1. Preparation

Prime plaster urn and spray paint red. Let dry. Apply several coats until urn is evenly covered.

2. Fabricating Heart Shaped Topiary Form

Scale the heart shaped form to the urn. Our large urn has a 6" diameter top. We cut our floral wire 27" long. Visually divide the wire into thirds. The bottom third will remain straight. Begin fashioning the top two thirds into a heart shape. Approximately each third will form a lobe of the heart shape. Floral wire is much more pliable than a clothes hanger wire. After the heart shape has been fashioned, secure the loose end of the heart to the base with several wraps of the 22 gauge florist wire.

3. Wrapping the topiary form with Raffia

Secure a strand of raffia at the bottom of the heart- shaped form and wrap the raffia around the form to cover all exposed wire.

4. Planting the ivy and securing the form

Place a pot of ivy into urn. If ivy is too large for the urn, remove the ivy from its pot and transplant into urn. Pat soil firm. Insert topiary form into potted urn. Gently wrap ivy tendrils around heart-shape form. Secure them to the form with floral wire if needed. Cover all exposed soil with floral moss.

Excerpted from the book Centerpieces Through the Year

by Kurt Cyr, with photography by Timothy Dunford. Available at www.kurtcyr.com or 1-877-587-8297.