With the extended front porch, I have more room to add plants.  My first idea came from this photo of two tall topiaries on either side of a front door.  There is a similar item for miniature settings on the market, but I wanted them to have a "snowman" shape - a tier of three in varying sizes.

I found two miniature urns at a good price.  The image on the right shows how they looked after I painted them to the color I wanted.  I didn't go as dark as in the sample photo since my house is red brick and needs something a bit lighter.

I started with 1" styrofoam spheres and crushed them to make the two smaller sizes.  Here you can also see the holes I made in the spheres using a round dowel.

I covered the wooden dowels with floral tape and then brushed on a light coat of brown paint, wiping it off immediately to create a variegated color of green and brown for the stems (this is a photo before the paint).  Painting also eliminates a lot of the stickiness of the tape.

I glued some styrofoam into the bottoms of the urns to have something to stick the topiaries into and then painted the stryrofoam spheres and inserts brown.

I brushed a thick coat of tacky glue into the urns and poured tea (earl grey, if you're wondering-haha) into the urn, dumping out the excess after putting it aside for awhile.

I brushed glue onto each painted sphere and then dipped them in cilantro.  The bit of brown underneath showing through adds some depth and realism, in my opinion.

I have no idea if using tea and herbs is a good idea for longevity, but it was what I had at the time and I love the result.  They smell good, too.  :D

Here are my topiaries by the front door.  The welcome mat is a resized copy of one I bought since the original was too small in proportion to the front door.  I still have to mount it to some sort of reinforcing material to keep it flat.

click image to enlarge