1 of 4
Photo by Sarah Walor
2 of 4
Photo by Sarah Walor
3 of 4
Photo by Sarah Walor
4 of 4
Photo by Sarah Walor
As the chill of winter sets in, there is no better time to bring a little natural beauty indoors, especially as we celebrate the holidays with friends and family. This jewel-toned palette of deep reds and oranges will inspire warmth and cheer.
Simple Wreath
Materials
- Wire
- Wire cutters
- Floral tape
Flowers/Greenery
- Grapevine
- Air plants
- Dahlia
- Podocarpus
- Italian ruscus
- Seeded eucalyptus
- Cedar greens
- Eucalyptus pods
1. Loosely coil a few grapevines together. Secure with wire at one point to make an asymmetrical shape. 2. Make a greenery base in a bow-tie shape. I used cedar greens, podocarpus, Italian ruscus and seeded eucalyptus. You can get the bow-tie shape by making one fan-shaped cluster, and then add it to it in the other direction to make a similar cluster. Hold onto the stems of both clusters and wrap with wire in the middle. 3. Add false stems onto air plants. Wrap wire around the base of the air plant or pierce the air plant base so that you have an equal amount of wire on each side. Secure wire around a sturdy stem. You can use part of a stem from scabiosa pods, a stick or something similar. The stem only needs to be about 3 to 4 inches long. Wrap floral tape around the wire and stem. 4. Cluster air plants, eucalyptus pods and dahlia together and wire the arrangement to the center of your greenery bow tie. 5. Finally, attach greenery to the wreath at the point where the grapevines were originally secured together and hang with a ribbon.
Winding Garland
Materials
- Wire
- Wire cutters
- Clippers
Flowers/Greenery
- Grapevine or twine
- Italian ruscus
- Seeded eucalyptus
- Berzelia
- Silver brunia
- Safflower
- Scabiosa pods
1. Start with a grapevine or twine base that is slightly shorter than the overall desired garland length. If you are using grapevine, you may need to attach a few pieces together.
2. Lay the greenery on top of the base so that the greenery extends past both ends of the base by about 4 inches. Ideally, you want to have long, straight pieces of greens like Italian ruscus. The longer the run of greenery, the fewer bits and pieces there will be to attach. Make sure to overlap greenery by about 6 inches where you add new pieces so you aren't left with bare spots. Once you place the greenery, attach wire at the top of the garland and wrap one continuous piece of wire down the garland to secure the greenery.
3. Make mini clusters of berries, flowers and accent greenery. I layered seeded eucalyptus, silver brunia, berzelia, safflower and scabiosa pods. Each ingredient should be layered and staggered so that everything is visible. Tie each cluster together with wire. Make sure to leave extra wire on the end of each cluster so you can easily attach it to the garland.
4. Equally space the accent clusters. Attach them by tucking them into the garland so that each cluster is moving in the same direction and the stems are hidden in the greens.
5. Fill out with additional greenery, if needed.
Garden Centerpiece
Materials
- Vessel
- Clippers
- Wire cutters
- Clear floral tape
- Chicken wire
Flowers/Greenery
- Dahlias
- Pincushion protea
- Red spray roses
- Crocosmia
- Snowberry
- Safflower
- Bittersweet
- Seeded eucalyptus
- Podocarpus
- Fig leaf
- Cedar greens
1. Choose a vessel with a fairly wide opening. For this arrangement, I selected a shallow ceramic pedestal vase I found at an antiques store a few years back.
2. Set a foundation. Begin by cutting a piece of chicken wire about one-and-one-half times the size of the vessel. Loosely shape it into a ball and fit it into your container. The wire should be level with the top of the vessel.
3. Using floral tape, tape around the upper outside lip of your vessel. Then tape a grid across the top of the container. Tape around the upper outside lip again to seal the taped grid. Add water.
4. Add greenery. Don't underestimate the power of great greens. It's amazing what you can forage by walking around the block or just clipping from your yard. Select a variety of greens with different textures, colors and scale. For example, in this arrangement, the fig leaves are large, dark green and shiny; the podocarpus is feathery and light, while the eucalyptus seeds are a silvery green color. This presents a wonderful variety of texture and color to the eye.
5. Start by adding your biggest, most sculptural greens to set the stage and then fill in the gaps with the smaller greens to define the shape. The stems of the greens should easily insert into your chicken wire and tape base.
6. Make sure to have greens spilling over the lip of your vessel, almost reaching the table and some greens on the opposite side extending up and out of the vessel. This creates an interesting visual tension and balance. You almost want to create the impression that the greenery spilling over the lip is connected to and being pulled up by the opposite, ascending greens.
7. Add flowers. As with the greens, choose flowers that have a variety of textures, shapes and sizes. For
a mixed garden centerpiece, ideally, you'll have large focal flowers, medium-sized flowers, filler flowers and gestural flowers. Having this range allows the flowers to com-plement each other rather than visually compete.
8. Start by adding the larger focal flowers, such as dahlias and pincushion protea, followed by spray roses. Place the flowers by following the shape you created with the greenery. You generally want to group odd numbers of flowers together, particularly if they are your focal flowers. I placed three protea on the left side and loosely surrounded them with the dahlias. The right side is filled out with dahlias and small clusters of spray roses. Just as with the greenery, remember to let the flowers spill over the edge of the vessel.
9. Once you have placed large- and medium-sized flowers, add the filler flowers and finally, finish your arrangement by adding gestural flowers such as a branch or two. I started by filling things out with safflower, and then added the crocosmia, followed by a bittersweet branch.
