HOLIDAY GREENS FROM YOUR BACKYARD
December is one of my favorite times of the year. We raid the Nursery for all sorts of interesting greens. We cut them, gather them and then use them in centerpieces, wreaths, swags, kissing balls and garlands. December is a good time to prune back some of your evergreens. If you plant a good selection of evergreens with differing colors, textures, needles, broadleaf habits, berries and emerging flower buds, you will have a great selection of greens to draw from in decorating your home each year. You have to make sure you don’t get carried away in your pruning process but I love double tasking and getting two jobs done in one.
If you have incredible material to work with, you will come up with incredible and creative decorations for your home. Many of us are very proud of our home-grown vegetables. Others are very proud of the beautiful cut flowers they grow and bring into the house. Rarely does anyone think of making decorations from the interesting evergreens they have selected to beautify their house. Creating something beautiful and bringing some of the outside in can be a very gratifying experience; while keeping plants pruned and confined to their proper size can add to the beauty of your garden. You will need to work with a good pruner. As you start putting together decorations from your garden, you will find yourself searching your local Nursery for unusual greens to plant next year. I will try to simplify the process, show you the procedure, and give you some simple rules to follow. Don’t get discouraged; each try will get better. If you have a great mixture to work with, you will be surprised with the end result. You can easily add more or subtract what you don’t like.
Centerpieces: Our basic centerpiece usually starts with an inexpensive 6 inch waterproof bowl. A 6-inch bowl flourishes into a 10 to 12 inch centerpiece. You will need to buy oasis, soak it in water and cut a piece to fit the size of the bowl. You will then need to decide if you want to place one fat candle or 3 tapered candles into it – or no candles. You will also need to decide on the color of the candles. Cut yourself a mixture of greens that blend well together but offer enough contrast. Start from the outside of the bowl and work your way in. First step is to face your greens downward so they cover the bowl. You should start off with a layered effect. Once you have covered your bowl you can mix greens and berries to create interest, shape and color. Make sure all spots are filled. Empty spots can be filled with small cones, and extra color can be added with small ribbons on a pick. Extra focal points can be added with ornaments. Make sure your greens are freshly cut as you place them in your oasis and make sure you keep your oasis watered. Centerpieces like this can last for months. You may have decorative containers you would like to fill or you may want to line baskets with plastic and do your arrangement in them. Some narrow baskets lend themselves nicely to windowsill decorations. The more you work with these arrangements, the more you will enjoy decorating your house.
Wreaths: You can wire your own wreath but it is much simpler to buy a double faced balsam wreath and wire and pick your greens into it. You will need to buy some thin wire either in spools or set lengths. You will need 4 inch picks with attached wire. Supplies of this sort are readily available at a Garden Center or Flower shop. You will need to buy or gather some cones, (I put 9 in each wreath), wire them individually and wire three together creating 3 groups of three cones for each wreath. I place them at 3.00 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock. I place a wire through the middle of the tied cones and tie it tightly around the wreath. Cut a mixture of colorful greens and berries from your property. Keep the cuttings short and wire them to the picks. It is important to wire tightly for the first two rounds and then you can complete the task by rolling the pick between your first finger and thumb. This greatly speeds the process. Between 3 and 6 o’clock and 6.00 and 9.00 o’clock I like to add a lot of berries and different color greens. At 12 o’clock you need to place a beautiful ribbon and the wire to hang the wreath by. Between the ribbon and the cones, a few more greens should be added. Some of my favorite greens for wreaths are Blue Spruce, White Pine, all shades of Juniper, Cryptomeria, Blue Atlas Cedar, Cypress, Microbiota and Fir. My favorite berries are Holly, Bayberry, Juniper, Winterberry and Skimmia. Some people like to add the flower buds of Andromeda, Rhododendron or Holly leaf to their wreath. Artificial red berries are often added where real berries cannot be found.
Creating your own wreath from scratch is a little more difficult. You will have to purchase a wire wreath ring. A 12 inch wreath ring will end up making a 20 -24 inch outside diameter wreath. You will need to buy a spool of wire. First step is to wire a base of evergreens. Use a soft green of which you have large quantities such as Yew or Hemlock. Cut 4-6 inch pieces and wire them in. Tie your spool of wire securely to the wreath. Place 2 or 3 cut branches on the ring and tie the wire tightly around them by pulling it up and around the ring. Do this two or three times around each set of branches to obtain a tight thick base. Set your next set of branches so it overlaps the first and follow this sequence all around the wreath. When you finish you should have created a base 3-4 inches thick. You continue with the same spool of wire and now you arrange your first set of greens. Arrange it wide enough and thick enough to develop your final wreath size. Once you have your arrangement, wire it into the wreath. You will not be able to wire more than two or three branches at a time. Make sure the next set of branches covers the wire and base of the branches and allows the greens to flow evenly around the wreath. A mixture of 5 different greens repeating the pattern 3 times is very effective. Make sure berries become the pattern of 1 or 2 of the different greens. When you finish, tie your wire tightly. If one of your spots looks weak, cover it with a big beautiful bow. Other spots can be doctored up with cones picked in. You can also pick in other greens or berries. Artificial berries can be bought if real berries do not exist on your property.
