky bouquet, especially if you're focusing on a black-and-white deadly looking theme or the browns and oranges of fall. Because of the plant's natural curved design, they would also be an excellent choice for making “spider plantsâ€-- arrange them around the edges of a black painted pot to make the legs of a spider. Make sure you tell everyone you know about their inherently spooky name as well.
The Ghost Plant
This plant earns its name from its translucent white color, which stems from its lack of chlorophyll and aversion to natural light (so don't put it out during the day). The plant is also a natural fit for Halloween given it is a parasite who survives by draining nutrients from a host plant (be careful when arranging not to put it near other living plants).
Use it in a spooky black-and-white arrangement or go one step forward and use dry/dead plants alongside it to convey its ghostly nature.
Vegetable Sheep
Want to make your front yard look moldy and ghoulish? Scatter a bunch of vegetable sheep around your DIY graveyard to make your self-constructed cemetery look particularly eerie. The fuzzy, off-white shrub can sometimes resemble a sheep lying down, but to us it looks more like a large patch of mold -- perfect for a Hallowen display of creepy decay.
No matter which of these exotic plants you choose for your DIY Halloween decorations, you're certain to have an utterly unique and delightfully spooky display that will amuse and even frighten Trick-or-Treaters.
