Easter and Spring Centerpieces

Hollowed-out eggshells make naturally beautiful vases for tiny flower arrangements.

Faux-chocolate rabbits stand guard over nests of candy eggs; the rabbits are made of acrylic and can be displayed year after year.

Martha's Easter table is colorful, charming, and full of spring flowers: sweet peas, ranunculus, tulips, and leucojum.

Think outside of the box with your Easter decorations and create this glittered Easter “basket” made out of colorful faux cabbage leaves.

Adorn your Easter or spring party table with a mother-hen centerpiece, filled with pretty hyacinths, and chick candy boxes.

Brilliant violet Muscari latifolium and tight blooms of ranunculus get a boost in a lush, dense display. The flowers look equally fetching in a smaller-scale display.

Pastel-hued rabbits in various shapes, sizes, and colors are very whimsical. Silver egg cups hold hard-cooked eggs, and silver julep cups are filled with plump tulips.

Exuberant egg-and-crepe-paper daffodils and tulips are a breeze to make -- and you don't have to worry about the arrangement wilting.

This nest cradles an exuberant mix of blooms from spring-flowering bulbs -- the botanical counterpart to newly hatched birds.

Let your china inspire you. Here, 'White Parrot' tulips and 'Saphir' muscari echo the hues of a willowware bowl.

A grouping of Easter egg votives makes a lovely centerpiece for your table.

Wheatgrass makes a wonderful Easter centerpiece and provides the perfect background for displaying decorated eggs, flowers, and chocolate bunnies.

Unless you get down on the ground to scrutinize small woodland flowers, it's easy to overlook their exquisite shapes and patterned petals. But clip a few stems of each for a pair of antique lab beakers, and details suddenly become clear -- the mini-orchard stack of epimediums, the variations on bell-like fritillarias.

These whimsical striped eggs look adorable stacked in a white compote.

Beneath this profusion of peonies, the container all but disappears. This clutch of paeonia 'Blitz Torte,' 'Firebelle,' 'Diane Parks,' 'Pillow Dreams,' 'Senorita,' 'Port Royale,' 'He's My Star,' and 'Extra Sweet Pink' demonstrates that different cultivars mingle beautifully.

These "vases" are merely plain brown lunch bags with their tops cut away; inside each is a jar filled with flowers.

Lilacs' subtle color variations are perfect for creating painterly, layered arrangements. Gather blooms in two or more hues, and group them by color gradation in a heavy vase.

Enliven your next buffet with an arrangement of eggcup bouquets displayed on cake stands. Choose small-budded flowers in similar hues, such as tulips, lily of the valley, paperwhites, and daffodils. Trim the stems so the blossoms will peek over the rims of the eggcups. Place a small round metal floral frog in each eggcup to help shape and weight the arrangements. Fill the cups three-quarters of the way with water, and then add the blooms. Arrange the mini bouquets on and around stands. Water daily for a long-lasting centerpiece.

Embellishing pillar candles with blades of grass highlights a plant that's rarely appreciated up close -- and the idea can be used to unify an assortment of candles.

A few of these simple arrangements makes a wonderful nature-inspired scene, perfect for the table.

For a creative Easter centerpiece, arrange several eggcups of spring flowers on a tray.

Mingle dainty Spanish bluebells with fluffy chive blossoms for a textured centerpiece.

Colorful, blooming tulips will brighten up your Easter table.

Inspired by the jeweled treasures crafted by Peter Carl Faberge around the turn of the 20th century, this "egg" is decorated with spring-blooming hyacinths and pearl-headed pins.

Bring the whimsy of scherenschnitte, the German art of paper cutting, to your tabletop decor. Blown-out eggs, dyed and adorned with seasonal silhouettes, dangle from a cluster of quince branches to make this centerpiece. 

No special flower-arranging skills are needed to make these centerpieces -- just a few hallmarks of spring: blades of grass, muscari blooms, and a cache of pretty eggs.

This bird-themed Easter centerpiece, inspired by a dinner at Martha's Bedford home, can be used for any season, swapping in the appropriate plants and embellishments.

Decorate your Easter table with a distinctive needle-felted bird's nest. 

Tulips surrounded by stems of pussy-willow branches create pockets of color on the table.

Take a cue from spring foragers and bring the lush woodland carpet to the table this season.

Whether you're celebrating Easter or just looking for a seasonal display for your tabletop, creating a spring bulb arrangement is a beautiful way to make the season come alive indoors.

This time of year, birds instinctively put the materials at hand to good use. Here, the downy, gray catkins of pussy-willow branches soften a densely woven nest, while dried grasses inside cushion fragile decorated eggs.

In this centerpiece, pussy-willow cuttings form a tepee above a cluster of araucana eggs tucked among wheat-grass seedlings. For an extra-special touch, add a pussy-willow twig to each place setting.

Celebrate Easter by dressing up your table with bright spring blooms like muscari. In this display, we arranged miniature white pots on a tiered wire stand.