Kissing Balls: You will have to buy a block of oasis, a spool of green garden string, a spool of narrow ½ ” ribbon and 4 inch wired picks. Cut your block of oasis in 3 pieces. Take your string and tie it like a package so it wraps around one side and then wraps around the other side. On the upper middle of the package where the 2 strings meet tie a long string so that you can hang the oasis and work on it to form your kissing ball. Soak the oasis in water and remove it after soaking. Allow it to drip dry before proceeding. Hang this square at a comfortable height so that you can work. Pick a green to work with. My preference is Boxwood but I have seen some nice kissing balls made out of Taxus, Juniper, Cedar, White Pine, Holly, Princess Pine, Fir or a mixture of greens. Work with fairly small pieces about 5 – 8 inches in length, inserting them into the oasis and creating a ball. Make sure you have a fresh cut on each branch. Keep inserting pieces until you have created a round shape that you can’t see through. Make small bows and wire tightly to the 4 inch picks. Insert the bows into the oasis throughout the ball. Tie the ribbon to the base of the string forming a loop from which you can hang the kissing ball. The ribbon should match your bows.
Pine Swags: You will need to get a 1 inch by 6 inch by 18 inch piece of lumber, a spool of florist wire and 4 inch, 6 inch and 8 inch wired picks, a roofing nail and a piece of wire to make a hook,. 3 large sugar cones and enough ribbon to make a large bow. The first step is to take your spool of florist wire and tie it to the slab of wood. Pack greens tightly onto the top of the wood and wire it, creating a base thick enough to stick picks into. To the 4 inch, 6 inch and 8 inch picks you will have to wire bunches of white pine. On the opposite side of the wood, hammer in a roofing nail where you want to hang your swag. Take a piece of wire and create a hook for the swag. Reverse the wood and start inserting the pine wired picks. Do two halves of a swag at a time. Start with the upper half first. The upper half should be shorter and the lower half longer. Start with the 8 inch picks first and create your outer outline. Keep filling in the half circle reducing the size of the picks as you get to the center. You can keep picking pine until it is very full and beautiful. When it is complete, turn it upside around and start on the other side. Remember the bottom half should be longer. Repeat this process and when you are finished, you should have full pine swag. Wire sugar cones with 18 inch strong wires and tie the three cones together at different lengths. Tie the wired three cones tightly to the wooden slab at the midpoint of the swag. Place a large Bow directly above the three cones. Your swag is completed and ready to hang. It also makes an elegant grave piece.
Garland or Roping: All you need to make your own roping is a small roll of plied jute twine, commonly found in any Garden Center and a spool of thin wire. Choose the plant material you would like to use for your roping. Cut your pieces about 6 to 8 inches long. Tie the wire and rope together. Stretch the string out and place a piece of cut material along the string and loop your spool of wire around, fastening it securely to the string. Following this same procedure, place piece after piece on the string wiring it securely and creating a rope effect of greens. Arrange the pieces to the thickness desired. Popular choices are White Pine, Boxwood, Fir, and Holly, combinations of the above or mixed greens. When you finish make sure you tie your string and wire securely together. Use an anti desiccant such as Wilt-pruf on broad leaf material.
Mantle Pieces: I have made some great mantle pieces by cutting two 5 foot lengths of boxwood roping and wiring them together. As you are wiring them together add a mixture of greens. A typical example would be: Start off with a branch of cedar. Wire the boxwood together for 6 inches and then add something blue like Blue Spruce or Cryptomeria with a sprig of Holly, then wire boxwood together for 6 more inches and wire a nice branch of Juniper with lots of berries. Wire together six more inches of Boxwood and then a nice branch of Pine. Repeat this sequence to the end. Tie in two sets of frosted white cones towards the center and one set of brown cones towards either end. Decorate the rest of the piece by picking red berries into the decoration.
Simple Swags: Often, several branches of greens are cut and tied together with a bow at the top. Sometimes cones are added for extra interest. A simple loop is created on the back side from which to hang the swag.
Decorating a Christmas Tree with Poinsettias: This is a novel but great idea. The pastor of my church came up to me after visiting Longwood Gardens and told me how incredibly beautiful he found Christmas Trees made out of Poinsettias. He said he would love to do something like that for our church. I explained to him that this would be a very intricate and costly project requiring welding, drip irrigation, plant positioning and water containment. He wanted to know if we could just cut the poinsettia and stick them into a Christmas tree. I explained to him that cut poinsettia flowers wilt very quickly. While watering my plants the next day I had a brainstorm. I knocked out a 3 inch Poinsettia plant, carefully took off all of the soil, placed a small amount of wet sphagnum moss around the roots and enclosed it all with a small amount of green foil. I tested it and after 2 weeks the flowers still looked good. This creates a cupflower poinsettia look which probably could be used for many applications. I was certain this would create a great looking Poinsettia tree by placing the flowers within a cut Christmas tree. The Church had a 10- 12 foot Frasier Fir Christmas tree that was decorated with white lights. I used 6 dozen 4 inch poinsettia plants prepared in the above manner. The fun part was placing the poinsettias within the branches of the tree. The whole process took less than a half hour; the hardest part was finding a ladder. The end result was a fantastic looking red Poinsettia Christmas Tree. Not only is this a great spectacle for a church but I am sure it would draw a lot of people to a restaurant or public area.
