Credit: Jon Reis

Experts at Cornell Plantations can help ward off those early winter blues and welcome the upcoming holidays with November workshops on chair caning, fall flower arranging and holiday design.

• Chair caning with instructor Phil Syphrit is offered on three consecutive Thursdays – Nov. 6, 13 and 20 – from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The fee is $30 for Plantations members and Cornell students, or $45 for nonmembers, plus an additional $30 for footstool, pegs and caning materials. Using cane from the climbing rattan palm, participants will work on their own wooden footstool and take home a unique handmade gift or keepsake.
• Fall flower arranging will be taught Saturday, Nov. 15, from 9 a.m. to noon, by Sonja Skelly, director of education at Cornell Plantations, who will demonstrate how to create a beautiful autumn arrangement from fall flowers, foliage and fruit.
• Holiday design with seasonal flowers and foliage, also taught by education director Skelly, is offered Saturday, Dec. 6, from 9 a.m. to noon. The fee for each class is $35 (Plantations members and Cornell students), or $45 (nonmembers) and includes all materials (container, flowers and accessories).

"Having flowers in your home can brighten up any occasion and creating that flower arrangement yourself is a fun process, which makes the design all the more special," says Skelly. "Participants will not leave empty handed – not only will they create a beautiful arrangement in class to take home, but they will learn how to make future arrangements to brighten their home anytime."

All classes will be held in the Lewis Education Center, 1 Plantations Road, on the Cornell campus. Advance registration is recommended, either by mail (Cornell Plantations, 1 Plantations Road, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853), in person at the Plantations' Garden Gift Shop or by phone at (607) 254-7430. Checks should be made payable to Cornell Plantations.